STOCKHOLM MARATHON 2008

I was getting quite serious with my running now and training went well through the winter and early spring. I was using the same generic marathon plan as for Cracovia the previous year, I found this on the web and it served me well in the early days. I had also joined the Gooid Run Guide, a great website for mapping, tracking and logging routes and runs which i still use today.

https://www.goodrunguide.co.uk/

Three weeks before the marathon I am confident of doing well. I've had a really solid build up and I do my last twenty mile run before tapering. It's the first really hot day of spring and I run out of water by halfway. Coming back along the Thames Path with about six miles to go I am completely dehydrated. I have no money with me but the Ecology Centre comes to my rescue with a glass of water. I carry on home but by the next day I have started coughing, in my depleted state I have picked up a viral chest infection. For the next three weeks I try a few recovery runs which are very hard work and I doubt my ability to be able to run the marathon. I should probably withdraw but all the travel and accommodation is booked. Bing, Richard, Pete and Paul Cuff are coming along for the weekend with three of us running.

Collecting our race packs is entertaining. The race starts and finishes in the 1912 Olympic Stadium, which is where registration takes place as well. There is a Kiss concert on that evening. There are two distinct tribes making their way on the train and along the subway to the stadium, gaunt runners in tracksuits and fully made up Kiss fans in platform boots.

The next day we line up at the start. With the adrenaline of the event I feel fine, despite the lingering chest infection. It's a much bigger field than my first marathon and a first experience of congestion at the start. We waste energy weaving our way past slower runners for the first couple of miles, before settling into a groove. The course is a double lap around Stockholm, mainly flat but with a big hump over the six hundred metre long Vasterbron bridge on each circuit. I'm running with Richard, it's quite a hot day but we make steady progress to halfway in 1.55.47. I start to struggle but manage to keep the pace without a disastrous drop off until the 40km mark.

Richard has got a bit ahead and I work really hard to reel him in. I make it back but promptly get a cramp and have to stretch it out. Maybe I should have eaten the dill pickle at the aid station a couple of kilometres earlier, rather than spitting it out as the salt and vinegar hit me. I struggle home in 4.03.09 which is disappointing but maybe to be expected in the circumstances. Richard has finished in 4.02.26. Pete comes home about fifteen minutes later.

Richard on the right running with a madman

Nearly there

Nearly nearly there

There

As usual, I have aged 20 years at the finish line

I feel fine in the post marathon glow but start to get really ill on the underground train back and fall into bed for a few hours. Then the post race adrenaline wins out and we head out into the Stockholm nightlife.

One of the nice things about Stockholm is that the marathon takes place on Saturday afternoon rather than the usual Sunday morning. It is such a beautiful city and we have a couple of days to see around, including a boat trip to Vaxholm, one of the islands in the Stockholm Archipelago. We sit in the garden of a teahouse eating cake and staring out over the bay.