Getting to Helsinki was just as unproblematic as last time and the train connections from the airport to the center was equally easy. The airport and city center are on a circular route approximately same distance regardless of direction so it’s easy to just get on to the first train at the airport because you will end up in the center in the end.
Having been doing a more focused sightseeing the last time I visited I chose to take things a bit more relaxed on arrival. I checked into my hotel a few minutes from the main station and having settled in I decided to go to the runners expo at Merisatama to pick up my pack. A 1-2km walk from my hotel to get to the expo was absolutely fine, and downhill for the majority part, something I was trying to ignore as the start and finish of the marathon was located in the same area.
The following day, the Friday, the day before the marathon, I had a walk around the waterfront, starting from Merisatama and walking counter-clockwise, passing by the Russian orthodox cathedral, had a short walk around Tervasaari, circled Töölö bay before reaching Helsinki Central Library Oodi which was quite the construction in and of itself. A large building that seemed to have been twisted a bit before being placed. I was impressed by what the place had to offer outside the usual reading materials; board games, instruments, music studios, gaming rooms (large TV and 3-5 gaming consoles almost completely sound proof), multiple 3d printers of various sizes, workshops and so on. Walking around I didn’t even realize it was almost up against the main train station, so leaving again it turned out it was just a short walk back to the hotel and getting ready for dinner.
On the day of the race the halfmarathoners were sent off at 0810 while the marathoners would have to wait until 0845. Not really an issue – it meant that arriving in good time I got to see the halfmarathoners leave and making room for us and our start. And on time we crossed the starting line, following the same route as I yesterday following the waterfront counter counter-clockwise, past the ferry terminals, the Russian orthodox cathedral and continuing north crossing the bridge to Merihaka leaving the city center. Here the half- and full marathon courses split; while the half marathoners turned left we continued north/east.
Here we did a 21km long circle, passing past and/or through Sompasaari, Kalasatama, Kulosaari, Fastholma, Roihupelto, Viikki Campus (Helsinki university), Viikinmäki, Oulunkylä, between Metsälä and Käpylä, past Alppila before reaching Siltasaari and crossing the bridge back to towards the city center. This bridge was a few 100 meters west of the beforementioned bridge where we left the halfmarathoners, and crossing this bridge we joined them again on the rest of the course. From here we passed by the central station, up along Töölö bay before returning back south and passing Leppäsuo, circled Jätkäsaari, went through Hietalahti, ran out on Munkkisaari and did a u-turn to get the correct final distance (the halfmarathoners had an extra 100m before they could do their u-turn) before coming back to Merisatama and crossing the finish line (one may even say the Finnish finish line).
The course itself was… ok. It was plenty interesting when running around in the city, but as soon we left the more densely built areas it got pretty dull, especially when we were brought through the more industrial areas. We did come through some more green spaces but you would usually have train tracks right next to you. There wasn’t much cheering along the course outside the center unless you were passing by a station or going through an intersection. There were very few sharp corners outside the city, though, which made things a bit more enjoyable. Overall it did feel very much like a Norse god [1]; the street at the starting/finishing area was blocked off for us runners, but it didn’t take long before we were stuck to sidewalks and pedestrian paths shared with normal people. It ended up not being as big an issue as I had expected – particularly at the start where it seemed that everybody agreed on the pace and barely anyone either much faster or much slower, so the running traffic flowed quite nicely. But still... I guess I expected something bigger after having experienced Copenhagen’s and Stockholm’s setup. Also, after the race, instead of getting a mail from a third-party race photography company that linked to photo packages, prices, and previews of photos, we just got a link to all the albums the day’s photographers had filled with photos and then it was up to ourselves to go through the thousands of photos to see if you had been captured. Seemed very low tech and it took a while to find myself (but it also gave me the chance of seeing that I was by far not the most tired-looking person that day!).
Being a marathon in the capital I was surprised to see how small the run was, with only 2315 people running the full distance. With a finishing time of 3:56:31 I came in as no. 877 (top 37,88%), 726 out of 1648 men (top 44,05%) and 163 out of 324 M40 (top 50,31). With nice cool dry weather and app. 220m up and down the weather and road conditions were nice, and overall, despite my reservations, it was a good run.
I made it back to the hotel in one piece and kicked back until it was time to get dinner, where I ended up at a German restaurant and devoured a winer schnitzel and a generously sized waffle. All in all, a good day.
Full album can be seen here.
[1] Loki… Low-key. Get it? Because they sound the same… It was low-key but it also sounds like the name of the Norse God Loki… Get it? Get it….? … Sigh… Never mind.
