I’ve run a half-marathon only once. A yearly one in Gothenburg (Sweden), Göteborgsvarvet. And I’m definitely going to do it again.
It’s actually a funny story, I ran it more or less by accident 🙂 I was at work on a Friday, in my first year in Sweden. An officemate told me, that the traffic in the city will be horrible on Saturday because of their famous half-marathon. And then, knowing me, she added ‘Maybe you should take part‘. And I started thinking ‘I’ve always wanted to, so why not now?’. Anyhow, in half an hour I booked myself for it, picked up my bib in the evening, and ran on the next day 😀
I wasn’t running regularly back then. I was doing lots of cardio at the gym (thanks Les Mills), gymnastics, of course… So my goal was to just run it without stopping, I wasn’t running for a good time. Had no idea what a good time was (still don’t really :D). I finished it in 2 hrs 8 min, nothing to be proud of 🙂 But I ran without a break! Which actually proves that you just need to be in a good physical shape and used to doing some cardio 🙂
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I actually enjoyed it very much! It’s a very nice event, where locals cheer you along, local music groups play along, kids give you high fives 🙂 ! Everyone enjoying themselves… There are several stations with drinks, snacks along the way of a ‘pick up without stopping’ kind. Several ‘shover on the go’ stations 🙂
It’s just a very nice and fun experience, and I’m happy to have it behind my belt.
And yes, it was painful, my hips, my ankles were killing me at the end. But you forget the pain, I only remember the fun of it when I look back.
The truth is, I really want to run a marathon now. I started preparing for it last spring, trying to run longer and longer distances 2-3 times a week. That’s not something you can just run without training. But then coronavirus came and all the marathons were cancelled. So, to be continued, hopefully, next year…