Swedish midsummer...

Suddenly summer disappeared almost as fast as it struck us and along with the cold weather came midsummer week with summerparty at the daycare and after strawberry cake with two happy girls.

And Midsummer Eve was no better weather-wise; windy, chilly and cold. But that doesn't really matter when you spend it in good company with good food and drinks, happy children and lot's of laughter. And of course with the Swedish flag raised...

The traditionally lunch: pickled herring, new potatoes and the Swedish "nubbe" - wihoooo!

Now we're counting down for vacation, in less than a week we're leaving for Canada!!!

Back to the roots...

After another hectic week the girls and me took of to Värmland on Friday. We hit the road early and arrived in my hometown just before lunchtime. I had a date with my former colleague and boss at my first job at Karlskoga hospital. Entering this place makes me feel sentimental and happy, here I took the first steps in my career, I started my research and this is also the place where Andréa was born little over three years ago. This was a fantastic place to have as a first workplace and I learned so much and have so many good memories a lot thanks to this special and amazing woman:

After a nice lunch at the hospital we went to my sisters place where we stayed the whole weekend. We spent time with the family, ate good food, watched the kids play and enjoyed each others company. On Saturday we visited "Lunedet". We had a lovely lunch, the girls and my mother played in the park and the girls tried out the water temperature... A bit to cold for the mothers though...

Now we're home again, tired but happy. Lovisa just fell asleep way to late and the reason for that is according to herself "when you've had so much fun a whole weekend it's impossible to just fall asleep!". Maybe so but I don't think it's going to be a problem for me...

Alone at last...

I really took this weekend of from all exercising and healthy stuff. This weekend's been all about eating and drinking good, socializing, enjoying the lovely summer and actually sleeping... Well at least a little bit...

H and I have been talking about that it's high time that we do something just him and me, I actually don't remember last time we were on a date. So I asked my dad if he and his wife could babysit Saturday evening so H and me could go out for supper. I was a bit surprised when dad suggested that they could come over and spend the night so we could get not only a supper alone but a supper, a night and a breakfast alone! So we booked this hotel and checked in Saturday afternoon. After checking in we took the metro to Karlaplan and had a nice glass of whine with cheese at "Bar a vins" which actually is a name that works in both Swedish and French. The nice owner was very French indeed and claimed he knew Birgit Bardot personally...

After that we strolled through Stockholm and were amazed how beautiful our capital is this time of the year. We had very tasty sushi at "Råkultur" and after that we continued our stroll stopping at a few more bars, talking, looking at people and enjoying each others company. Because if it's something we tend to forget in our busy life it's just that, to enjoy each other. 

This morning after a good nights sleep we stuffed ourselves with hotel breakfast while talking about how much we missed the girls... When we got home a couple of hours later we realized that it was probably not mutual since they had a lovely time with dad and his wife, they slept the whole night through in their own beds and they had marshmallows for breakfast (!).

Now enough with the sloth - tomorrow it's Monday and I'm running to work - wohoooo!

May check-up and the days after Stockholm marathon.

I felt like a winner all week despite hurting legs and the fact that I walked more or less like I pooped in my pants all Monday... Monday morning I put on my finisher t-shirt (everyone that finishes Stockholm marathon gets a "finisher t-shirt", a nice souvenir) and cycled to work, a bit slower than usual but it was nice to use my legs again... I've been more hungry than usual and I've had a specific craving for salty stuff. My Garmin tells me I spent 2748 calories during the marathon and that's more than a woman my age needs during a whole day and night so I guess I need to fuel up... Today I went for a very slow 5 km run and it felt great, my legs hurt a little bit but nothing to painful really... 

So here's my running so far during 2014:

January: 104 km

February: 139,2 km

March: 204,2 km, cycling 14,9 km

April: 178,1 km, cycling 267,6 km

May: 244 km, cycling 237,3 km

Total: 869,6 running and 519,8 km cycling

I'm so happy about the month of May. My first marathon in 3:53:58 and I'm all in one piece. Thank you dear body of mine. 

Stockholm marathon 2014

The big day was finally here, it was the last day of May and the race of all races which I've been training for the whole spring was about to start. I had had a bad throat for a few days but this morning it was magically gone, I felt fine even though my heart was beating fast and my body was ancious... The weather seemed pretty good for a marathon, light rain, 12 degrees and it was suppose to get warmer... A lot warmer... After a big breakfast with oatmeal, egg and a sandwich I was ready!

