SuperHalfs conclusion

Back in the good ol' days, in 2019, 5 European half marathons - Prague, Lisbon, Copenhagen, Cardiff and Valencia - announced they got together to give runners an opportunity to earn a fancy medal if you completed all 5 within 36 months from 2020 onward. Off course such a thing was right up my alley and I quickly signed up for all of them. And then that happened, so they were all cancelled and/or postponed. 

And postponed a bit more.

Until towards the end of 2021 where the first started again; Copenhagen and Valencia. So I participated in those though after the Copenhagen run I realized that they wouldn't start counting until the beginning of 2022. They argued they wanted a fresh start and fresh year, and while some of the community complained about this - the communication about this decision hadn't been clear before the Copenhagen run - they held onto that decision and I would have to also run them in 2022 despite completing them in 2021. The horror!

So getting through 2022 I have finally run and completed all 5 Superhalfs.

Prague (2nd of April); 1:44:41
Lisbon (8th of May); 1:46:35
Copenhagen (18th of September); 1:40:05 (PR)
Cardiff (2nd of October); 1:45:11
Valencia (23rd of October); 1:48:08

My goal on the half marathon distance is 1:45 which I didn't achieve for 3 of the runs. Fortunately, due to my fast time in Copenhagen I still managed to stay below 1:45 on average, more exactly 1:44:56. This meant that in Valencia I had 18 seconds to spare. A bit close to comfort, but I am happy I managed and it is now over and done with.

The SuperHalfs medal next to the Valencia HM medal.

3rd – Return home

I didn’t have much of a plan on my last (half) day in town so I ended up sleeping in, having breakfast and checking out at the latest having a bit of a walk around town. The weather had turned into the best since I had arrived – warming and few clouds. Of course that would happen on the day I’m returning home.

Grabbed the subway and bus to the airport where I went through security without an issue and found a seat overlooking the apron and seeing the air traffic move by. It’s quite amazing seeing the size difference of the planes when they pass by each other.

The flights – and layover – went without a hitch and I was soon back home, after a train connection that probably was the worst timed connection ever. Oh, well. Home safe and sound, having completed the first of 5 SuperHalfs half marathons, and the first of 7 “I should have done this back in 2020”-runs.

Full album can be found here.

2nd – Prague half marathon

Waking up at 0800 I checked the forecast and it had now been updated to be -1°C feeling like -7°C at start – so no miraculous warming during the last 8 hours. Getting dressed I went outside for a for a quick jog around the block to get a feel for the weather. At least it wasn’t snowing despite the forecast last night. Moving around it felt like almost too much clothing, but turning a corner and realizing I had been out of the wind until then the amount of layers definitely weren’t overkill. I ended up wearing a thin baselayer, a thicker, slightly wind-breaking, layer/jacket-thing and the official running t-shirt on top. Sweating like a pig when inside but feeling much more appropriate outside.

I returned to my room, grabbed my jacket and wrapped up before leaving for the starting area. Around 45 minutes before start I entered the closed off area and wandered a bit around and tried killing time until the start. There was surprisingly little to see or do, and no one handing out drinks before the run. But to my surprised they probably had the highest portapotty-to-participant ratio I have ever seen. Even close to start the queues were very short. So happy to see that.

I handed in my jacket and it didn’t take long for me to start feeling the cold creeping in. At one point I just wished for the speaker to announce “screw it, guys, it’s cold, we’ll be starting in 5 minutes!”. It helped when one of the streets between the waiting area and the starting corridor turned into an improvised jogging ring where people circled at a gentle pace. Also, the street being shielded from the wind it was a nice way of (re-)gaining a bit of warmth.

But finally the clock struck 10 and we were off. The weather was nice even if it was cold, there was no snow (or rain) despite of the forecast, and it only really felt cold when you got hit by the wind (though that could also be due to the multiple layers). There was a part towards the beginning where we were running in a straight line south and I ended up taking off my beanie because I was starting to get hot and worry I might have put on too much, but as soon as we reached the 180 degree turn-around point and starting running back north I quickly had to put it back on again realizing that we had had the wind in our backs. It was windy throughout the entire run but at least there were passages where we weren’t affected by it. And there were definitely passages where we were.

