29th of May – 1st of June – Stockholm

Flying to Stockholm mid-day allowed me to check in to my hotel a bit past 1400, before the notified check-in time, but fortunately they still let me check in. Moments later, after spending a few moments to enjoy my magnificently limited view out of the window, I walked the 10 minutes to the Olympic stadium, the location of the marathon starting area and the Expo was located where I picked up my kit.

 

What a view!

From here I had a walk down towards the harbor area where I passed by the city hall and the royal castle. I wandered Gamla Stan (Old Town) a bit before heading south and going through Södermalm reaching Hammerbyslussen before heading back to the center grabbing dinner on the way. Coming back to the harbor I walked out to Skeppsholmen and Kastellholmen, two small islands where you had a nice view of the Gamla Stan. It was a very nice walk in the warm evening and with very few people walking around out here it was surprisingly quiet considering how close it was to the center. 

 

Harbor front.

 

  

In the court yard of the city hall.  

 

The royal castle. 

 

 Stockholm Kastel on Kastellholmen.

The following day I planned to visit the Vasa ship museum, a large building containing the warship launched in 1627 and sinking on its maiden voyage, still within view of Gamla Stan. Being salvaged in 1961 it was a huge challenge for archeologists as they had to invent numerous new techniques to conserve the wreck, preventing it deteriorating even further and stabilizing the wood. The current status is that it is starting to tilt a few degrees to one side so they are working on better support and pushing it back, and the loadbearing beams are starting to bulk under the weight which is also being looking into. All that aside it is quite magnificent walking around it and looking into it. While it isn’t large compared to modern ships it was definitely on that would turn heads back in the day. If you are in Stockholm it is definitely worth a few hours’ visit.

A smaller 1:10 model showing how the ship would look in its original colors.

 

Dinner was had at the pasta party at the Olympic stadium, a surprisingly tasty pasta and pesto dish. The portions were unimpressive but you were free to multiple portions, so that helped. Coming back to the hotel I passed by a 7-11 to get some dessert and noticed they had a salad bar. There was plenty in all the containers, with the exception of the two that contained pasta; they were completely cleaned out – not a single crumb left. And the queue to pay was mostly people buying bananas. And then me getting cake. Priorities!

As I was staying close to the starting area I left a bit less than an hour before start. Getting close to the entrance to the runner’s area I got almost stuck in traffic because of the hoards of supporters just hanging out not understanding someone was trying to get to the starting area. Getting into the runner’s area there was plenty of room to move around, so getting to my starting box was easy enough. Having reported a expected finish time of 3:50 I was surprised to see the 3:30 pacers were standing near and the 3:45 was far behind. Oh, well – I decided to just try and keep in front of the 3:45’s as long as possible. And we were off!

Leaving the stadium we soon turned right and came through Vasastan before crossing into Stadshagen and Kungsholmen. From here we went by the city hall, circled Gamla Stan and passing the royal castle, running along the harbor across the castle, through Östermalm before reaching the point where we turned right when starting but now turning in the opposite direction towards Djurgården. Making a big circle through here, we retuned to the harbor across from the castle, went down the east side of Gamla Stan before zig-zagging our way through Södermalm. 

 Passing the city hall.

Leaving Södermalm northbound back towards Kungsholmen we crossed Västerbron – a tall bridge that I was a bit worried about as it was just before the 30km mark. But it turned out that it didn’t feel nearly as bad as I had feared (I guess routine has a say in this, seeing plenty of others slow down significantly going up), and the two ends not being identical it was luckily the steep end we ran down and the gentler end we ascended. Running the same route through Kungsholmen and Stadshagen (but opposite direction) entering Vasastan, but then veering off and returning to Gamla Stan one last time, only following the north part, back to the harbor across from the castle before following the route as before, but instead of turning right towards Djurgården we turned left for a few 100m before turning in down along the stadium, entering in the far corner and ran the last few meters around on the running track before crossing the finish line.

The weather was beautiful; a bit over 20 degrees, plenty of sun and only a breeze. While it meant that it was a fair bit warmer than what I prefer when running, it also brought plenty of people out to cheer us along which really set a high mood for the day. It was only when we were passing through Djurgården that there were only a few onlookers which didn’t matter much; you got to rest your ears for a bit and you could enjoy the greenery without much interruptions (ignoring the surrounding moaning and panting runners). 

