The Gothenburg half marathon

I love Sweden and running so I needed no persuading when the opportunity arose whereby I could combine the two. I hadn’t raced in Sweden since the Stockholm half back in September 2012 which turned out to be one of my favourite races ever so perhaps Gothenburg could steal Stockholm’s crown?

I arrived in a rainy Gothenburg and got the bus to my hotel which was humongous. It was the official race hotel and was also playing host to the race expo where some 64,000 registered starters would be turning up over the course of Friday afternoon and Saturday morning to pick up their race numbers. In case you mistook your eyes you did read that correctly. 64,000 runners. It’s the largest half marathon in the World which is amazing. Were the streets of Gothenburg going to be wide enough to host all of the runners I thought?

I made my way into the expo for a quick dash to get my number. I was in the first start wave (just after the elites) at 1pm on Saturday afternoon. The last start wave was due to go at 4pm again demonstrating the volume of runners there were going to be on the day. It was also a very unusual affair to have the race on a Saturday (Stockholm did this too) but I was enjoying the Swedes train of thought by having the race on a Saturday allowing participants to indulge in a celebratory drink on the evening post race (and enabling one more day post drinking / running for recovery before the return to work.)

After packet pick up I was free to enjoy what the city had to offer. First point of call was lunch 

(meatballs of course) and a nice chai latte afterwards. As they say in The Sound of Music those are two of my favourite Swedish things. OK, so I changed the title a little bit but it’s almost the same.

Race day was here. It is a little odd not having to set an alarm to get up and even more so that I could enjoy a leisurely shower followed by breakfast overlooking the city from the 23^rd floor of my hotel. 

This was a very much different race preparation to 6 days earlier in Oxford. I started to make my way to the race just under two hours ahead of my start time. I never like to be rushed even though being in panic may do wonders for my adrenaline I have yet to find out. But perhaps Gothenburg was about to test that?

I went to the tram stop just outside the hotel to find there was already a mammoth queue of around 200 people. One of the information people informed me that the electricity on the line had actually just gone out so we would now need to queue for the bus. The line of people was overflowing into the main road already and it didn’t take someone from Apple Store’s Genius Bar to work out that when a bus arrived not many of us would be getting on it. I thought this could be the time either I miss my start time or get there by the skin of my teeth.

After a wait of around 40 minutes we spotted a tram arriving. After checking with Steven we could confirm it wasn’t a mirage and the electricity must be back up and running. The queue migrated across the road to the tram stop. Admittedly I couldn’t get on the first one but with them arriving every few minutes I was on one (and with a seat) in no time. As we were approaching our stop I overheard a guy say to his son that the pedestrian bridge crossing the dual carriage way was where he had to run to the finish line. That can’t be right I thought? Surely this number of runners would not make it over the narrow bridge would they? He must have meant that the road would be closed and we would cross there surely?

The start area was huge and there was media everywhere. Steven spotted that Scott Overall from GBR was on the elite start list. He has been at quite a lot of the races I have done over the years so it would be nice to see how he did today.

Similar to the race in Oxford it was pleasant to be able to strip down to my running gear and not feel cold as I entered my corral. We were then on the 10 second countdown (in Swedish of course) and the first of 64,000 then crossed the line.

I had met a few fellow runners the day before who had told me the first 5km were tough and had some hills. So as we descended into the park I was thinking that course seemed quite pleasant (albeit rather crowded with thousands of participants.) The park itself was pretty and the crowds were plentiful, many having setup picnics clearly ready to watch the race for the entire afternoon. As we started our ascent out of the park though I could really feel it. It definitely was a hill. As we made our way past the 4km mark I knew we were approaching the river and the bridge to cross it. What I hadn’t known was that the climb up to the bridge would be so severe. It was hard. There’s no other way to describe it. Even as we were on the bridge whilst it offered great views of the city and water below it still was an incline up to the middle where we would be given a little respite before the descent back down to water level. The climb had taken it out of me a bit but I was still maintaining a good pace around 6m 12s per mile. I was pleased with that. As we carried on we were taken through various dockyards that were now being regenerated. The city definitely had a very industrial vibe to it. I liked it. We passed Radio Sweden’s HQ which had a large crowd outside and some good tunes (mainly Bruno Mars who seemingly is uber popular in SE since I heard his music three times on the course) although a tour guide did warn me not to get too closed to people wo worked at Radio Sweden as they are radioactive. Boom boom.

Just after this I was approaching the 7KM marker when I recognised a face pulling up next to me. It was Scott Overall. He was limping and clearly just about to stop. I noticed him too late to say some words of encouragement but having checked his results it seems he didn’t manage to complete the race which was a real shame.

As I passed KM 11 I actually started to feel more in control and in my usual flow. Perhaps I had now recovered from the bridge which was lucky as we were about to cross back over the river via another bridge to the city. Not quite as steep as the previous one but still steep none the less. It took it out of me again and I welcomed the descent down to the city on the other side. Now with only about 4kms left to go I just kept thinking about the end. I thought I could get there in about 1h 23m or so. That’s for my total time – not a further 1h 23m!

I was pacing just behind a very Swedish looking young guy who had a t-shirt on saying “Fuck cancer” on the back. I agree with his tshirt’s sentiments and used him as a pacemaker all the way to the finish.

We were near the park where we started and I could see ahead that the route did indeed cross over the pedestrian bridge that I had dismissed on the tram ride to the start. I ate my words and then made my way up the slope to get to the top. As I entered the park it wasn’t long before I saw Steven and then I was in the small stadium for the final 150m. I crossed the line in 1h 24m on the nose. I placed 107^th which I was really pleased with (although having checked back today to ensure I was still in the same position and not been downgraded by faster people in start groups behind me I seem to have actually risen to 106^th.) Not sure what happened to that person ahead of me? Disqualification? I’ll have to find out the scandal if there was one.

So it was a tough race but a good one. I am pleased to have taken part in the largest half marathon in the World and to have finished in the top 1%.

It hasn’t knocked Stockholm out of the rankings as one of my favourite city races but none the less I enjoyed it (especially the chai lattes, biscotti and cinnamon buns post-race.)

We're off!

It looks uphill doesn't it? Vaguely!! 

My result (although now it seems I am 106th?!)

P.S. At least this didn't happen to me. Not sure I would have carried on in his situation?!

http://gawker.com/what-happened-to-the-runner-who-shit-himself-during-a-h-1681442684