The course was up and down on along the river on both sides so we didn’t get a chance of running through the old part of town. That was probably a good thing because there aren’t many wide streets around there, and even if “only” app. 11.500 people had signed up for the run and it wasn’t crowded after the first few km I could easily see a bit of traffic jams if we were led through those parts. There would also have been many more cobblestones if we had been led through the old part, and any chance of avoiding cobblestone during a run is a good thing. Running on both sides of the river required us to cross it a total of 6 times – fortunately they were all relatively flat so the amount of ups and downs were limited.

I crossed the finish line at 1:44:41, within my goal of 1:45, but only just. Walking through the finish area I was given heated energy drink (at this temperature it was worth its weight in gold!), a banana, energy drinks and obviously a medal before I wandered off to grab my jacket and return to the hotel. After a long hot shower I rested a bit before returning out to grab a chimney cake with ice cream (how people can eat those without making a mess is beyond me!) and a humongous hotdog. Returning to the hotel I rested before going back out (again) for dinner where I ended up in a place where I had a pork knuckle. It had a massive bone so it ended up not being quite as intimidating as it initially looked, and the taste was fantastic. And the meat was enormously tender – a well-made osso buco is more coherent than this was! 

Chimney cakes being baked.

30th of March – 1st of April – Prague, pre-race

The flight to Prague went almost without a hitch. “Almost”, as the first leg of the flight was app. 20 minutes delayed which meant I didn’t have much time to visit the lounge in Brussels – the horror! One hour after touching down on the runway in Prague at 1600 I was checking in at the hotel so all in all the trip ended up being a smooth experience.

Not a very inspiring view, but at least there won't be any traffic noise.

I realized that my 4 meals throughout the day (lounges and flights) had been completely filled up so in spite of nearing dinner time I decided to skip it and just, after a short break in the hotel room, have a walk around, figuring out where the start and finish lines would be and just taking in the nightly views. The planned short walk ended up being 3 hours and resulted in a handful of photos of a dark and wet Prague.

With the run being on Saturday I would be spending Thursday and Friday on relaxing and doing as little as possible. Having been here back in 2018 I had already visited the castle and the impressive cathedral there. I was tempted to return but with the grey overcast weather I doubted that the stained glass could live up to expectations so I decided to skip it. After picking up my race number and t-shirt at the runner’s expo I decided instead to head north across the river, ultimately ending up at the zoo. 

Tiger of the variant "cuddly".

I ended up wandering the zoo for 3-4 hours until closing and felt I hadn’t had enough time – even if I skipped the entire savannah section. The zoo was spread out over quite a large area which also meant they had room for quite a lot of species. They also had quite the selection of cats; two different fishing cats, leopard cats, Malayan and Sumatran tigers, lions, leopards and a clouded leopard. Especially the latter I was excited to see, but both times I passed by it was sleeping in its box with only the head visible. Apparently they also had cheetahs but the area where they belonged were closed so it’s anyone’s guess where they were being kept. They also had juguarundi cats (from Central and South America), some I had never seen before. There were a lot of aviaries, and in general it seemed like the animals had plenty of space considering it was a zoo – though the aviaries did seem slightly small-ish, especially for the birds of prey. In spite of the weather it was quite the enjoyable experience, and probably due to a combination of the weather and being outside the normal tourist season, according to the counter just inside the entrance less than 1050 people had visited throughout the day. For reference; the zoo is app. 55ha and has near 6000 animals (5 times the size and almost double that of Copenhagen’s zoo, respectively). 

Juguarundi.

At closing I left and walked the 5-6km back to the city center to have dinner and a walk around before returning to the hotel for the night. Apparently the AC at the hotel is set to winter mode which means it can only heat and not cool. For someone who normally sleeps with an open window all year round this is a bit of a disappointment, but not really something I can do anything about. Oh, well, things could have been worse. 

I think the map missed the point of its existence. 

Friday ended up being an intentionally relative short day as I wanted to rest before the run tomorrow. I did a bit of directionless wandering which ultimately ended me up west of the river and at the Petrin lookout tower. While the weather could have been nicer, walking to the top still gave a nice view of the castle which was near by and the city in general. Returning to the hotel I rested (again) for a few hours before going out for dinner and coming back for the rest of the night.

View of the citadel.

