On October 18th, I ran the Ljubljana Marathon. Ljubljana is the capital of Slovenia, which became an independent country in 1991 after the Ten-Day War of independence from Yugoslavia.
Thursday, October 15
I arrived in Amsterdam
Thursday morning on an overnight flight.
I had a long layover before my second flight, so I didn’t get to
Ljubljana until the afternoon. As the
plane was approaching the city, I was struck by the contrast between the city
and the surrounding area. The city is
located in a wide flat valley, but it’s surrounded by mountains.
My hotel was near the
city center. I met someone who was on
the same flights and was staying at the same hotel. He had a rental car, and he gave me a ride to
the hotel.
After checking in, I went
for a run through Tivoli Park, which is a large city park just west of the city
center. I had to run half a mile on
crowded sidewalks to get to the park.
After that, I was running on gravel trails.
As soon as I entered the
park, I discovered that the city streets may be mostly flat, but the park
isn’t. Some of the hills in the park were
so steep that I had to take walking breaks.
I probably could have taken a less hilly route, but I chose a route that
went by certain landmarks. The main ones
were the Memorial for the 1991 War for Slovenia, the Church of Virgin Mary's
Visitation, and a nearby chapel in the woods.
From up on the hill, I
occasionally had views of the city.
I was intending to go
back the way I came, but I made a wrong turn somewhere. My route back ended up being less
direct. My run was both longer and hillier
than I planned, but it was a good workout.
I had dinner at a nearby
pizzeria. I’ve now had pizza in 62
countries.
I started coming down
with a cold earlier in the week. My
symptoms were mild, but I didn’t get much sleep Monday or Tuesday. I didn’t sleep at all on my overnight
flight. By the time I went to bed on
Thursday, I was desperate to get some sleep.
I had no trouble getting to sleep, but I woke up a few hours later, and
it took a long time to get back to sleep.
Friday, October 16
I didn’t have to set an
early alarm. The only reason I set an
alarm at all was to make sure I didn’t sleep through too much of the morning. I was awake at 6:00 and dragged myself out of
bed when my alarm went off at 7:00.
I had a leisurely breakfast
at the hotel. Then I went to the expo,
which was held at the Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Center. That was just a short walk from my hotel.
This was a large
event. They had a 5K and 10K on Saturday
and a marathon and half marathon on Sunday.
Altogether, there were more than 21,000 runners from 84 different
countries. The expo was comparable in
size to major marathons. Besides my race
bib and T-shirt, my race packet included a backpack.
In the early afternoon, I
took a free walking tour, where the tour guides work for tips. Our meeting point was Congress Square, which is
the same place where the marathon finished.
From there, you can see Ljubljana Castle.
We spent two hours
walking through the old city center.
Here are a few of the sights I saw along the way.
After my walking tour, I
went for another run through Tivoli Park.
This time, I stayed close to the perimeter of the park, so I could avoid
the steep hills.
During my walking tour,
the guide suggested some local foods to try, and he also recommend a restaurant
near the market. I went there for
dinner. He also recommended trying
pumpkin soup, so I started with that.
For my entrée, I ordered the beef stew with bread dumplings. The server was excited that I ordered that. When he brought it, he said that was an
excellent decision.
Saturday, October 17
The hotel restaurant was
on the top floor. While I ate breakfast,
I could see that it was another cloudy morning.
I spent the morning at the hotel.
After the fog had
(mostly) lifted, I hiked up the hill to Ljubljana Castle. The highlight of the castle is the viewing
tower. From there, you can see the whole
city. This is the view looking toward
Tivoli Park. You can also see the finish
line next to Congress Square. Look for the red and blue carpets.
While I was there, I saw
runners finishing one of the Saturday races.
I’m not sure if it was the 5K or the 10K.
On my way back from the
castle, I walked through the marketplace, which is busiest on Saturdays.
Last April, I was
introduced to a runner who is doing something extraordinary. Mike is a pilot, and he’s spending 26 weeks
flying all over Europe and North Africa in his own plane. Every weekend, he’s running a marathon in a
different country. This weekend, he ran
the Ljubljana Marathon.
Mike arrived in Ljubljana
on Saturday. After he picked up his race
packet, we got together for drinks at a local beer bar. Then we had dinner together.
I didn’t have any cold
symptoms when I went to bed, so I thought I was getting over my cold. I had never been too congested to be able to
breathe through my nose. A few hours after
going to bed, I woke up, and my mouth was dry.
My nose was stuffed up, so I was breathing through my mouth. I got back to sleep, but I knew I wasn’t over
the cold yet.
Sunday, October 18
Sunday was race day. The race didn’t start until 9:00, so I had
the luxury of eating breakfast before the race.
