Race Report: 2018 Chicago Marathon

On October 7th, I ran the Chicago Marathon.  I’ve done this marathon twice before.  I decided to return this year, because I had a qualifying time that gave me guaranteed entry.  I don’t know when I’ll be able to run that fast again, so I took the opportunity while I had it.

When I registered for this race, I wasn’t doing much running.  At the time, I was doing lots of power walking, and I was walking marathons as fast as I could.  The Chicago Marathon has a flat course, and I figured it would be a great place to try for a new walking PR.

As I started doing more running, it occurred to me that this race was within the qualification period for the 2020 Boston Marathon, and this is also a fast course for running.  I still had several months to get in shape for it, and this might be the fastest course I would run on in the next year.

In June, I surprised myself my running 3:35:56 at the Manitoba Marathon.  At the time, that was a Boston qualifier with four minutes to spare.  The qualifying standards are five minutes faster now, but it still put me within striking distance.  With almost four months left to train, I was optimistic I could qualify in Chicago.

A lot has happened since then.  At the beginning of July, I had a high hamstring injury.  That forced me to cut back on walking.  In particular, I couldn’t walk at a fast pace.  I eventually recovered from that, but I never got back to my previous walking mileage.  On the bright side, I was able to run about every other day, but my total mileage was still much lower than before.

In the next nine weeks, I had two 100 mile trail runs and a trail marathon.  My training for these was subdued and emphasized endurance over speed.  I kept telling myself I would make a big push to train for Chicago in the five weeks after my last trail race.  Then I came down with a cold.  I had such bad bronchitis that I couldn’t run or walk fast without having a coughing fit.

In the last two weeks, I finally started having some good runs.  It was too late to resurrect my mileage base, but I did some faster pace workouts.  I often threw in accelerations or ran hard for the last mile or two of a run.  I felt like I had more power in my stride than I’ve had in the last three years, but I worried that I had lost the mileage base that I had earlier in the year.

Finally, there was an elephant in the room that I was trying to ignore.  When I was walking 15-20 miles per week, I was losing weight.  In June, I was fairly lean.  After my mileage dropped, I was too slow to adjust my eating habits, so I gained some weight.  It wasn’t a huge weight gain, but it was enough to add 10 minutes to my marathon time.  I can’t afford to give away 10 minutes.

Despite all of this, I was determined to at least try to qualify for Boston.  I wasn’t optimistic, but I felt I had nothing to lose by trying.

I had enough Hilton points to get two free nights at the Hilton Chicago.  The location couldn’t have been any more convenient.  It’s right next to Grant Park, where the marathon starts and finishes.  It’s also one of the places where you can board a bus to the expo at McCormick Place.

The flight from Minneapolis to Chicago is relatively short.  I left Saturday morning and was expecting to arrive in time for lunch.  Because of flight delays, I didn’t arrive until noon.  I still had to take a train into downtown and then walk the rest of the way to the Hilton.  By the time I checked in and unpacked a few things, it was already 1:30.  I had been hoping to have lunch at Lou Malnati’s, but I ended up skipping lunch and going straight to the expo instead.

It felt a bit weird not arriving in Chicago until the day before the race.  For many years, that was my norm.  I arrived the day before the race and went home the day after the race.  What made it feel weird this time is that most of my friends arrived at least a day earlier.  There’s a lot of hoopla surrounding this race, and people wanted to get to the expo on Thursday or Friday.  Also, some of them ran in the 5K race Saturday morning.  Arriving on Saturday may also have felt weird because my last few trips were either international races or 100 mile trail runs, so I needed to arrive earlier.

The first order of business when I arrived at the expo was to pick up my race packet.  I had to walk to the other end of the expo hall to get my T-shirt.

After picking up my race packet, I took the time to visit a few of the vendors.  One of my stops was the Marathon Tours & Travel booth, where they were giving out rain ponchos.  Unfortunately, demand was high and they ran out before I got there.

I also stopped at the Abbott World Marathon Majors booth.  The Chicago Marathon is one of the six marathons that make up the World Marathon Majors.  The others are the Boston, London, Berlin, New York City, and Tokyo marathons.  This series was originally created to encourage more elite athletes to enter these races.  They could earn additional prize money by placing highly in multiple races within the series over a two year period.  Since its creation, this series has also become a bucket list for middle-of-the-pack athletes who want to travel and run each of the majors at least once.

