Skräcklan half marathon

I've said that I wouldn't run any races this year... but today I went ahead and did my second race this summer. I had planned to run a long run this weekend anyway so why not do it together with a bunch of other runners.

The race took place in the nearby city Vänersborg and was organized by a local running club. There was both a full marathon and a half marathon taking place at the same time and on the same 8km track of roads and parkways. The full marathon was 5 laps around and the half was 2 ½ laps. I entered the half marathon race but since I hadn't signed up in advance I had to be there a bit early to register. My wife Georgia came with me and after I had registered we went to have a cup of coffee while we were waiting for the start.

The weather was nice for running, 15C/59F, cloudy, not much wind. I had wished for a bit of sunshine to brighten things up but the environment was really beautiful anyway.

I don't really know how many runners there were in the two races but my guess is that we were less than a hundred, probably closer to fifty than a hundred. It's not a very big race but in my opinion those races are usually a lot of fun. Two years ago I did the Gothenburgh half marathon together with 50 000 runners and today I did this race together with a lot less runners and I have to say that I prefer the smaller race.

We started 100m in front of the full marathon runners and the moment of the start was a bit vague since the start signal was produced over at the other starting line but it all worked out just fine. Since we were running 2½ laps we didn't do a full 8km first lap but had to take a shortcut after a few kms and come back to the later part of the loop. But that was no problem because one of the volunteers was standing there pointing us all in the right direction. The second and third lap we ran the full 8km loop. The first half of the loop was mostly on roads but the second half was on beautiful parkways along the lake Vänern, some parts among trees but for quite a long distance we had a beautiful view over the lake. The track was well marked out and the race well organized

Ok, my experience of the day... I started out too fast. At least according to the plan I had made. Based on my last long runs I was going to aim for a 6:30/km pace but after a couple of kms I found that I was running a 5:30 - 6:00 pace and I was a bit worried that I would run into problems later in the race. At the same time I felt very good and even if I tried to slow down a bit I seemed to be running at the same pace so I stopped worrying and went with the flow. I was run/walking with a 3:1 ratio and followed the intervall timer as strict as I could. The 3:1 ratio is how I have been training lately and it suits me good.

When you are the only run/walker you tend to be rather lonely, I mean that even if you are surrounded by the same people most of the time and you pass and get passed by them all the time, you don't really keep the same speed as they do and you can't really "cling on" to anyone. When you are running they are too slow and when walking they are much too fast. So I did my own race without that much help with the pace.

I kept on running and felt good for most of the race and with 6kms to go I did a prediction of my finishing time and found that there was a tiny possibility to finish under two hours. The time showed 1hour 28 and with 6kms to go and a 6 minute/km pace that would give me a finish time of around 2hours and 5 minutes. Ok for a little while I toyed with the idea to speed up and try but then I would have to run almost a minute faster per km for the rest of the race and I soon gave up the idea. The pace I was running was very pleasant and why take the risk of ruining it all. I decided to just keep on and enjoy the event. As it turned out I must have kicked up the pace anyway and I finished in 2:01:22 on my watch. The official time isn't up yet so there might be an adjustment to that later on but I am very happy with myself and also a bit surprised. I did beat my earlier half marathon PR with 20(!) minutes.

Kraftprovet 11.6 km

I finally made up my mind and entered the race "Kraftprovet" today. I have thought back and forth for a few days and have had a hard time deciding wether I should run this race or not. Yesterday I met a friend who had made his mind up and he said to me "ok, see you at the starting line then" And I guess that was the kick I needed, so I met him at the starting line and we passed each other a couple of times in the beginning of the race, then I lost sight of him but knew that I was ahead of him, which felt satisfying. (I actually beat him with 6 minutes :-)


The forecast said 16C and light rain wich I thought would suite me. As it turned out it must have been quite a few degrees warmer, no rain and partly sunny. I had dressed for rain so I was a bit warmer than I would have liked but every now and then we ran in areas with a nice cool breeze and some people had also put their garden hoses out to spray the runners and that was also helpful.

