Keith is my
oldest friend, whom I have known since primary school which is a remarkably
long time ago these days. We don’t see each other very often, living as we do
in different countries, but manage to maintain a degree of contact. Keith
started running a few years ago and ran his first marathon – London – last
year.
Chatting
about running at a mutual friend’s wedding, I asked whether he would be doing it
again, but he explained that he had missed the deadline for the ballot. ‘Well’,
said I, ‘you could come and visit us next May and run the Copenhagen marathon’.
‘Will you be running it?’ asked Keith. ‘I will if you come over to do it’, I
replied nonchalantly.Thus, the
deal was struck, and we were both committed to running Copenhagen marathon in
May 2019.
I have run
city marathons before in both Copenhagen and Berlin, the last time in 2008.
Since then I have eschewed road running more and more in favour of trail and
fell, and the last road race I ran was Copenhagen half marathon in 2015.
However, ‘how hard can it be?’ I thought. I’ve run long trail races, and hard
fell races since then so 42km on flat tarmac can’t be so hard. Training
seemed to go fine, if not very focussed, and almost all of it off-road. I just
couldn’t really find any motivation to run on the road, nor very much for
intervals. A test half-marathon a month before the marathon went fine, not a
record time, but a reasonably respectable 1:37.
Keith and
his wife, Jackie, stayed with us for the weekend of the race. On the day Hanne
and Jackie had devised a complex logistic plan crisscrossing Copenhagen
to see us at various points along the route.
We arrived
at the start both, I think, feeling a bit nervy. I spent the next half hour in
the queue for the toilet. I just reached the front of the queue when the
starting pistol went. Some things take priority, however, and the race would
have to wait a couple of minutes.
There were
still plenty of people still crossing the start line and I joined the pack. My
plan was to aim to hold a 5 min/km pace which should give a finish time of
about 3½ hours. The weather at the start was pleasantly overcast and cool,
although it was forecast warm and sunny later. Within a few minutes of the
start the forecast was proved correct and the sun came out, it was going to be
a warm race. My chosen pace felt comfortable though, I soon overtook the 3:40
pacesetters, and passed a couple of people I knew.
The first
20km went well, it was great to see Hanne and Jackie out on the route, the pace
was OK, it was warm but I was drinking regularly at the water stations. From
20km onwards, it all started to go downhill for me. It was warm, the road
seemed to be getting harder underfoot and the crowds and noise, which earlier
had seemed to build the occasion, now felt like stress factors. I felt my pace
slowing and realised that 5min/km had been rather too optimistic.
A finish
time of 3:30 slipped away, then a 3:35 finish, and finally, when the 3:40
pacesetters came past me again, a sub 3:40 time slipped out of reach. I finally
crossed the line in 3:43, tired and relieved. Bella was a volunteer at the
event and was waiting at the finish line with a hug! After some food, drink and
a shower, I felt much better.I missed
Keith cross the line but managed to find him again shortly after. He did well,
beating his London time by six minutes despite nursing a niggling calf strain
all the way around.
It was good
to try a road race again, but I won’t be doing it again any time soon!
