Running fish & chips

Towards the end of September I received a mail from the travel agent doing the marathon tours that London had opened up for some more spots in 2023, so anyone who had booked for a later date could, if they were quick, sign up for the 2023 run instead, shortening the wait. I didn't think I was particularly quick, but apparently quick enough, so now I'm going to London in April 2023 instead of in 2025.

London is a nice city and I'm looking forward to going back, even if it is for a marathon.

20th - 22nd of April
Flying out to London in the afternoon I don't expect to be able to get to the expo on the first day. Instead I'll have Friday and Saturday to get there, and also spending time wandering the city and having (another) look at this fine old city.

23rd of April
Race day. The starting point is out in Greenwich and after a quick detour around Woolwich we return past the Cutty Sark, largely following the Themes before crossing the Tower Bridge, circling around in the opposite direction so you get to see the Cutty Sark and O2 Arena from the opposite side before going back, passing the Tower Bridge and ultimately finishing in St. James Park. It looks like a nice course, but also potentially narrow streets so I'm looking forward to see how congested the entire run is going to be.

24th of April.
Flight back home in the early evening. That means I get one last shot at fish & chips before having to return to the airport.

Ignoring the potentially (very) British weather I think this will be a great trip and run. The course takes you around to some pretty nice sights so it'll truly be a running sightseeing. 

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.

23rd – 24th – Post-race and return home

Walking back to the hotel, goodie bag on my back and trying to prevent the two medals from rattling too much against each other, I relished in the thought that this was the last run in a row of many and I was looked forward to a month with no running and just relaxation. While the conditions during today’s run definitely had something to do with it I was looking forward to getting back to the hotel, have a shower and then lie down until going out for dinner somewhere. On arrival I passed by the kitchen where they were still serving breakfast, so filling my plate and going to my room I did exactly as planned; shower and relaxation, snacking on breakfast and goodie bag snacks. Trotting out for dinner I (obviously) ended up at a place where I managed to grab another pile of paella. And yes; smallest serving was for 2.

Having a flight just past noon fit perfectly with leaving the hotel in the morning, checking out (the receptionist recognized me from my visit last year – (not so) surprisingly not many people with my last name visit) and taking the train back to the airport where I checked in and had a nice flight home. Had quite a bit of a layover but fortunately there was plenty of food available. Not bad at all.

Having already visited Valencia once I feel like I have had enough of the city for now; the old part is really charming and nice to walk around in, but after two visits that feels like a done deal. The city is definitely worth a visit, I think, but going twice I feel is overdoing it. But I had a blast, the food was great and the half marathon there is done. Time to plan another one!

Full album can be seen here.

23rd – Valencia half-marathon

Staying in a hotel only 20 minutes’ walk from the starting area I relaxed with setting the alarm for 0630. With a snooze and slow shuffle around in the hotel room before leaving at 0715 I realized when coming outside that it was still dark (I had an internal room so I had no view of the outside). Arriving at the starting area, still dark, I shuffled around for a bit more waiting for the start at 0840 (with the elites leaving at 0825). Had I known that there wasn’t any water stations in the area I would definitely have waited a bit before leaving the hotel room. No water at the start (unless you brought it yourself) was a huge surprise to me. That was a first.

It turned out they had only installed speakers near the starting line so if you were anywhere else – and the area was huge – you didn’t have a chance to hear the music or the announcers. Coming up to the starting line it turned out I wasn’t missing much; it was all in Spanish and the announcers sounded like DJs on coke. 

Due to long lines at the porta potties I only made it to my starting group a few minutes before we were brought forward to the starting line. The group I was in contained the 1:30-1:45-runners and I only saw one pacer: the 1:45’er. While I would have preferred a more diverse pace team it was ok, but who’s idea was it to put him in the front of the group instead of somewhere in the middle?!

