My first marathon
On Saturday I ran my first Marathon in Stockholm, Sweden. The weather was really cold and gray and rainy, but that actually felt good. It's much better to be a little cold and be inspired to run faster to get warm, than having to slow down in the heat.
I started towards the back of the pack, and as we went over the starting line I could see lots and lots of runners in front of me. It was amazing! More than 17000 men and women of all sizes getting together to run and do something that sounds impossible to most people. The fact alone that I was there showed that anyone can get to the starting line of a marathon ;-) It was so fun to run together with that many people, to hear chears from the people watching the race, to listen to the bands that played along the course, and simply to be there. I loved it!
Unfortunately, I never got to the finish line. The max time for the race was 6 hours, and we had to pass the 20k mark in 2:50. I got there a minute too late, so I wasn't allowed to continue. Right there and then I was crushed of course, but now that a few days have passed I'm not that sad any more. It was great to train for the marathon, everything went according to plan, except that I was one small minute too late to 20k. Now I have already signed up for a half-marathon in my home town Oslo, Norway in September, and in October I'll try again to run a marathon in Amsterdam. From now on, I'll focus more on speed work as well as distance running, and there is no way that I'll be too late at 20k again!
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