I took the bus to the metro only to discover that I forgot my GPS-clock, my Garmin that I can't run without (well I physically can but it keeps track of everything for me and I feel handicapped without it...) so it was just to turn around to get it. That made me a bit stressed out so I took the cycle to the metro and had to waste some energy on cycling! Very annoying... But after that I made it to Stadion and walked along with thousands of other runners to Östermals IP... I left my clothes and valuables and headed of  to my startgroup - F where I peed for the third time in one hour... Just before the start the atmosphere was magic, from different cultures and countries we were all here to run 42195 meters and even if we were competitors it felt more like we were teammates. The shot went off and so did we! It's something extraordinary when 21000 runners to the beat of discomusic takes of! Picture borrowed from Stockholm marathon webbpage:

The first 10 km was so easy, actually to easy because I ran a bit to fast but it was so nice going with the flow... I promised myself to drink water at every waterstation and so I did. The first hour went by in 53:09. The next 10 km went fairly easy to and around 20 km we reached "Gärdet" and it was there I had my first difficulty. My right thigh started to hurt and it was a pain I didn't recognize and it hurt so much that I from time to time thought that this might be a serious injury that could force me to abort... I reached 21,1 km, halftime, in 1:53:25. I tried to focus away from the pain even though this part of the track slowly reaching Djurgården was tough. It seemed like everyone had something of a melt down and ran slower, a guy beside me throw up and another one got a cramp forcing him to stop... But I knew that H and girls were suppose to stand somewhere around here and I was searching and searching and when I was close to the bridge over to Strandvägen I almost lost hope of seeing them at all and all of a sudden I hear somebody screaming my name and there they were! Go, go, go!!! I waved and ran on with new energy and the evil pain in my thigh seemed to get weaker as the rest of my legs started to hurt more and more around 30 km. Around 32 km I was curious, I never ran further than 32,2 km and had no idea how my body would react. And everyone say that a marathon starts at 30 km... People around me seemed to give up one by one and a lot of other runners started to walk. But I kept on running a bit annoyed by others in my way and I had no real energy to "elbow" my way forward... So the last 10 km went slower and slower... Around 35 km a colleague of mine suddenly appered screaming and cheering me on and it gave me energy to run faster for a while. It's funny how much support helps when you're close to exhaustion... The water stations were getting messy, people were tired and threw paper cups all over the place... And I had a hard time getting my pace back after each water stop, my legs feeling like logs...

Just after 40 km my boss stood in a street corner cheering me on and that and some dextrose kept me going the last kilometer. As we got closer to Stadion the audience cheering was increasing and it carried me the last meters. When we entered Stockholm Stadion, built for the Olympics 1912, it was with tears in my eyes that I ran, yes RAN, over the finish line. A lot of runners around me cried, moaned or just smiled. Plenty of emotions all mixed together. My time 3 hours 53 minutes and 58 seconds. I can't believe I ran for so long, it felt more like 1,5 hours... When we entered Östermalms IP to get our personal things, goodiebags and our finisher t-shirt we had to go down a few steps and everyone, including big muscled men, moaned in pain! 

I thought I was feeling pretty good but I was definitely a bit confused and managed to spill Pepsi over my envelope with valuables, so I emptied the envelope, or so I thought, and threw it away. Only to find out when I was on my way home on the metro that I also threw the keys to the cycle away. The cycle stayed at the metro station and I took the bus home. Where I was celebrated like a real hero!



Today my legs are hurting and I've been trying my best to avoid stairs. I've been constantly hungry and H made me a real Canadian breakfast to refuel...



My feet are OK, I heard horror stories about loosing all toenail after a Marathon but all I got was a tiny blister...



And life goes on, the girls doesn't care much about my hurting legs so it's just to keep going. I made it through my first marathon and I actually enjoyed the majority of it. Somebody once said that giving birth is like running a marathon. That's just a load of crap if you ask me, running a marathon was like a walk in the park in comparison. So I might just do it again.





I got the cycle today and it was all in one piece. Luckily we had an extra key for the lock. I managed to cycle all the way home (little over one kilometer) despite aching legs. And when I unpacked my backpack just minutes ago I found the key that I thought I threw away. I must have thrown it in there and forgotten about it and on the metro I didn't find them because I was to tired to do a proper search. So a little bit of confusion but no harm done. Goodnight!