View of the city,

The weather hasn’t been quite as I had been looking forward to. I was happy when leaving home as we had had a few weeks with very nice weather and it was finally starting to feel like spring, and this week would have the weather souring again dropping temps back down to near freezing and no more clear skies. So flying out I felt that the timing was perfect – unfortunately it seemed like Prague has gotten the exact same idea. These days it has been breezy, 5°C at most and the occasional drizzle. Friday evening it was 2°C and feeling like -3°C, and tomorrow at the start of the race at 1000 we are facing 0°C feeling like -6°C, with a bit of precipitation mixed in. Yay.

New and old.

For someone who has never visited the hotel before the floor layout is so weird. The floors consist of a big square and two arcs lining one side of the square. There were two hallways going to the two outer sides of the arcs, and then one hallway going down the center to both arcs’ inner sides. And that middle section only had a door to the square hallway in one end. It was so confusing in the beginning but it definitely helped when seeing a floor plan. And I didn’t have to worry about street noise despite only being on third floor as my view is pretty much roofs and walls. And as my door is at the end of the hallway there aren’t much heard from other guests either, which is pretty nice.

Update on the Superhalfs

Just like with the Marathon Majors the Superhalfs have been affected by the current pandemic. What I had planned on running and completing in 2020 when the Superhalfs were introduced has now been postponed to 2022. So despite my annoyance to start this means that I still will be able to complete the Superhalfs series in the first year (completely ignoring you have 36 months from the first to the last run to get the Superhalfs medal). So as of now the schedule looks like the following:

Prague – April

Lisbon – May

Copenhagen – September

Cardiff – October

Valencia – October

Here's crossing my fingers that things will go smoothly going forward. Some of next year's dates have not been published yet so those are still pending. In any case, the fall looks like it'll be busy which will be a nice change of pace considering the recent lack of traveling. 

Second update on the Superhalfs

With already one update to the Superhalfs' dates I was hoping that that would be it, but as we all know by now there is no sign of the pandemic slowing down and giving us a break. This means that all the planned runs have now moved their dates for next year. The runs are therefore now planned for the following dates next year:

Prague - March the 27th

Lisbon - May the 9th

Copenhagen - September the 19th

Cardiff - October the 3rd

Valencia - October the 24th

Here's to hoping that the dates won't change anymore, but I guess that just by writing that I've already jinxed it. On the plus side I am still able to do all of them in the first year the Superhalfs in going on but that is the only positive I can see from all this.

Superhalfs pandemic update

As mentioned previously I have decided to participate in the Superhalfs - 5 half marathons in Lisbon, Prague, Copenhagen, Cardiff and Valencia, two in the spring and three in the fall. You can complete them over 3 years from the first run to get get into the Superhalfs hall of fame. And originally my plan was to power through all 5 in one calendar year.

And then the Corona pandemic happened.

It pretty much ruined all my plans for the first half of 2020 (after coming home from Antarctica). The organizers were forced to cancel or move the runs, and therefore my schedule has changed quite significantly. The schedule now looks like this:

Lisbon (September 6^th)

Prague (March 27^th 2021)

Copenhagen (2021)

Cardiff (October 4^th)

Valencia (October 25^th)

Lisbon got moved to the 6th of September, and a week later Prague was moved to the same day. A lot of criticism was voiced on the Prague HM facebook page, but apparently the organizers couldn't find another day that would fit everybody's schedule (city, organizers, etc.). So my Prague run will be postponed for next year. And I have had to postpone my run in Copenhagen until next year, too, as the Boston marathon got moved to the Monday the day after, and that run takes priority by a wide margin.

So here's to hoping that no more delays will happen, but I guess nothing is certain these days.

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.

21st – 22nd – The long, but comfy, way home

Getting up as usual with a quick breakfast before gathering my things and checking out. I returned to Church of Tyn to see if there was any chance to get in. Something like finding someone and “if I donate so and so much can I get 5 minutes?” or finding an accidentally unlocked door and getting caught “oh? Closed? Sorry, wasn’t aware, I’ll leave now”. But no luck – it looked pretty sealed up. You weren’t even allowed to photograph inside now even if there wasn’t a mass going on. 

I turned around and headed east. There wasn’t much to see; the futuristic radio tower with a viewing platform and Franz Kafka’s grave (I didn’t have much else in my sights so I thought I might as well check them out). When reaching the tower I considered going up but decided not to – the view might be from a different angle than the other views I had seen but I’d be standing up there annoyed not being able to take advantage of the fact that they were open to midnight.