Abbott Laboratories, which has sponsored the series since 2015, has promoted this idea by providing finisher certificates and medals to runners who finish all size races. They also display the names of all “six star finishers” on a wall at the expo.  I finished this series two years ago, so my name is now listed on the wall.

After getting back to the hotel, I stopped by The Berghoff Restaurant to have a beer with my friend Sandy and her friend Shelly.  Sandy and Shelly were both in town to volunteer at one of the aid stations.  They had live entertainment, and I think there was a wedding party.

I had dinner at Gino’s East.  This is one of the best Chicago-style pizza restaurants, but I had never been there before.  I had their spinach Margherita pizza.  For future reference, a nine inch deep dish pizza is a lot for one person to eat.

Did I mention it felt weird arriving the day before the race?  After dinner, I realized the race was already the next morning, and I didn’t have my clothes organized yet.  I hurriedly set out everything I needed in the morning and then got to bed as early as I could.

I slept well at first, but my sleep got more and more restless as it got closer to morning.  I was already awake before my alarm went off.  I still felt full from my big dinner at Gino’s East.  I didn’t feel like eating breakfast, but I felt like I should eat something, so I had a small energy bar from my race packet.

When I got up, it was raining lightly.  Looking at the hourly forecast, it was hard to predict if it would still be raining during the race.  The chance of rain was hovering right around 50% for most of the morning.

It was 60 degrees by the time I left the hotel, and it had stopped raining.  I wore shorts and a singlet in case it stayed dry for the whole race.  I had a plastic rain poncho folded up in my fanny pack, and I also had a light jacket tied around my waist, in case the rain came back.

The race was divided into three waves.  Each wave had several start corrals.  I was assigned to the first wave, which started at 7:30.  The packet I received recommended arriving in the start area at 5:30.  I wasn’t planning to check a gear bag, so I waited until 6:45 to leave the hotel.  It only took a few minutes to get to the gate I was supposed to use to enter the start village, but there was a huge traffic jam trying to get through the security checkpoint.  At least two thirds of the runners had gear bags to check, and each bag had to be inspected at the security checkpoint.

After several minutes with very little movement in the line, a volunteer encouraged those of us in the back to move to a different gate.  I couldn’t even get within sight of that gate before we once again came to a standstill.  I went back to the first gate and waited at the back of the long line.

By the time I got through security it was 7:13.  The race started at 7:30.  More importantly, they close the entrance to the start corrals at 7:20.  I only had seven minutes and a lot of ground to cover.  I ran a good portion of the way, and got into my corral just before they closed it.

All runners try to poop before a race.  Running is like a laxative.  If there’s anything in your digestive system, it’s going to come out when you run.  I went to the bathroom at the hotel, but apparently, I didn’t get everything out.  While I was rushing to get to my start corral, I felt rumblings in my digestive system.  There was no way I was going to make it through this race without a bathroom stop.

About five minutes before the start, they announced some of the elite athletes, with emphasis on those who have won majors or Olympic medals.  I loved it when they said that Yuki Kawauchi, who won the Boston Marathon this year, has broken 2:20 in more than 80 marathons.

I didn’t hear the start, but after the first corral started, the other corrals started moving forward.  I eventually crossed the starting line about seven minutes after the leaders.

As I started running, I tried to set a pace that was brisk, but plausibly sustainable.  The early miles have four sharp turns as we wound back and forth through the downtown streets.  I reached the one mile mark in 8:03.  To qualify for Boston, I needed to average 8:12.  To have a fast enough time to actually get me into Boston, I needed to average about 8:10.  An 8:03 mile was a little bit fast, but not outrageous.

I originally planned to skip the first water stop, since I expected it to be crowded, and I wanted to establish a good rhythm.  By the time I got there, I was sweating.  The alternative to rain was high humidity.  If it didn’t rain, I might need to take in a lot of fluids, to I changed my mind and grabbed a cup of Gatorade.

I ran the second mile in 8:00 even.  The pace felt tiring, so I eased up a bit in the third mile.  I ended up running that one in 8:06.

By now, I was noticing a few drops of rain.  It was never a big deal, and it stopped raining after a few minutes.