And, on time, off we went! At 21°-23°C along the way the temps were ok though maybe on the high side. The main issue was the high levels of humidity which made me struggle throughout most of the run. I didn’t seem to be the only one – only a few kilometers into the run I saw runners all over completely drenched in sweat.

The streets used for the course were quite narrow relative to the number of runners and how many they sent off at a time. That meant that it wasn’t until around the half-way point it felt like you could settle into your own pace instead of having to constantly adjust your pace and position due to the others. It was so frustrating. On top of this while running there were only water stations at 5, 10, 15 and 19km. For a warm and humid run like this it felt a bit underwhelming and certainly something you had to plan accordingly for. Personally I would honestly have preferred maybe 1-2 stations more along the way.

The support was good – a lot of people had shown up and stood along the course but there were few signs and the noise level was not near what I had gotten used to from my previous runs. On the other hand that just meant it was easier to concentrate on not crashing into the other runners.

The run was going quite well, the course is flat and turns are relatively easy, but with 5-6km to go my legs started feeling very heavy. I ended up getting in at 1:48:08, slower than my goal of 1:45. I came in as 7128 out of 16915 in total (top 42,14%) and 1324 out of 2383 M40 (top 55,56%). I couldn’t find the number for the position among men. Not the result I had hoped for, but I keep reminding myself that because this was the 4th run in 6 weeks (3 halfs and on full marathon) and the fact I don’t do well in high humidity these were far from optimal record-setting conditions. On the other hand I stayed below 1:48:26 which was the limit if I wanted my SuperHalfs average to be below 1:45. So a win overall. 

Crossing the finish line and getting a medal, snacks and drinks in (another) bag, I located the SuperHalfs desk (very inconspicuous – somebody just sitting at a table in the middle of the crowd of finished runners) where I got handed my medal for running all 5 half marathons within 36 months. As the runs didn’t count towards the medal until the start of the year it meant that this was the first time one could collect this medal.  

20th – 22nd of October – Valencia pre-race

Returning to Valencia from last year to run the half marathon again – last year it didn’t count towards the SuperHalfs collection so I had to return and run it again to get the “necessary” medal. 

The flight was uneventful apart from the part where I had a 4+ hour layover in Frankfurt. Fortunately it turned out the lounge had food that was surprisingly good so time was spent eating that (and making sure everything was good) while enjoying the view of the apron outside. This meant I didn’t get to check into the hotel until the evening after dark so I hadn’t planned to do anything on arrival. I still ended taking a walk down to and around the aquarium, tech museum, IMAX theater and stage to once again enjoy the illuminated buildings in the night. They are so peculiar so I’d say they are always worth a look in the dark.

The following day I headed out to the runners’ expo. As opposed to last year it wasn’t located in the starting area for the run, instead it was now in a conference building a fair bit further away in the opposite direction (I assume this is where it usually has been, but due to Covid it had been moved out into the open temporarily). So I wandered off, passing through a large part of the park surrounding the central city area and through an older part of the city further north with a lot of small random streets which kept you on your toes, I was keeping an constant eye on the map to make sure I wasn’t suddenly going off in a completely wrong direction.

Arriving at the expo there weren’t a lot of people so getting my number and goodie bag was a smooth process. And the goodie bag surprised me just like last year with regards to how much stuff they put into it. Leaving the expo I returned to the center via a different path – part of it brought me out along a road without sidewalks going through what looked like onion fields. A slightly different view from the old buildings lining narrow streets. I ended up walking around a bit and booking a table for dinner before returning to the hotel for an hour’s break before returning for dinner – paella was obviously on the menu. And the smallest portion was “for 2” so yup: delicious. 

The following day I went to the IMAX to watch a movie about the Amazon jungle and a British explorer exploring it in the 1800s. I wasn’t too impressed – it seemed more like a movie filmed normally and converted to IMAX; I didn’t really see it using the strengths of the IMAX Dome format. From there I visited the aquarium, apparently the largest in Europe. It’s a large open area with various buildings spread out containing the pools and aquariums, with also a few pools outside. With regards to size it did seem larger than many others – my impression is that aquariums usually are contained within one large building with limited outside areas. A large part of the out door space was taken up by the dolphin show stage, and lots of cafes and restaurants. Nothing bad per se but overall it didn’t feel as good as advertised. It felt a bit like quantity over quality. 

