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!