Just before the second aid station, they had a long row of port-o-potties.  I didn’t know how much longer I could hold out, and I could make a bathroom stop here without having to wait in line.  I hated to stop, but I knew I had no choice.  I took my time and made sure I was emptied out, so I wouldn’t have to stop again.  I was off the course for three or four minutes before I resumed running.  I knew I couldn’t make up that much time.  I no longer had any chance of qualifying for Boston.  On the bright side, I felt much better.

This was the aid station where Sandy and Shelly were volunteering.  I was able to spot Sandy and stopped to say hello.

Because of my long bathroom stop, I was now much further back in the pack.  The people around me were running a slower pace than the people I started with.  With effort, I could try to resume my old pace, but I didn’t see much point.  It’s unlikely that pace was sustainable, and there was no longer any good reason to try.  I adopted the pace of the people around me.  For the next several miles, I averaged around 8:30 per mile.  Even that pace felt slightly tiring.

I’m not as familiar with this course as I am with the Boston Marathon.  I know the general layout, and I recognize some streets, but at other times I follow the other runners without knowing which street I’m on.  About five miles into the race, I recognized a familiar bend in the road.  This was just before we ran past the Lincoln Park Zoo.

After another mile, it started raining again.  It wasn’t a heavy rain, but I was getting fairly wet.  I considered adding another layer, but I didn’t want to stop again.  I decided to wait and see if this was just a passing shower.

After another mile, I started noticing a cold wind.  The wind was out of the northeast, and I was on a long section that heads north out of downtown.  I was going partially into the wind, and the combination of wind and wet clothes made me start getting cold.  I knew we would turn around after another mile, so I continued to hang in there.

At eight miles, I made two quick turns and started heading south again.  Now I didn’t notice the wind as much.  Before long, it also stopped raining.

I was still averaging about 8:30 per mile, but I wanted to slow down.  This pace, while not as fast as my early pace, still took an effort.  The pace seemed sustainable, but I didn’t want sustainable.  I wanted to slow down until the pace felt easy.  Without a tangible time goal, my heart just wasn’t in it any more.  I kept running the same pace, but only because the people around me were going that pace.  If I was by myself, I’m sure I would have slowed down.

I reached the halfway mark in 1:52:26.  I was already five minutes behind a Boston qualifying pace, although the bathroom stop accounted for three or four minutes of that.  Now we were going through downtown again.

Next, we headed west out of downtown.  The second half of the course goes through several ethnic neighborhoods.  The crowds here are usually good.  I also like the unique character of each neighborhood.  It reminds me of running through Brooklyn during the New York City Marathon.

In large races, I always see spectators holding signs.  Some are familiar slogans you see all the time, like “Worst parade ever” or “You’re running better than our government.”  Sometimes I see something original.  At 14 miles, I saw someone holding a sign that read, “It could, be worse.  863 miles to Wall Drug.”  What I liked most about that sign is that it was along a stretch where we were actually running in that direction.

I was surprised to see a 3:35 pace group pass me.  I was surprised because I had been running slower than that pace since my bathroom stop.  Then I realized they started in the second wave, so I had a head start on them.  They finally made up the difference between the start times of the first two waves.

As we crossed a bridge, I heard one of the pace leaders tell his group, “This is Chicago’s version of Heartbreak Hill.”   This is a fairly flat course.  The only hills are bridges and underpasses.  This particular bridge was barely a hill at all, but that’s what passes for a hill on this course.

By now it was raining again.  At first, it was just a few drops.  By the time I got to 15 miles, it was a steady rain.  Now I was really getting wet.

As we turned and headed back towards downtown, I felt the wind again.  Now I was getting cold too.  I knew in about two miles, we would turn to head south.  Then the wind wouldn’t be so bad.  I tried to focus on that.

At 16 miles, I noticed a funny feeling inside one of my shoes.  My insole was slipping to one side of my shoe.  This is one of the reasons I don’t like running in the rain.  I rarely have insole problems in dry conditions, but this is a common problem when my shoes get wet.  It was only going to get worse, and I still had 10 miles to go.

Looking ahead, I should have had a good view of the Willis Tower, but it was shrouded in fog.  I wasn’t optimistic that the rain would end any time soon.  I braced myself for 10 uncomfortable miles.  In the distance, I saw the “17” sign.  I knew we would turn just after that.