The futuristic Žižkov Television Tower.

I continued to the graveyard and it turned out to be much bigger than expected. In some areas no maintenance had been done so it was all overgrown. Despite it looking like a perfect location for a horror movie it did have a certain beauty to it. Further east the plots must have been more expensive as everything looked much more well maintained and thus looking like what I’d call a “normal” cemetery. Some graves had had no one added for 100 years, others had very recent additions. Some were just a normal tombstone, others had huge intricate statues, and some had their own small mausoleums. Franz Kafka was in the Jewish part of the cemetery and with my luck that part was closed off today due to the Jewish holiday. Walking through the area I noticed that there was a lot of families with the name of Rodina. It wasn’t until much later I realized that Rodina was the Czech word for Family.

Overgrown.

More well kept, but you don't get a lot of room.

Some get their own small mausoleums, though.

And some get one a bit larger...

I circled around and returned to the city centre, had a quick lunch and went north and saw the metronome, an art installation which is exactly what you’d think it is: a massive metronome. Walked through the park where it had been built, and then received a text informing me that my flight had been cancelled.

BEHOLD! The metronome.

No, I don't get it, either.

View from the metronome.

I decided to go to the airport immediately despite it was an hour before I had planned to leave, mostly in a naïve hope that I’d be able to get out there early to be prepared for any new departure time I’d be presented with.

On the way to the airport I received a message with my new departure details – I had been put on a flight early tomorrow morning instead. A quick call to the airline later I learnt that there were no other earlier flights, not even with layovers, but he did confirm they’d cover any expenses for an extra night and meals. I checked into the hotel just across from the departure terminal at ordinary airport rates, 3-course dinner and wine. No worries, it’s covered. I’ll admit it was quite a satisfactory evening, despite it all.

It was an unexpected extra night due to a cancelled flight, and the view was to an interior part of the hotel, and yet it was my best view from any hotelroom in a very long time.

Only issue was that I had to get up early; the flight was at 0710, but at least it would let me get to work directly after arriving in Copenhagen.

The morning felt as early as it was, I checked in, visited the lounge, got onto the plane and without further ado I made it to Copenhagen. Despite my previous plans I ended up going home for a quick shower and getting my mind in order before returning and getting into work.

Despite bad timing and an unfortunate trip home I really enjoyed Prague and I actually feel that I could have spent a few more days there. It’s a beautiful city which I would recommend everyone to spend a few days in and while the prices might not be as low as they have been due to the large number of tourists you are still able to get a good meal for a fair price as long as you stay away from the most congested areas. And talking about tourists – there are a lot of them. Like – really many. I did notice, though, that some of the tour groups had the guide walking around with a small microphone and all the clients had a small headset. Made it much easier for people around not part of the group compared to the groups where the guide was yelling and trying to keep everyone’s attention. In any case – visit if you can, it is quite memorable and not quite like other places.

Full album can be seen here.

20th – Stained glass

After getting up and having had breakfast – once again cutting it close to closing time – I checked up on the opening hours for the cathedral at the castle. According to what I read it would close at 1500 so I decided to start the day there to be sure I’d make it before it would be too late.

Once again I entered the queue to get into the castle around 1100 and half an hour later I was let through. I walked over to the cathedral and stepped into another queue, this one very short. And waited. And nothing happened. Looking around I saw a sign and realized that I had been planning based on info for the wrong day. It wouldn’t open until 1300 so I left and instead decided to spend my time to go into the tower.

The 286 steps up the narrow spiral staircase took one right past the space where the bells were mounted and being there at 1200 we got to see – and hear! – them in full action. The view from the top was great, especially because there wasn’t much of a haze today.

As mentioned; really close to the bells.

View from the tower.

Beautiful window spotted on the way down.

I returned down and exited at around 1310 and saw a line of people pass by the door. I quickly realized it was the queue of people waiting to get into the cathedral and having nothing else planned here I added myself to the rear of the queue. The entry was in the front to the left and I queued up near the front to the right – but the queue went all the way around the rear of the cathedral. There was no standstill, though, we were always moving, and half an hour later I was the next to walk through the entrance. It was also half an hour of keeping an eye on people who “totally know those people in front of you!” or “oh, I thought this was the end of the line and I totally didn’t see the hundreds behind you!”. People’s complete lack of respect for others still surprise me. Fuckers.