The weather was similar
to my last two races. It was about 45
degrees at the start, and I expected it to get up to about 60 by the time I
finished. For the third straight day, it
was foggy.
The race started along a
street that goes right by my hotel. I
only had to walk a few blocks to get to the starting line, but I had to walk
much farther to get to where I needed to line up.
They had five start zones
(corrals). I was assigned to zone D,
which was for runners expecting a time between 3:45 and 4:00. Mike was also in zone D, and we made plans to
meet at the back of zone D.
When the race started, it
took a while for everyone in front of us to start moving. Then we gradually started moving
forward. After walking for several
minutes, we finally reached the back of start zone C. We still couldn’t see the starting line. In all, it took 16 minutes to get there.
We expected to the first
mile to be slow, because of congestion.
In fact, the runners ahead of started running before they reached the
starting line, and they spread out quickly.
Mike has been
consistently running times in the 3:50s.
With my cold, I didn’t think I could run that fast.
We decided to run
together at first, but at some point, I would need to slow down, and Mike would
go on ahead. His goal was to finish is
less than four hours. To do that, he
needed an average pace of 5:40 per kilometer, which is about 9:09 per mile.
We ran the first mile in
9:38. I didn’t feel like I could go much
faster than that without wearing myself out.
I thought my limit was probably about 9:30 per mile.
Mike suggested that if we
ran the first half in 2:05, he could still speed up enough in the second half
to finish in four hours. That was out
tentative plan.
Because of the fog, the
streets were wet at first. It wasn’t
enough for the streets to feel slippery, but it was a reminder that the
humidity was high. We only ran a few
miles before I was able to take my gloves off.
After the first mile, we
ran faster. Whenever my watch gave me a
split, the pace was faster than 9:20. At
one point, we got as fast as 9:11. I
sensed that this pace would probably break me eventually, but I was hoping to
run with Mike for the first half of the race.
The first 12 kilometers
were through neighborhoods north and west of where we started. There were a lot of turns. Mike is good at running the tangents, and he
always noticed when there was a turn coming up.
He frequently told me we should angle toward that side of the street.
After about 12K, we
crossed through Tivoli Park. Unlike the
trails in the park, the road was reasonably flat. Going through the park, it no longer felt
like we were in the city. We were on a
two-lane road, with trees on both sides.
At 13K, I told Mike to go
ahead without me. Keeping up with him
was starting to take more effort. Mike
went on ahead, and I eased up a bit.
My first mile without
Mike wasn’t actually any slower. My pace
was 9:13. The difference was that I was
no longer pressing to keep up. I was a
little more relaxed.
I checked my time when I
got to the 15K mark. My pace between 10K
and 15K was actually a few second faster than it had been over the previous 5K.
After that, I gradually
slowed down. Over the next few miles, my
pace slowed to 9:24, then 9:36, then 9:40.
Earlier, Mike had
commented about how people cheer you in different ways in different
countries. Here, the two cheers I heard
the most were “Hup, hup, hup, hup” and “Bravo!’
There was another reason
I told Mike to go ahead. I felt like I
would need to make a bathroom stop at some point. At 17K, I saw a row of port-o-potties. Two of them were vacant, so I could have
stopped, but I was worried that I wouldn’t get back into the same rhythm. I didn’t have an urgent need to stop now, so
I decided to wait until the second half of the race.
Just before 20K, I reached
the point where the marathon and half marathon routes diverged. Runners doing the half marathon stayed on the
left side of the street and began running toward the finish, which was close to
where we started. Those of us doing the
marathon kept to the right. We
eventually turned to begin running through neighborhoods south and east of the
city center.
There were more runners
doing the half marathon. After the
split, the course was much less crowded.
I reached the halfway
point in 2:03:32. That’s faster than
Mike and I had planned to run the first half, even though I was slowing down
now.
As I began the second
half, I noticed my hands were getting cold.
It was several degrees warmer now, but it was overcast, and there was a
breeze. The breeze was all it took to
keep me feeling chilly.
I continued to slow
down. I tried to find a pace that
wouldn’t cause me to blow up, but I also didn’t want to just take it easy.
Around 23K, I saw more
port-o-potties. This time they were all
occupied, and couple runners were already waiting in line. I still didn’t have an urgent need, so I kept
running.
I had a couple miles as
slow as the 9:50s. Then I tried hard to
keep my pace from getting any slower than that.
At one point, a runner in
front of me dropped a gel packet. I
think it fell out of a pocket. She
didn’t seem to be aware she had dropped anything, so I stopped and picked it up. Then I had to pick up my pace to catch up to
her.
When I tried to hand her
the gel packet, she seemed confused. She
didn’t realize it was hers. She accepted
it from me, but she didn’t know why I was handing it to her.