The crowds were sparse on a section of the course where they’re normally boisterous.  The rain was driving people indoors.  In the next mile, we went under two bridges.  There were crowds of spectators under the bridges.  It was the only place they could stay dry while watching the race.

After about 19 miles, the rain stopped.  It stayed dry for the rest of the race.  Looking at my watch, I thought I could run negative splits if I maintained the same pace the rest of the way.  Since the halfway mark, I had been running about 10 seconds per mile slower, but the first half of the race included that long bathroom stop.

At 20 miles, it still seemed like I could run negative splits, but I needed to get back to running 8:30s.

At 21 miles, I had a rude awakening.  I slowed down to almost nine minutes in that mile.  At that pace, I couldn’t run negative splits.

Now I was running through Chinatown.  Here the crowds were fantastic.  It helped that the rain had stopped.  I was picking up my effort in an attempt to get my pace back to 8:30.  The crowd support helped.

I ran the 22nd mile in 8:30, but realized I still had no chance of running negative splits, even if I could keep up that pace.  I finally realized that I kept telling myself I had 7, 6, or 5 miles to go, when I actually had 7.2, 6.2, or 5.2 miles to go.

With about three miles to go, the toes of one foot started to feel numb.  Could my feet be that cold?  I no longer felt cold overall, now that the rain had stopped, but my shoes were still soaking wet.

After another mile I realized what I was feeling.  The insole in that shoe had slipped so far forward it was bunched up underneath my toes.  It got increasingly painful.  I needed to tune it out for two more miles.

For most of the race, I had a good feel for where I was, but in the late miles I lost my sense of direction.  I really didn’t know where I was until I noticed we were running north along Michigan Avenue.  That’s the street that goes alongside Grant Park.  It’s also the street that the Hilton is on.

I started watching the street signs.  The Hilton is at the corner of Michigan and 8th.  I was at Michigan and 24th.  I told myself I had 16 short blocks to go.  That wasn’t quite true.  Before reaching the Hilton, I would turn on Roosevelt and then enter Grant Park from the south.  The distance was about the same, so I still counted down to 8.

I saw the 41 kilometer sign, and realized I had 1200 meters to go.  That’s the equivalent of three laps around a track.  I wondered if I could estimate what 400 meters looks like on a straight road.  I didn’t have to.  There was an 800 meters to go sign.

When I reached Roosevelt, I turned right to cross one last bridge before entering Grant Park.  If there’s a bridge that’s Chicago’s Heartbreak Hill, this is it.  It comes when you’re out of gas.

On the bridge, I passed the 400 meters to go sign.  Then I saw the 26 miles sign.  Finally, I made the left turn into Grant Park and saw the finish line.  I got there in 3:47:05.  I ran positive splits by just over two minutes.  That’s not bad for a race where I gave up in the first half.

The first thing they hand you after you finish is a water bottle.  I didn’t really need that.  Next, they give you your finisher medal.  It had a design similar to the T-shirt.

Then they wrap you in a space blanket and tape it in place, so your hands are still free.  After that, there are various snacks, and finally, the beer table.  One of the sponsors is Goose Island Brewing Company.  They had a new beer in a souvenir can.

Because of open container laws, I had to finish the beer before I could leave the park.  There are police at the exits who make sure you either finisher your beer or dump it before leaving.  Then I walked back to the Hilton.  From where I exited the park, it was only a block and a half.  It is absolutely the most convenient hotel for this race.

After getting cleaned up and eating a few of the post-race snacks, I eventually joined other members of a World Marathon Majors Challenge group for a post-race party at Tilted Kilt.  They were originally going to meet in Grant Park, but changed the location, because the ground in Grant Park was getting too soggy.  After having another beer and exchanging a few stories, I headed back to the Hilton.

Later, I had post-race pizza at Giordano’s.  This is stuffed pizza, which is different from deep dish pizza.  I couldn’t leave Chicago without having both.

