Going to US' hat

With many of my trips in 2020 involving some kind of running I felt it was necessary to book a tour that involved more relaxation than physical exertion to counter the exercise. My long list of places I want to go, roughly prioritized depending on current inspirations, has some destinations that have been a fair bit down on the list for a while. This is slowly changing, mainly because of the destinations higher on the list have been visited. But also because it gets me to some (potentially) beautiful nature, and it gives me a chance to maybe meet up with some of those people I have met in recent years through my trips.

So on this trip I’ll be aiming for a new country on my list – and it’ll be hard to miss considering its size.

28^th – 31^st of May

Flying out from Copenhagen in the morning via Frankfurt and arriving in Calgary in the western part of Canada in the afternoon. Here I’ll be spending a few days walking around and checking out the sights until Sunday the 31^st where I’ll be participating in the Calgary marathon. Might as well sign up for the run when it’s occurring when I’m there. The timing is totally coincidental.

1^st – 4^th of June

Meeting up with the group on the 1^st in the evening before leaving the following morning and going to the town of Banff, surrounded by beautiful views and landscapes. This will be a common feature for most of the places we will spend time on this trip. After a night there we’ll continue to Lake Louise where we will spend a full day.

5^th – 8^th of June

After having spent a full day in Lake Louise we’ll move further west towards Jasper where we also will spend a day to have time to take in the surroundings. The same is scheduled for when we arrive Wells Gray Park that we will go to after Lake Louise. Wells Gray Park apparently has quite a few waterfalls that are worth checking out.

9^th – 14^th of June

From Wells Gray Park we will continue on to Whistler followed by reaching the coast and taking the ferry to Vancouver Island and spending the night in Tofino. When in Tofino we will be going on a whale safari and doing some relaxing wandering around before driving south to Victoria (where we won’t spend an extra day) before taking the ferry back to the main land and driving to Vancouver where we will arrive some time in the afternoon concluding the tour.

15^th – 19^th of June

I’ll be staying in Vancouver by myself for a couple of days before flying home the 18^th in the afternoon and coming home the following afternoon. Just like Calgary I’ll get my tourist hat on, having a look around, just without any running this time.

Canada is full of beautiful nature which I am looking forward to see, and I’m hoping that the wildlife will be showing itself from it’s outgoing side. And if not that’ll just be an excuse to return some other time. Nights outside of Calgary and Vancouver will be spent camping and while that means cutting down on the luxury of a hotel room I won’t mind much considering the surroundings we will be finding ourselves in.

The Superhalfs

From 2020 a group of European half marathons have gotten together to create what they call “an adventure”. It is basically 5 different half marathons spread out throughout the year, two in the early spring and three in the fall. The list is as follows:

Lisbon (March 22^nd)

Prague (March 28^th)

Copenhagen (September 13^th)

Cardiff (October 4^th)

Valencia (October 25^th)

You have 36 months to complete all 5 races to be listed in the Superhalfs Hall of Fame, but I looked at it and concluded that I wanted to challenge myself so I decided to do them in within one calendar year. This has therefore resulted in me booking four extended weekends throughout the year (the Copenhagen marathon will only require a short train ride back and forth). They will all be Friday-Sunday with the exception of Prague which will be Thursday-Sunday as the run is on the Saturday instead of Sunday. Also, Prague will be a repeat visit but despite it was just in 2018 I went there last time I don’t really mind as I really enjoyed walking around in the old city (and the food was good and cheap).

I managed to get hotels close to the start/finish lines which fortunately were also quite close to the centre of the cities. Lisbon was an exception, though, as the start is across a bridge from the city centre. And from there the course mostly stays away from the main parts of the city centre. I tried to find a place close to a train station (the race instructions are to take the train to the starting area) and still close to the centre so I’m hoping I’ve read the map correctly and it won’t be a logistical nightmare when I get there to get to and from the run.

5th – 6th of November – Homebound

I decided to sleep in, and instead of grabbing breakfast in the hotel (shocking!) and instead did something important I still hadn’t gotten around doing yet: getting pancakes for breakfast. I found a bistro that turned out to be next door from yesterday’s pizza place where I had a healthy serving of pancakes with butter & syrup and bacon & eggs. A breakfast to keep me going for the next few hours.