I left and continued trotting around town before finding a place for dinner. I managed to finish in a timely manner so I returned to the IMAX Dome to watch the “Secrets of the Universe” which sounded promising and that it would compensate for the disappointing experience I had with the Amazon movie. It turned out to be a dry CERN documentary about when they tried, according to the sceptics, to create a black hole and flashbacks to scientists who made big & important discoveries. The headphones had various languages, but they mounted on your head in a way they didn’t sit close to your ears which meant that you could actually hear the sound from others’ headphones, all different languages. Also, there was a delay of almost a second between the visuals and audio which made it so much more frustrating. 

I had hoped to watch something that made me forget the previous movie – instead the second movie made the first so much better.

9th – 11th – Post race and going home

Having arrived back at the hotel and showered (thankfully I didn’t have a bathtub so I could just walk into the shower without having to lift my legs) I splayed out on the bed and moved as little as possible until it was time for dinner. I waddled along until I arrived at a restaurant where I could get (another) Chicago style pizza. Disgustingly beautiful. While the previous pizza I had had been 6 inches and for one, they didn’t have anything smaller than 12 inches here. Oh, well, the sacrifices you must endure on vacation. Unfortunately this was a challenge I couldn’t handle and had to leave a quarter of it. And I even skipped dessert! 

Returning to the hotel I managed to arrange a late checkout which could not be any later than noon. This meant that I’d still have time to kill before returning to the airport to catch my flight at 2200, and I wasn’t planning on spending most of the afternoon at the airport. 

Cars lining up for the Columbus Day parade.

Leaving the hotel at noon I deposited my bag and hobbled about for a few hours around town without any real purpose other than trying to get my legs moving normally again. I ended up going back to the hotel and spend an hour in the reception relaxing before retrieving my bag and leaving for the airport.

Check-in was quick and efficient but security not so much. Long queue and only two security stations tested your patience, but finally getting through the lounge turned out to be located literally across the hall so that was easy to find. It was probably the smallest lounge I have ever been in a very limited selection of food, and if you had to use the toilet you had to leave and find one somewhere else in the airport.

Apart from that everything went smooth – we took off on time, the flight was uneventful and arriving in Copenhagen arrival was perfectly timed with the trains so I was back home only 1,5 hours later.

Full album can be see here.

9th – Chicago marathon

My alarm went off at 0530 (I do this voluntarily…) but it was made easier by me waking up a few minutes before. I stumbled about for a bit and got ready – the temps were just a few degrees above 0 but I decided to skip long pants over my shorts and settled with a shirt and jacket to stay warm. Walking the 20 minutes to the starting area I found my choice of clothing wasn’t completely off, though my legs did notice the lack of covering.

I had expected it to be similar to the starting area for the New York marathon where you could get snacks, light food and various drinks (and dogs to pet!), but there was just water filling stations, the bag check tents and porta potties. Considering the size of the arrangement it just seemed a bit lazy to not have anything. Though I do seem to remember the NY starting area being bigger so they had room for more, I still think there’d be room for various booths here. Oh, well.

Around 0700 it was time to get rid of my warm clothes and hand in my bag, and wearing only my running shorts and t-shirt I really got to feel this morning temperature. Definitely close to freezing. I got stuck in the queue to a porta potty for 20 minutes (why is it that outdoor urinals are never used in the US? Is it really such a taboo to pee even if no one’s able to see your penis?! If you take out your penis to pee and nobody sees it, is it still sexual assault?).