I missed a BQ by just over 12 minutes.  The bathroom stop accounts for at least three minutes of that.  You could probably add another minute or two for heavy wet shoes.  That still leaves me several minutes short of the time I need for a BQ.  It’s going to take a lot of training to take off that much time.  If I could lose the weight I gained over the summer, that alone might be enough.  That might take even more training.  I’ve never been able to lose weight through diet alone.  It takes diet and lots of exercise.  Either way, I don’t see myself getting that BQ this year.  I’m going to have to try again in the spring – possibly in Boston.

Race Statistics

Distance:  26.2 miles

Time:  3:47:05

Average Pace:  8:40 

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  358

World Marathon Majors:  16

Race Report: 2018 Skovløberen Marathon

On September 2nd, I ran the Skovløberen Marathon in Hvalsø, Denmark.  This is a trail marathon on the island of Zealand.  Skovløberen translates roughly to “forest runner.”

For years, I’ve wanted to visit Copenhagen, but the Copenhagen Marathon never fit into my schedule.  Hvalsø is close enough to Copenhagen that I could combine this race with a Copenhagen vacation.

Thursday, August 30

I arrived in the afternoon, after an overnight flight to Amsterdam and an afternoon flight to Copenhagen.  I took a train from the airport to the central train station.  I stayed at the Scandic Webers Hotel, which was about three blocks from the train station.

Ideally, I wanted to spend the rest of the day outdoors, to help my body adjust to the local time zone.  Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t cooperating.  It rained non-stop for the rest of the day.  There are several museums and galleries, but most of them close at 5:00, so I didn’t really have enough time.  Instead, I explored the streets in the city center, but never got far from my hotel.  When I got tired of walking in the rain, I had dinner at a restaurant that serves traditional Danish food.

I went to bed early, slept well for about four hours, and then woke up again.  It took a long time to get back to sleep.  Then it was tough dragging myself out of bed in the morning.

Friday, August 31

My room rate included breakfast.  The hotel had a nice breakfast buffet, including hot entrees, cold cuts, cereals, bread, fruit, and a variety of beverages.

Friday was a nicer day for sightseeing.  There was a brief rain shower in the morning, but no rain for the rest of the day.  After breakfast, I took a walking tour of central Copenhagen.  There’s an organization called Copenhagen Free Walking Tours that conducts several different tours.  The tour guides work for tips.  This tour was their Grand Tour of Copenhagen.  There were so many people signed up that we split into four groups, each with a different tour guide.  My group had an English-speaking guide.

The tour lasted three hours.  We met on the steps of the city hall.

As we walked through the streets of the Strøget neighborhood, our guide taught us some of the history of the city.  Along the way, we saw some majestic buildings.

Next we toured Slotsholmen, a small island separated from the rest of the city by canals.  This was once the home of the Danish royal family.  Now it’s the seat of the parliament.  We came by at just the right time to see the Prime Minister leaving one of the buildings.  He waved to us, as a few people in the group took his picture.

Next, we visited Nyhavn, a 17th century commercial port that has been transformed into an entertainment district.

Our guide kept us on pace to reach Amalienborg Palace just in time to see the changing of the guard.

We concluded our tour on the waterfront, just across from the opera house.

After the tour, I walked back to Nyhavn, where I was able to take a one hour boat tour.  We started with a tour of the harbor.  From the water, I got my best view of the dome of the “Marble Church.”

Then we followed a canal through Christianshavn.

We went under a number of low bridges, so we had to be careful not to stand up.  This bridge is nicknamed the Bridge of Circles.

After crossing back through the harbor, we went through the canals that surround Slotsholmen.  This gave me a different view of the Christiansborg Palace

This interesting spire sits on the top of the stock exchange.

As we returned to Nyhavn, our guide pointed out one of the buildings where Hans Christian Andersen used to live.

On my way back to the hotel, I stopped at a bakery inside Tivoli Gardens to buy a cinnamon roll for a late lunch.  After a brief rest break at the hotel to recharge my electronics, I took another walking tour.  This one was a 90 minute tour of Christianshavn.  We met at the statue of Biskop Absalon.

As we walked toward the harbor, we passed a church called Holmens Kirke (Church of Holmen).  Naturally, I had to get a photo of that.

We crossed the Knippels Bridge into Christianshavn, where we saw the alternative side to Copenhagen.  Here, the neighborhoods had a different feel.

The spire of this church has a spiral staircase on the outside.  If you don’t have a fear of heights, you can climb to the top.