From there I walked south towards Battery Park and passed by One World Trade Center and the 9/11 memorial. The weather today had deteriorated and clouds were passing by occasionally obscuring the spire of the tower. I continued to the park which I circled and enjoyed the quiet before grabbing the subway to Penn Station where I took the train to the airport. And as I expected on the first day here it was so much faster than taking the bus.

All the names of those who died in the attack are written around the two pools where the two towers were built. 

A rose is put in the name of those who's birthday it is.

Checking in and getting through security without a hassle – I even got an olfactive patdown by a drug dog in training. There were two lounges and one was closed due to renovations so the other was quite crowded, but I still managed to get a seat and table and got something to eat before departure.

The flight took off on time, and ascending I realized that the weather had greatly improved which meant that flying north we flew up parallel with Manhattan giving an amazingly clear view of the entire island. Great view, but it really bothered me as had I known the clouds were gone I would definitely have had my camera with me instead of it being packed deep down in my bag above me. The flight home was planned to take around 8 hours with arrival at 0710, so almost an hour shorter than going there. But we managed to arrive early, almost half an hour, which meant that even without hurrying I was home before 8, unpacking and in need of a nap.

With the slight disappointment that was the day trip to Washington this was overall a very nice trip. It also helps that the weather was (very) good when it counted which definitely improved the experience. While it’s weird using the words “fun” and “marathon” in the same sentence it was a very fun marathon. It was a hard course but the support was unmatched (compared to my previous experiences) which elevated the run to a whole new level. Definitely recommended if you’re into punishing yourself like that. And with everything just falling into place along the way this has absolutely been a memorable trip.

I’ll miss those big muffins.

Full album can be found here.

4th of November – Going to the capital

At a bit to 0700 we got picked up a bus to go on a day tour to Washington. We had one bus, but filling the available spaces for the tour didn’t fill out the bus so it was comfortably full, not stuffed. I appreciated that quite a bit considering how much time we ended up spending in it.

It was an almost 4½ hour drive south with a 15 minute break to stretch our legs (and get a very delicious and heavily glazed, and therefore probably very unhealthy, cinnamon bun) before arriving at the Arlington Cemetery. This large cemetery with app. 400.000 buried and room for maybe 100.000 more has mostly military personnel buried, but also some diplomats, senators, high-ranking politicians and several presidents lie here. The most famous from the latter group is John F. Kennedy which we unfortunately spent the entire 40-minute visit on. Our guide spent the time on going thought the history of the cemetery and that of Kennedy and his family, and then we returned to the bus. I know that Kennedy is fairly loved by all but I felt it was overkill to spend the entire visit on his grave – we (tourists) likely don’t have the same connection to him. I would have preferred that we got time to walk around by ourselves (having the choice between that or follow the guide), that way we could have had a chance to see the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. A bit bummed about missing that.

JF Kennedy's grave and Arlington House in the background.

The gaves just keep going into the distance.

From there we took the bus on a short drive to get to the Iwo Jima memorial – the statue with the group of soldiers erecting the flag pole. Yes, that one. We drove on to the Vietnam Veterans memorial – the long wall with the names of every single person who has died from the Vietnam War. The names are put on the wall in chronological order by when the soldier died during the war. There are still names added to the list if it is determined that the death of the veteran is due to injuries during the war, and it that case the name it put – as close as possible – on the timeline for when they were injured. From there it was a short walk to the Lincoln memorial from where we also saw the Washington Monument. Pretty much what you’d expect; a very large statue of Lincoln looking towards a very tall column. The weather was amazing and we were let free for some time so that was a really nice 20 minutes we had strolling around there. Form there we walked to the nearby Korean War Veterans memorial and walked around before returning once again to the bus.

Iwo Jima memorial.

Vietnam Veterans memorial.

Lincoln memorial.

Washington Monument in the distance.

Korean War Veterans memorial.

From here we drove to the White House, something I was very much looking forward to. We came driving on Constitution Avenue, a fair bit form the rear side of the building but so you could still see it (but driving by you never got a good look due to the trees lining the street). Normally you could get onto a street that is closer but not today due to an event on the rear lawn. So set us off near by so we at least get a view, albeit far one, of the building before continuing? No, apparently not. We were instead brought to the front which was pretty uninteresting, and we even got 15-20 minutes to walk around. And when asking if it wasn’t possible to see it from the rear the answer was “Yes, of course! I assume you have access to the event that’s going on on the lawn?”. Apparently seeing it from afar was not an option. C’mon, you might have seen it plenty of times and can’t be bothered seeing it again unless you get a good view of it as you can afford skipping it now an again, but the rest of us who might not be back again, if ever, might end up feeling a bit cheated. What a disappointment.