Just then, I reached a
slightly downhill section. Because of
that, I kept going at a faster pace than before. That ended up being my fastest mile of the
second half.
With just over 10K to go,
the sun came out. My hands here still
cold, but it would take me at least another hour to finish the race. Now, I wondered if I would start to get hot.
At this point, I expected
to finish somewhere between 4:10 and 4:15.
If I could keep running at the same pace as my most recent mile, I could
break 4:10. Instead, I started to slow
down. For the first time, my pace was
slower than 10 minutes per mile, despite my best effort.
By now, I no longer had
any sense of where I was in relation to the city center. I was pretty sure this part of the course was
north of where we started, but I didn’t study the course map well enough to be
sure.
With 4 miles to go, I
really wanted to make a bathroom stop. I
didn’t just need to pee. Now, I also
felt pressure in my intestines. Stopping
would mean I’d probably be slower than 4:15.
If I saw a port-o-potty, I would’ve stopped, but I didn’t see any for
the rest of the race.
With 5K to go, I noticed
my hands were no longer cold. At this
point, however, I no longer needed to worry about getting hot. It wasn’t that far to go.
When I started to see
office buildings, I knew I was in the modern downtown area. That’s just north of the city center, where
we started.
With 3K to go, I started
to see barricades lining both sides of the street. Then I looked to my right and recognized a
building I had walked past on my way to the starting line. We were on the same street where we started,
but now we were running in the opposite direction. I had already run right past my hotel without
realizing it.
Ahead of me, I could see
the starting line, but we turned before we got there. We had to take a circuitous route to get to the
finish line. First, we ran west for two
blocks. Then we turned onto a street
that’s follows the eastern edge of Tivoli Park.
It seemed like were on
this street for a long time. We finally
turned at the 41K sign. Then we made
another turn at the same point where the marathon and half marathon had
diverged earlier. For the remainder of
the race, we followed the same route to the finish that the half marathon had
taken earlier.
I expected one more
turn. Instead, there were several. I lost my sense of direction. In wasn’t until after the last turn that I
could see the finish line ahead of me.
The approach to the
finish line was on a wide carpet. I think
that spared us from having to run on cobblestones. I was about 10 meters from the finish line
when I almost tripped on the carpet. I
crossed the line in 4:14:21.
After I finished, I was
met by an announcer at the finish line.
He looked at the name on my race bib and tried to figure out where I was
from. He assumed it was one of the Scandinavian
countries. I told him I was from the
United States, but my ancestry was Scandinavian. Then he turned on his microphone and
announced, “David Holmen just finished the marathon. He’s from the United States, but where is
your heart?” He turned the microphone
toward me, and I said, “My heart is in Slovenia.”
Just beyond the finish
line, there was a large screen that displayed the names and times of people who
just finished. I found my name, but the
time listed was 4:30:49. That was
obviously my “gun” time. It included the
16 minutes it took us to reach the starting line.
After turning the corner,
I received my finisher medal. The medal
design featured a dragon.
Earlier, I had walked
across a bridge that’s adorned with dragon statues. I’m not sure if it’s a symbol of the city or
a symbol of Slovenia.
Next, I received a
finisher T-shirt. That surprised me,
since I also received a T-shirt at the expo.
This one was a different color, and it said “Finisher.”
As I continued through
the finish area, I was met by Mike. He
had finished more than 20 minutes ahead of me, but he waited to greet me at the
finish.
A volunteer offered me a
bottle of water, but I could see just ahead where I could get a can of Heineken
0.0. Heineken was a sponsor of the
race. I couldn’t open the beer while
holding my T-shirt, so I wrapped the T-shirt behind my neck.
Mike walked with me most
of the way to my hotel, while I drank my beer.
By the time I got to the hotel, I realized the T-shirt was no longer
behind my neck. Somewhere along the way,
it had fallen off. At this point, I
wasn’t going to try to find it somewhere on the sidewalk. It was too crowded.
Later in the day, I met
Mike for an early dinner. We would’ve
gone to the same restaurant where I had dinner on Friday, but they weren’t open
yet. I knew there were other restaurants
with good local food near the town hall.
It didn’t take long to find a restaurant there that we both liked.
Monday, October 19
Flying home from Europe
is always difficult if you need to make a connection in a European hub. To have a workable connection, you generally
need to take a really early flight.
My flight to Amsterdam
departed at 6:00 AM. Ideally, I like to
arrive at an airport two hours before my flight, but the airport didn’t open
until 4:30 AM. Getting to the airport at
4:30 meant leaving my hotel at 4:00. To
be ready, I needed to be up by 3:00 AM.
Ugh. That’s not how you want to
start your day when you’re going to be travelling for 20 hours.
The good news is that my
flight to Amsterdam was on time. Now, I
have a long layover before my flight to Minneapolis.
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