Our tour concluded at one of the entrances to Freetown Christiania.  This is a quasi-independent commune that was established in 1971 when squatters occupied some abandoned military barracks that their children had been using as a playground.  It’s now kind of a hippie neighborhood, home to artists and freethinkers.

Our guide gave us an orientation, and then we explored Freetown Christiania on our own.

After the long walk back my hotel, I had dinner at an Italian pizzeria called Mother.  The place was packed, and it took a while to get my food, but it was worth the wait.

I got to bed late that night, but slept well all night.  Maybe it’s because I walked more than 13 miles that day.

Saturday, September 1

I slept in, but still had a tough time dragging myself out of bed.  I had a late breakfast before heading out for more sightseeing.  There were a few things I wanted to see that weren’t part of either of my walking tours.

First, I walked to Rundetårn (the Round Tower), which is in the Latin Quarter.

After walking up a long spiral ramp and some stairs, I reached the observation deck.  From there, you can see the whole city.

From there, it wasn’t far to Rosenborg Slot.  Along the way, I walked through the King’s Gardens.

Rosenborg Slot is a 17th century castle built by King Christian IV.

As I was taking pictures, my camera told me my batteries were exhausted.  I thought I had spares, but apparently, I already used them.  Before I could do any more sightseeing, I had to go back to the hotel.  Along the way, I couldn’t resist stopping at a gelato stand.

After changing my camera batteries and recharging my other devices, I walked to the far end of the harbor to see Kastellet.  This is a star-shaped fortress that was built in the 17th century to guard the harbor.  It’s hard to get very much of it in any one picture.

While I was in the area, I also saw the Gefion Fountain and the Little Mermaid.

By now, my legs were getting tired from all the walking, and it was almost dinner time.  I located a pizzeria my tour guide recommended, and had this pizza with potatoes, goat cheese, rosemary, and truffle oil.

Then I went back to the hotel to start getting my running gear organized for the race.  It took a long time before I was tired enough to get to sleep.  Then I had a restless night.  I only got about an hour of solid sleep.

Sunday, September 2

Sunday was race day.  I got up early, so I could get downstairs just as they were starting breakfast.  After a light meal, I headed to the central train station.

To get to Hvalsø, I had to take a regional train.  The ticket machine at the Copenhagen station wouldn’t take my credit card.  It kept saying, “Invalid currency.”  Fortunately, I also brought cash.  I had just enough for my ticket to Hvalsø, and if necessary, the return ticket.  It was about a 40 minute train ride to the Hvalsø train station.

As I was getting off the train, I met a Danish runner who was also doing the marathon.  He spoke fluent English, and we chatted as we walked to the sports hall to pick up our race numbers.  He asked me what my goal was.  I said, “I’m just going to stay relaxed and enjoy the experience.”  When he asked what time I expected, I said, “On a road course, that would be about four hours, but on this course I expect to be slower.”  He expected a similar time.

The race didn’t start until 10:15, so I still had almost an hour until the race started.  They had a gear check in the sports hall, so I was able to leave my warm-up clothes there during the race.  The building also had bathrooms, changing areas with showers, a snack bar, and free wifi.

While the marathon was fairly small, they also had a half marathon, a quarter marathon, and a 5K race.  The events were well organized, and they had chip timing.

The pre-race announcements were all in Danish, so I didn’t understand a single word.  I wondered if I was the only runner from another country.  If fact, there were also two runners from Finland, one from Sweden, and one from Germany.  I was the only overseas entrant.  About 15 minutes before the race, they started playing music and leading runners through a warm-up routine.  That must be a Scandinavian thing.  They did the same thing at the Midnight Sun Marathon in Norway.

The weather was excellent.  This area gets a lot of rain, but on race day we actually had sunny skies.  The temperature at the start was 60 degrees.  That could have been too warm with direct sunlight, but most of the course was shaded.

The course started and finished in front of the Hvalsø sports hall, but in between, we did two large loops through a forest on the south side of the town.  Every kilometer was marked, but they were counting down the remaining distance.  We were barely two blocks from the sports hall when I saw the 42 sign.

At first, we were on paved streets through the town of Hvalsø.  As we got out of town, we entered the forest on a narrow paved road.  After about 10 minutes, we turned onto a dirt road.  The course description indicated the race was on forest roads, so I expected most of the course to be like this.