The only flash we got of the rear of the White House.

The front of the White House.

The Capitol.

From there we drove to the Capitol where we actually were allowed to get out and get a good view of the building before getting back in and heading north back towards New York. On the way home we had a break at the same place we stopped at going south, but this time for 45 minutes so that there was enough time to have dinner. The choices were fast food 1, 2 or 3 or kiosk 1 or 2. Such a waste of time as the goal was to be back in New York before 2100 (and we arrived at 2030). We didn’t even break down before entering the Lincoln tunnel like last time! I skipped dinner during the break, and on arrival at the hotel I went out to have a pizza at a highly recommended place nearby.

Overall it was a nice day, despite all the time spent on driving (which was expected). The weather was great. Personally I think the break on the way back was a waste of time, we could easily have left an hour earlier in the morning (and I’m saying that as a massive b-person), which together would have given us more time, making it feel less rushed. And the experience around the White House was just…. So disappointing.

3rd of November – Race day

We got picked up at the hotel as early as 0530 to go to the starting area of the marathon. This was due to the city wanting the busses out before 0600 and a potential jam at the drop-off point with the many busses arriving with runners that could potentially take a while to get through. An hour of transport later, with more and more busses appearing along the way we were dropped off and queueing up for the security check. This was much quicker than expected and a few moments later we were let into the starting area. The starting area had multiple booths with drinks, snacks and a bit of food. There were some delicious raisin/cinnamon bagels, energy bars, bananas, coffee/tea/hot chocolate and several other things. The bagels were absolutely delicious, and they even had a support animal corner so you could get to pet a few happy dogs if you needed to be calmed down before the start. Annoyingly, there had been a lot of talk about the many porta potties there had been set up and yet there were still long queues by them.

From 0830 the non-runners (wheelchairs etc.) were sent off. At 0920 pro women started and at 0950 pro men and the first wave were sent off. After that there were 3 waves; 1015, 1040 and 1100. Every wave start consisted of three groups (green, blue and yellow) who were split up in three slightly different routes the first 10-12km before everybody merged into one. The system seems a bit weird but when in the middle of it you realize it’s a pretty clever way of avoiding too much congestion when you have 10.000-15.000 people in each wave. Instead you take advantage of both levels of the first bridge and slightly different streets afterwards to get things flowing without too much hassle.

In contrast the previous days today was clear with barely a single cloud, only a gentle breeze, and around 9°C at start. The weather was close to perfect for running, but the Verrazzano-Narrows bridge which is literally the first thing of the course (the starting line was on the base of the incline on the Staten Island side) is tall and completely exposed to the Atlantic to the east which could potentially make way for very cold conditions. But with the wind in our backs and the sun up and shining unhindered it was a beautiful crossing with an amazing view of Manhattan to the west – and it was made better by being in the group that was sent on the top level of the bridge instead of those being on the bottom level.

Coming down from the bridge we entered Brooklyn and we saw the first signs of what we could expect from the rest of the run: lots and lots of people all along the course cheering us on, and loudly so. Having completed the run I’d say that the New York marathon is a 42km long block party where everyone, participants and onlookers, are all having a great time. Entering Brooklyn we went north and passing the 20km marker we entered Queens where we had a few kilometres before crossing the Queensboro Bridge to Manhattan. The bridge was as long as the Verrazzano-Narrows bridge but not as tall and not nearly as exposed. It made it an easier pass as the incline was more forgiving but it was still a long haul up, especially having already run 24km.

Coming over the bridge it was completely silent except for the soft steps from all the runners, but coming down and getting within hearing range of 1^st Avenue you could hear an almost roar from the people lining the street on both side waiting for us to come down. Running 1^st Avenue all the way up to the bridge to the Bronx the cheering was much appreciated as the avenue was almost 6km of completely straight line with a slight constant incline. It wasn’t much of an incline but looking ahead you could definitely see the end was higher than the beginning, and the legs could definitely feel it by now, but it was relieving to see other runners around me seemingly also struggling at this point.

