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!

Sorry to hear about not being able to finish. I had no idea they even cut people off if they didn't get to a certain point in a given amount of time, but I guess it makes sense for safety reasons. They can't keep the course open all day (which it would take me to complete a marathon).
I am in awe of anybody even trying to attempt a marathon! Great job on what you did accomplish. The training alone takes a lot of dedication and hard work and I think that tells the most of about a person and not necessarily the time it took them to go the 26 miles.
Thanks for posting you race report, I love reading them! Keep us posted on the 1/2 you plan on doing.

Good for you for trying! You sound very upbeat about your experience, which is great. Good luck with your training for your next 1/2 and marathon.

Great job! You only missed it by a minute, that's pretty darn good!

sounds cool you could put your name down to do the london with me in april

London in April? You bet! Amsterdam in October, London in April, Stockholm again in June and New York in November. And I will never again be stopped at 20k :-) Next goal: To finish, and to run in less than 5 hours.

That is amazing!! Way to go.