Forest Half Marathon

Line Kolbe

Barefooters
Jul 23, 2013
375
818
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Sweden
Yesterday I completed a Forest Half Marathon in Denmark.
It went great.

I was very excited about it and a little nervous. How would it go? would I actually be able to do it?.. In my runs up to this half marathon the longest I'd run was 11.7 km so this was almost the double of that. We also just moved and the week up to this race was spend lifting heavy boxes and furniture plus driving a lot. I was exhausted from all that but that didn't stop me. I still wanted to do it.

The day started early since we had a bit to drive (a little hour here in Sweden, then a 20 min ferry, and then a little hour in Denmark too) and I wanted to be there with lots of time to not have to hurry with anything. Thomas was there to take pictures and cheer on us and we brought our dog too.

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I was going to run together with Berit. We planned to run it together all the way. It was my first half marathon in fivefingers and it was her second, but her first in a forest, and that makes a big difference if you are used to only running on flat asphalt. I'm used to the forest. This was a race that seemed to be made for me.

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It all was very well arranged. It was easy to get the time chip for the shoe, the number, get water and energy drink and there were lots of toilets and changing tents for us to use.

Berit was very nervous and excited too. We both had the goal to complete it under 2 hours and 30 minutes and we planned to start slow and find a nice 6:00-6:30 min/km pace and try to keep that.

The start was at 11 am and we were ready and really couldn't wait to get going. We did what we planned. The little forest road we ran on was very packed with runners the first 3 km and even though we had placed ourselfs a little too far in the front of the runners, and therefor many of them passed us, we ran slowly and managed to find that 6:15 min/km pace right away. The first 5 km went great. Everything felt perfect. The weather was made for running. It was 10 Celsius and cloudy and the road was muddy and covered with leaves. The scenery was beautiful. A Danish forest in the fall when it's the nicest.

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The route was made so you came to the same water station 3 times and there Thomas was and could take our jackets. It was a little warmer than we'd expected and it was nice to leave the jackets and not have them around our waists.

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Then from around 5 km to 7 km my calves felt tighter and tighter and Berit started to feel tightness in her glutes and hams. Until here we had kept our pace at the 6:15 min/km but now we started to slow down a bit. Other than the tight calves on me and glutes/hams on her we still felt great. No sore feet or anything, and still energy even though the pace seemed to slow itself down.

Something magical happened for me from around 8 km to 15 km. The kilometers seemed to fly by. Even though the pace now was around 6:45 min/km, and then later on 7:00 min/km, I felt like we past a km sign, and then the next one, and then the next one.. I was in a flow and it all felt so good. The calves had come to a point where I felt pain, but it didn't get any worse. They were tight but worked fine. I was worried they'd get so exhausted that I wouldn't be able to run with the right stride, but that didn't happen. Despite the pain in my calves everything else felt perfect. My knees, my hips, my back.. Even my muscles still felt great.

But then after 15 km we both started to get tired. Berit had to walk up the small hills, where I just slowed down and then she caught up on me again after the hill, and then I also started to feel a bit of tightness in my hips. This made our pace even slower but we still ran and we started to talk about how short a distance we had left to run. Surely we would complete it and the time also told us that if we just kept on running (even though it was very slow now) we would make it under the 2 hours and 30 min.

At 16 km / 5km left we motivated each other with the fact that a 5K is just a little short and easy run. A 5K was nothing... And it worked.. Soon we were at 18 km, 19 km, only 2 km left, then 20...

And then we could see the finish line. We ran. We ran a little faster and then a little hill, like a bump in the road, made Berit start to walk, but I wouldn't let her walk now. I took her hand and pulled her and then we ran side by side again and crossed the finish line holding hands.

We got the time 2:23:09 and we were so proud and happy.

linekolbe


Today I'm feeling surprisingly good. I have very sore calves and I'm pretty stiff all over, but it would be weird otherwise and it's less than I expected. It was such a success :D
 
Congrats, it is always great to get that first one out of the way.
 
Good job, Line! I've added your report to the home page. Thanks for contributing!
 
Thanks guys :D

Congrats Line! Any trolls or faeries in those lovely woods? We Scandinavian Americans like to romanticize the 'old country.'

No no trolls or other Scandinavian wild life to be seen this time...
Did see some very old trees that seemed to some sort of trolls in disguise though ;)

When I was a child I saw 3 small trolls playing in the dark parts of the woods where I grew up. Now as an adult I think it was my very good imagination that played with my childish mind back then. But I was very convinced for many years that what I saw was real. Maybe it was...
 
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