After about five kilometers, I reached the first of 10 aid stations.  After that, they were three to four kilometers apart.  That was just frequent enough that I was able to get by without carrying a water bottle.

The terrain was gentle rolling hills.  They weren’t long or steep, but we were always going up or down.  Most of the time, we were surrounded by woods, but occasionally, we came to a cluster of homes.

There weren’t many spectators, but the ones I saw were all cheering enthusiastically in Danish.  I was probably the only one who didn’t know that they were saying.

The course wasn’t all on dirt roads.  More and more, I encountered sections of single-track trail.  It wasn’t too technical, but I had to watch out for the occasional root.

There were also a few sections across meadows, where the trail surface could best be described as trampled grass.

I find running through grass to be tiring.  I began to wonder if these sections, along with the constant undulation of the trails, would gradually wear me down.  Then I remembered that I haven’t run an entire marathon since June.  I’ve done a couple of ultras since then, but in those races I was mostly walking.  My longest run in the last 10 weeks was less than 11 miles.  I wondered if my legs would eventually get fatigued.

Early on, it seemed like I was gradually falling behind the other runners.  For a time, I didn’t see anyone in front of me.  Then I reached a narrow section of trail where several runners got bunched up.  After that, I seemed to keep up, and I even passed a few people.

We were mostly in the woods, but I got occasional views of lakes and ponds.

The volunteers were all cheerful.  At one turn, there were two volunteers who were singing something in Danish.  I couldn’t understand the words, but the melody sounded familiar.  I think it was a disco song from the late 70s.  Without hearing the words in English, I couldn’t quite identify it.

After about 15 kilometers, I reached a hill that was steep enough that I was persuaded to walk.

I wondered if that would establish a bad precedent.  Would I now start walking all the hills?  I set a goal of not walking any more hills until the second loop.  That held up for about one kilometer.  Then I reached another steep hill.  I realized this one was steeper when I saw there were logs to prevent erosion.  I walked this hill too.

Just past the top of hill, there was a large mound with steps leading to the top.  Our route took us around to the other side, where there was another set of steps.  This is the highest point on the island of Zealand, and we went to the top of it on each loop.

At the top, there was a large stone.  On one side there were marking like a gravestone, making me think this is also a burial site.

 

After coming down the steps on the other side, I reached an aid station.  I took a long overdue drink and got on my way.  One nice thing about reaching the highest point on the course is that I knew it would be downhill from there.  The next kilometer or two were much easier, and I got back into a good rhythm.

I had been seeing signs for both the first and second loops.  You would expect them to be offset by about 21 kilometers, but instead they differed by only 17.  Clearly, the first loop was much longer than the second one.  The first loop had a few twists and turns near the beginning that were omitted in the second loop.

They had a sign at 21.1 kilometers.  For the first time in the race, I looked at my watch.  The first half took 2:06:40.  That pace seemed about right for this course, but I wondered if I would fade in the second half.

What I was really looking forward to was finishing the first loop.  Because the first loop was longer than the second, I still had a ways to go.

In general, the course was well-marked.  There was red and white flagging, and turns we weren’t supposed to take were roped off with red and white striped tape.  There was only one course marking that I initially found confusing.  It was this sign.

It made more sense when I realized the arrows matched the colors of the race bibs used for the different distances.  Marathon runners had yellow bibs.  We were supposed to go straight on our first loop, but turn left at the same point in our second loop.

After passing this split, I started a transitional passage that connected back to the beginning of the loop.  I saw a bunch of runners coming from another direction.  They were doing one of the shorter races, which started later.  I must have joined up with the back of the pack, because I was passing them all.

There were course marshals at every crossing.  Most of the time, it was obvious which way to go, but there was one spot where I would have gone the wrong way.  The runners doing the short race all turned left, but I was directed to go straight.  This was the part of the loop where we did a shorter version on the second lap.

On my second loop, it was comforting to know that there wouldn’t be any surprises.  I had done all these hills before, so I knew what to expect.  Some seemed more tiring the second time, but that’s because I no longer had fresh legs.  The grassy sections also felt more tiring.

When I eventually reached the first hill that I had walked, I forced myself to run the whole thing.  As I reached the top, my legs felt like jelly, but I recovered and got back into a good rhythm.