Along for the run. Looking pretty happy at this point.

Photo taken by MarathonFoto.

Coming to the northern point of Manhattan we crossed the bridge into the Bronx where we spent a few kilometres before retuning south into Manhattan again on 5^th Avenue. Halfway down along Central Park we entered the park for the last few kilometres of the run. Here the support along the course was intense and people were really into it. We arrived at 59^th street which brought us along the south border of the park and re-entered at the western corner for the last 500 meters to the finish line.

Entering Central Park I'm still feeling pretty good.

Photo taken by MarathonFoto.

I was surprised to find out that despite the large scale of the entire thing it was until after 30km that the water stations started handing out bananas, but otherwise you’d have to rely on what you brought along for yourself. Or, as I did, you could take advantage of that many of the onlookers supplied fruits of various kinds, snacks, candy and whatnot throughout the entire run. At one point I was running with a massive wedge of cantaloupe melon and at another time I shoved a quarter orange in my mouth just enjoying the needed juiciness. And someone else handed out donut holes which might not have been the perfect food for a run but were really good, still. The candy I skipped as it was all wrapped and I couldn’t be bothered fiddling with wrapping while still trying to keeping attention on the course and other runners.

20 meters before the finish line and I'm still looking - and feeling! - happy.

Photo taken by MarathonFoto.

There were pacers for this run, too, as with any other marathon, but I only spotted one in the starting block and one briefly when we had reached Manhattan. The issue was that as opposed to other runs I’ve run, these pacers ran with a sign in their hand, one side with the pace in min/miles, and the other with the finishing time. The one I saw in Manhattan in front of me was running with the sign pointing the finishing time forward so seeing the min/mile pace was of absolutely no help. I don’t understand why they didn’t use balloons or flags mounted on their backs, I mean – all runners swing their arms when running, and you want people to carry a sign visible to surrounding runners? That was pretty unhelpful.

Crossing the finish line we were, as usual, pushed forward to not block the runners coming in behind us, where we after some walking got our medals and goodie-bag (snacks, drinks, etc.). From there we had to keep walking – and walking some more before taking a u-turn (uphill, even! UPHILL!) out onto 8^th Avenue and returning south again where we were handed out finishing parkas (and opposed to those you got in Berlin these were really, really, nice!) after which we could finally exit the finishing area. From there was a short (but feeling less so) walk to the closest subway station and grabbing the line that stopped right outside the hotel (literally less than 50 steps from the hotel entrance) and returning to my room for a much-needed shower and relaxation. At least I hadn’t opted for having a bag brought from the starting area to the finishing area, as those who had done so had to go way further north in Central Park before being able to collect their things and exit. I am glad I missed out on that extra distance after finishing. And I would have missed out on the nice parka.

My official finishing time was 4:11:53. I didn’t reach my goal of sub-4 hours, but having fully enjoyed the 42km long block party I actually don’t mind. I genuinely had a lot of fun running this marathon. I ended up 131 out of 244 Danes (top 53,69%), 2422 out of 4650 in my age group (top 52,09%), 14237 out of 30799 men (top 46,23%) and 20038 out of 53518 in total (top 37,44%). My gun place was 19457 which means I only dropped 581 places throughout the run. That was a pleasant surprise – I thought I had dropped further due to my slowdown towards the end (but looking at the graph it was a much smaller drop in pace than I assumed) and losing places during a 1-1½ minute pee break at 10km, but as usual, despite feeling like I was the only one, I was obviously not alone in struggling towards the end.

The last runner came in at 10:23:57. The average finish time was 4:37:59. The youngest was 18, the oldest finisher was an American 87-year-old woman who finished in 6:16:39. Respect. Unofficially, runners were still able to cross the finish line and getting timed after the race formally ending which means there were even longer registered times, though they were not registered as official finishers: the longest time someone spent on the race was 13:17:37, and the last one finished at 23:14 (after having spent 12:06:03 on the run).

After a 3-ish hour rest (I was at least smart enough to not have a walk around to do some sight-seeing) we were picked up by the bus that drove us out to the west side of Manhattan where we boarded a boat. Here we had dinner with a tasty buffet (but the carrot cake was out when I made it to dessert – boo!) and sailing up and down the Hudson river, down past the south point of Manhattan and a bit up East river before returning to port on Hudson river. The weather gave us some great views of the Manhattan skyline in the dark. Took the bus straight back to the hotel (and no one seemed interested in going out for drinks as we saw in Berlin) and passed out almost immediately when hitting the bed.