After the long and cold wait I shuffled over to my starting corral and realized with absolute – sarcastic – joy that the pacers were carrying a small sign on a stick in their hand. So also here you completely lost sight of the pacers only a few meters away, and none of them were able to hold their arm out to keep the sign elevated for even a short while before the sign was swinging all over the place out of sight. The corral closed at 0745 and as the first wave were sent off we were slowly shuffled forward until it was our turn to stand at the starting line. And, as scheduled, at 0800 we were sent off.

The first 5km was spent going a bit back and forth in the center of the city before heading north, passing among other things the zoo. At the 8 mile mark (app. 13km) we did a u-turn and returned towards the center where we hit the mid-way point before turning west, another u-turn at around 25km with a few kilometers return before turning south until just past the 37km mark where we once again turned around and headed back north, into the center and finishing in the opposite end of the park from where we started, another marathon done.

Photo by MarathonFoto.

While it was cold waiting for the run to start it was clear it had already started heating up at that point (either that or I was slowly loosing all sensation in my body from the cold) making it more comfortable standing around. After the start it took a few hours for the temps to reach around 15-17°C making the entire thing much more bearable. It was also quite windy throughout the run, and while the buildings shielded us from the worst part, when we did get hit directly by it, it lowered the temperatures quite significantly.

Photo by MarathonFoto.

As with the previous runs in the US the support along the way was impressive for the majority of the course. There were parts where we ran “alone”, but when people were lined up there was a lot of energy among them. And I bet there will be a few worn-out vocal cords tomorrow; I’m impressed by the volume some of them were able to produce! A lot of great encouraging posters: “Blisters are braille for awesome”, “At least you’re not at work”, “World’s worst parade” and “You have stamina – call me!”. The latter I saw first fairly early on and having not seen that poster before I instinctively gave the girl (young woman?) holding a quick smile – and passing her and her friend I heard a shy giggling and “did you see that guy??”. Short interactions with the onlookers can be fun.

Photo by MarathonFoto.

There was also multiple posters warning against trusting farts during the run and puckering up instead. Last turn before the finish line, 400m to go, I gained on someone who was running funny. Which, for the record, a lot of people were doing at this point. Having noticed him and returned to my normal empty “who’s idea was this please let it be over soon”-gaze my mind started churning; “he’s struggling hard, legs also covered in mud, wait – when did we run through mud, that isn’t… sniff-sniff… that isn’t mud at all!”. Poor guy. Didn’t pay attention to the posters. I just hope it had only happened recently.

Glad it was over.

Photo by MarathonFoto.

I crossed the finish line in 3:58:02. This put me as no. 14033 out of 39301 total (top 35,71%), 9712 out of 20844 men (top 46,59%) and 1796 out of 3488 M4044 (top 51,49%). For Danish runners I came in 55 out of 101 total (top 54,46%), 46 out of 78 men (top 58,97%) and 9 out of 15 M4044 (top 60%). I had hoped for a new PR (sub-3:55:34) considering the flat course but at around 25-30km it was as if my body started realizing what it was being put through and started complaining so I was suddenly facing a massive mental hurdle. Combined with the two half marathons 1 and 3 weeks ago (the latter being a new PR)  I was happy with getting in below 4 hours. But crossing the finish line everything below my waist just felt like overcooked noodles. A few steps past the line I had slowed down and started zig-zagging, having to lean against a fence to not topple over. A volunteer came over and grabbed my arm – I reassured her I was ok but just needed a moment to recover, thinking that she would tell me to sit down. Instead she reached into her pocket and grabbed a water bottle which she shoved into my hand and ordered me to drink. Apparently I was pretty thirsty – it disappeared in only a few gulps. The water, that is, not the bottle.

I waddled slowly on, collected drinks, snacks and my medal before I lined up to get my bag. From there I slowly started towards my hotel, wincing every time I was faced with a curb or even worse: stairs. It took almost two hours for me to be back in my hotel room after crossing the finish line, a walk that under normal circumstances would probably have taken half an hour or so. 

The slower pace was definitely because of traffic and the large crowds making it hard to move around.

Definitely.