After all that waiting one could worry that it would be a huge anti-climax seeing the cathedral from the inside, but I’ll admit I thought it was very impressive. Beautifully stained glass and generally very impressive word done with the construction made the wait and return to the castle worth it. More than an hour later I exited and went for a short stroll in the castle’s gardens before leaving the castle grounds for good.

Entering the cathedral.

Stained glass! 

More stained glass!

MORE!

I love the fact that there was enough sun that the stained glass colored the walls. 

I started walking south following the river until I reached castle Vyšehrad where I had a short walk around. Nothing remotely as magnificent or impressive as the other place but still quite nice. When leaving I realized that a recommended restaurant was just around the corner so I decided to chance it despite not having a booking. I went down there and only had to wait a few minutes before being seated. Goat’s cheese in filo salad, port ribs and coconut cake with chocolate was a nice end to the day.

A small canal.

Inside the basilica at Vyšehrad Castle.

  

Leaving I walked back north towards the Old Town again. I had found out that the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe is buried in Church for our Lady Tyn located just next to the town square. The church is open 3+2 hours every day – and I obviously arrived too late to get in today. The door was open, though, so I snuck in to have a look; it was only moments before a mass started and all photography was banned. Every day except Mondays (tomorrow) – in that case it would be closed. My disappointment was real.

Sunset at the river.

The astronomical clock was being renovated so a meager digital replacement was all I got to see.

I went back down to the river trying to get some more night shot of the castle cathedral and Charles bridge before returning to my hotel around 2300.

19th – Knees and castles

Vacationing is hard work so it took a while getting out of bed which meant I only had 10 minutes for breakfast before they closed. Probably a good thing. The breakfast restaurant at the hotel has a weird layout; There are two rooms connected, in one rooms’ corner is the juice and in the middle the cereal, and in the other room around the corner is the rest. It wasn’t until a couple left their table I saw the juice table that had been hiding behind until then.

I decided to walk towards Prague castle when leaving the hotel around 1030 and on the way there I passed the city hall and its tower. I opted to go up into It and get a view of the city. I’ll admit that Prague is bigger than I had expected, unfortunately the building heat resulted in a haze ruining an otherwise potentially amazing view. And what is it with people not being able to follow simple orders? Coming outside at the top of the tower there’s a big arrow pointing you to go clockwise around the observation platform, yet I met numerous people pushing their way the wrong way around in an already limited space. Morons.

View from the city hall tower. 

Other direction, you can see St. Vitus’ Cathedral at Prague Castle in the distance to the right.

Main square with church of Our Lady before Týn

From there I went to the castle, went through security and got a ticket for the Old Palace, Golden Lane, Basilica of St. George and St. Vitus’ Cathedral. Unfortunately the cathedral was closed today due to religious stuff – fortunately the tickets are valid for two days so I’ll be returning tomorrow.

Charles bridge with the castle in the background.

Golden Lane is a small street that has gone through several iterations of being small shops or service places to being small residences. Originally the gold artisans moved here, hence the name, escaping the rule-heavy guilds in town, but later other industries started trickling in.

The front of the cathedral.

The side of the cathedral also showing the Golden Gate.

St. George's Basilica.

Inside the basilica.

The Golden Lane.

I left the castle through the rear entrance and came through a small wine yard before returning to the old town. There I walked back past the main square at town hall and continued onwards and came past the national museum before circling around and ending up at the hotel for a break.

A small local wine yard. 

A classic Czech dish is apparently pork knee and after a few attempts I found a restaurant that had a table available. I ordered a small starter and the pork knee and my waiter looked at me and said “sir, it is a big piece”. Yes, yes, sounds like a challenge, bring it on. The food was good but the knee was a bit disappointing – I had expected something special taste-wise like you get with something like pork cheeks, but it honestly could just as well have been a ham served a bit inconveniently. Was it big? Well, firstly, I had expected the bones to take up more volume than they did. Secondly, for the first time ever during these city visits I didn’t order dessert. I’ll admit; it was a fair chunk of meat in the end but it was all gone (except for the fat layer) when I was done.

After letting it all fall into place for 15-20 minutes I left and went down towards Charles bridge in an attempt to get some photos of the castle during sunset and darkness. I spent close to two hours seeing the progress – together with a lot of other people – before returning to the hotel around 2300.