Manhattan seen from the west just after leaving.

Having just passed the south point of Manhattan. 

The building in the lower left corner is Whitehall Terminal where ferries come and go.

Brooklyn Bridge with southern Manhattan.

Manhattan seen from the south, Brooklyn Bridge to the right.

2nd of November – Morning run of not-really-records

Today was the day of the Abbott Dash to the Finish Line 5K, the morning run the day before the marathon. The course was from the UN building, down 42^nd street, up 6^th Ave until Central park where we turned right and entered the park at the corner at 5^th and 59^th. In the park we did a bit of zig-zagging before finishing at tomorrow’s finish line.

The race started at 0930 so we left the hotel at 0830 and a short subway ride later we arrived in the starting area where people were slowly arriving. While the crowds were easy to navigate on arrival, as more than 10.000 participated in the run the closer we got to the start it got pretty crowded. But everything was done in an orderly fashion and the run started at the scheduled time, with the various starting blocks getting sent off in an orderly fashion. As this was as any other morning-the-day-before-the-marathon run it was open for all, not just for tomorrow’s runners. This meant that the average pace was a bit more relaxed than you’d otherwise, and because of this I started worrying when I realized I was getting out of breath way too fast.

Reaching the finish line I found there was nothing to worry about as my watch popped up with three new PRs: 1km, 1m and 5km. (I found out later this was highly unreliable, as the GPS was struggling with a correct signal between the tall buildings. A 1km in 3 minutes did not happen, no matter how much my watch tries to convince me!). Coming in at a clean 24 minutes I ended up being 5 out of 66 Danes (top 7,58%), 153 out of 713 in my age group (top 21,46%), 887 out of 4857 among men (top 18.26%) and 1187 out of 10346 in total (top 11,47%, after crossing the starting line as number 1630), and the average completion time was 32:35 overall and 31:02 for men. It was a first for me finding out that the organizers tracked runners at this run as much as at the marathon.

Go home, GPS, you're drunk!

Getting the subway from the finish area back to the hotel I made it back maybe 15 minutes before they closed breakfast, so obviously I grabbed a muffin and took with me when returning to my room and had a shower and my muffin – not simultaneously, though.

I had a short break before returning to the Expo (where there were many more people at this time than Thursday) as I had changed my mind with regards buying an extra shirt. From there I walked the High Line, a public park built on a former freight rail a few floors up from the roads. Despite being able to look down on the traffic and seeing it go by, the growth of trees and bushes on the line means that you can barely hear it when walking which makes it all surprisingly peaceful. Going from the beginning at 34^th street and finishing past 13^th street it goes on for a while, and after descending back down onto street level I had a small walk around before ending up at the hotel to relax before going out to back to Little Italy to have dinner.

Walking on the High Line.

Looking down on 10^th Avenue form the High Line.

1st of November – Touring the course

I had signed up for a tour of the course so in the morning I joined up with the others from the group who were staying at my hotel (we were spread out on 3 different hotels) where we took the subway to one of the other hotels where we joined the bus, hoping that this time it wouldn’t be one with braking problems. Before leaving our hotel, though, I grabbed some breakfast. The selection was limited; tea, coffee, water and bread rolls, bagels and the biggest muffins I remember I have ever seen. Obviously that would be my breakfast. How could it not be?

We drove south to Staten Island where we started following the marathon course as much as possible, depending on access for larger vehicles (or vehicles in general). It was actually pretty nice getting to see the course before the day, despite just sitting in a large bus you still got a feel for the course when driving along. I got the impression that some of the streets seemed a bit narrow, especially considering the number of people participating in the run, but I guess it’s the same route as the previous years so they have it scaled accordingly.

Manhattan Bridge seen from the corner of Washington and Water in Brooklyn.

When getting dropped off at the hotel I took the subway to Brooklyn and had a walk around there and mostly enjoyed the clear views of the Manhattan skyline over the river. I returned by foot over the Brooklyn bridge, walked up to Times Square while it had gotten dark and got a few shots before going to Little Italy for dinner before returning to my hotel.

Southern Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridge.

Crossing Brooklyn Bridge.

Times Square.