Despite it being warm it went surprisingly well; my finishing time was 3:49:08 which was a new PR, and not only that – it was an improvement of 3:25 which feels significant. Came in as 5273 out of 18863 overall (top 27,95%), 4491 out of 13456 men (top 33,38%) and 629 out of 1485 M40 (top 42,36%). With that new PR I was very happy with the result and the course isn’t even particularly flat. I guess the 19 water stations along the way also helped.

In the evening I left the city center and visited a cousin and his family for dinner before returning to the hotel for some much needed sleep. The following day I had a short walk around Skeppsholmen to kill time before leaving for the airport and returning home.

Full album can be seen here.

16th – 18th of May – Gothenburg

My cousin located in Gothenburg grabbed hold of me at one point and asked me if I would want to participate in this year’s Göteborgvarvet – the annual Gothenburg half marathon. He noted that if I signed up so would he, but he didn’t even have to say that to convince me and not long after I had signed up, and not long after he had, too.

Gothenburg half marathon is apparently the largest annual half marathon in the world with 50.000+ people signing up every year. A fair number of people who get sent off over a period of 3 hours from 1300, so in spite of the many people it never feels as congested as one would imagine.

Getting to Gothenburg is easy; grab the train in Copenhagen and then get off app. 3,5 hours later. A short walk later I arrived at my cousin’s, a bit before he finished work so I spent some time in their garden enjoying the weather and quiet. He had been nice enough to also pick up my bib up at the expo so I basically just had to show up. Shortly after he finished work and we had caught up his wife and kids showed up, and dinner was had. I was set to start at 1314 and my cousin a few minutes later, and because of this there was no rush to get up and out on run day; slow morning and catching the bus to the park where the start was. 

The run felt like a huge city-wide party with activities for kids, plenty of food stalls and generally huge number of people around the start and finish area. The weather was very nice but temps in the 20s so a bit too warm to my liking – but it helped getting people out and about and adding to the great mood around the run. Also the 9 water stations helped a fair bit on fighting dehydration. Starting in Slottskagsvallen – a large park – we ran the first few km in some pleasant greenery. Coming through some residential area before passing the tallest point on the course – the bridge Älvsborgsbron. From there we followed along the river north/east bound, most of the time close to the water where we were running along the docks, sometimes without fences so you had to keep to your line and hope everyone else were doing the same. At least with all the onlookers around you could hope being blocked or caught if you accidentally got pushed the wrong direction…

The last few km was through a nice green forested area. 

Coming through a bit of industrial-looking area we crossed the river once again over the Hisingsbron, getting through a few turns before coming up towards Götaplatsen where we turned around, turned down Vasagatan and from there more or less straight to the finish area, the last few 100m parallel with the first couple of 100m. This meant that when reaching the finish line you would still see waves be sent off from the starting area. 

The last few meters circling the arena before crossing the finish line.

I managed to finish at 1:43:34 – satisfying considering I had run the Copenhagen marathon the weekend before (a small impulsive buy of a spot 3 days in advance). I came in as 6043 out of 46646 overall (top 12,96%), 5407 out of 28566 men (top 18,93 %) and 620 out of 2927 M40 (top 21,18%). My cousin was a few minutes slower but he had been talking about the longest he had run was maybe 10km and that was a few months ago. So happy for him finishing with such a result, but part of me was a bit annoyed that he wasn’t that much slower considering the difference in our training (but when meeting him maybe 15-20 minutes after him finishing he still looked more tired than I had felt at any time, so yay?). 

Returning to the busses we ended up in a bit of chaos of tired runners trying to locate their bus home – our bus turned out to be fairly late but when it finally arrived and a bunch of runners piled in. Non-runners were probably very happy about being trapped in a bus filled with sweaty runners. Arriving home we had a much-needed shower before celebrating the run, having dinner and having a relaxing evening. The following day I got a lift to the station, got on my train, found my seat and had a uneventful ride home.

Full album can be seen here.