When I reached the second steep hill, I ran as far as the first log.  Then I walked until I was almost to the top.  After going up and down the steps again, I caught up to three runners who were at the aid station.  As we left, I passed them all on the descent.

From this point on, I knew the toughest hills were behind me.  I passed a lot of runners who were slowing down in the last 10 kilometers.  I was trying to finish strong.

With about 5K to go, I caught up to the runner I met on the train.  I said “Hi.”  As I passed him, he said, “Well done.”  Those were the only two words of English I heard during the race.  That was a big difference between Copenhagen and the outlying areas.  In the city, everyone spoke English, as if it were their first language.

After two more kilometers, I reached the point where the course split.  This time, I turned left to head toward the finish in Hvalsø.  This was a narrow single-track section, but it was mostly downhill.

More and more, I was noticing discomfort in some of my toes.  Both of my big toes were throbbing.  There were small rocks embedded in some sections of the trail, but I didn’t remember stubbing my toes on any of them.

When I emerged from the forest, I felt the sunshine.  For the first time, I felt hot.  As I ran into town, I was still on dirt roads with lots of small rocks.  I was really looking forward to getting on pavement again.

With about 2K to go, I needed to cross the street twice near a busy roundabout.  There were volunteers holding up traffic for us.  Then I got onto a paved sidewalk.  I saw a woman just ahead of me who was being escorted by a race official on a bike.  I’m not sure why.  It didn’t seem like I was fast enough to be catching up to any of the lead women.

I was putting on a strong finish.  I ran past her and then caught up to a few more runners.  Then I had to leave the pavement for one last section over grass.  I had less than a kilometer to go, but I still couldn’t see the finish.

Finally, after one more turn, I saw the finish line.  I finished in 4:17:28.  Despite my best efforts to run strong in the second half, I was slower by four minutes.  I guess the hills wore me down more than I realized.

Finish line snacks included fruit, cookies, and candy, but I was only interested in the cinnamon rolls.  To me, that’s the taste of Denmark.

The finisher medals were made of wood.  It was an appropriate design for a forest marathon.

Here’s what the finisher certificate looks like.  Across the top, it shows the elevation profile.  Seeing it like this, I don’t feel too bad about walking the steepest hills.

I originally wanted to do the Copenhagen Marathon.  I did this one instead, because it fit better into my schedule.  At the time, I felt like I was settling.  Now I have no regrets.  Doing this race got me out of the city and gave me a chance to experience a different side of Denmark.

As soon as could, I checked the train schedule and saw the next train was arriving in two minutes.  I couldn’t get to the train station in time.  It was Sunday, so the trains didn’t run very often.  The next one wasn’t due for an hour.

I retrieved my gear bag, made a bathroom stop, and made my way slowly to the train station.  There was only one ticket machine, and it not only wouldn’t take my credit card, but also didn’t have a slot for bills.  It only took cash in the form of coins.  I didn’t know what to do.  I couldn’t buy a train ticket.  Then I saw another runner who was already waiting for the train.  He had a credit card that worked.  He bought the ticket for me, and I reimbursed him in cash.

By the time I got back to my hotel in Copenhagen, it was two hours after I finished the race, and I still needed to get cleaned up.  By the time I was ready to go out again, it was already dinner time.  On my way to dinner, I stopped at a currency exchange to make sure I could pay cash for my train ticket to the airport.

I usually celebrate a marathon finish with pizza, but sometimes I crave a burger or some barbecue.  This was one of those days.  I think it’s because I needed the protein.  I had dinner at a burger place that was recommended by my tour book.  I had to walk about a mile each way, but the extra walking probably helped my recovery.

In contrast to the previous night, I slept like a rock. That’s how it usually is after a race.

Monday, September 3

My legs were sore right after the race, but I felt fine walking to the train station.  I still felt fine when I was walking through the airport in Amsterdam.  After the long flight from Amsterdam to Minneapolis, my legs were stiff.  Running is good.  Sitting is bad.  I usually fly home the day after a race.  I may have to rethink that on international trips.

Race Statistics

Distance:  42.2 kilometers

Time:  4:17:28

Average Pace:  6:06 per kilometer (9:49 per mile)

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  357

Countries:  31