I learned a lesson running into the first garden hose fontain - your glasses also get wet - that made my vision a bit blurred until my next walkbreak when I got the chance to wipe them off with my shirt. When running into the next hose shower I took my glasses off and held them away from the water, that worked fine. Lesson learned.


I ran/walked with a 3:1 ratio as strictly as I could, with a few adaptions around the water stops and also at the most brutal hills, and for the last bit I turned the intervall timer off and just ran.


Parts of the track were on rather narrow trails and that made the running part of run/walking a bit difficult. When walking many runners passed me but when running I wanted to go a bit faster than the crowd around me and it was sometimes impossible to pass them as the track wasn't wide enough. That might have slowed the total time down a bit but in return I guess it also gave me a bit of rest which maybe made me stronger for the later part of the race.

Closing in on the finish I passed quite a few runners and that felt really good, then suddenly, out of nowhere, came a guy in a grey shirt and passed me. That woke something up inside my head and I thought "Oh no you don't.. no way I'm letting you pass.." I managed to catch him up and we ran side by side, speeding each other up, towards the finish. Finally he was a bit stronger and reached the line an armlength ahead of me. But we ended up with the same time in the result. (ha, gotcha)

This was the first time I entered this local race and I'm glad I did. I met a lot of friends before and after the race and I also found that many other friends were out watching the race. As they recognized me and shouted my name I got extra power from somewhere, maybe from the joy I find in their concern and interrest in what I'm doing. I hope for a cool day for next years "kraftprovet" and will most certainly participate again in the future.

I'm very pleased with my run. Before the start I said that if can manage 1 hour and 15 minutes I would be happy but was open for a time towards 1:30. As I passed the 5k mark just under 30 minutes I was surprised and then the 10k mark at almost exactly 1 hour. That made me feel even stronger and very pleased with myself. I ended up finishing at 1:09:12. I heard the speaker call out my name and my time just as I finished. It was a lot of fun.

Slightly injured

Earlier today I was working a bit on the house, putting in boards on a floor. As I was kneeling down on the floor hitting the next board with a hammer to get it in place, I missed with the hammer and accidently hit myself on the right knee. A stupid thing to do.
It was quite painful but before I even felt the pain, the first thought that flew through my mind was:

"No! I have to go running later today!" then came the pain and I was wondering if I would be able to run.

Guess what happened just a few minutes later. - I hit the same knee with the hammer once again. A really stupid thing to do. Luckily I didn't hit as hard this time.

Anyway, I finished my work and got my running clothes on and went out to see if the knee was working ok. I had a great run, 12.85 km/8 mi, in a beautiful sunny and warm evening and the knee didn't bother me at all. I don't feel anything when walking or running but it is a bit painful when walking up and down stairs and it hurts when I bend it more than 90 degrees or so and it will probably end up in several different colours in the coming days. I'm so pleased that it didn't turn out worse than this, especially since my running now is going really good. I would hate to take a break from my training now.

Along the canal

Earlier today I drove my daughter to her cello lesson in town, and instead of waiting in the car while she played I went for a run along the canal and the locks in Trollhättan.

I haven't been running for a while because I haven't been feeling too good after a dentist appointment recently. I had a wisdom tooth taken out and I wish the healing process had been a bit quicker. Anyway, today I gave running a try and I did fine I guess but I have my doubts about setting a new 10k pr on an upcoming race this Tuesday. Legs felt awkward today and my heartrate was a bit higher than usual. Well I'll give it a try on Tuesday and we'll see what happens.

My run today was on tracks and roads where I've never run before and I wonder why because the area is really great and I hope you can see that on the photos.

I had no idea if I would make it back in time for when my daughters lesson ended and got a bit nervous at the last few kms. I thought the time went a bit too fast and I was running on the wrong side of the canal so a shortcut was out of the question. The only thing I could do was to speed up towards the bridge and then turn around and go back a bit on the right side. I arrived a few minutes after the lesson was supposed to end but as it turned out my daughter stayed for another 10 minutes in the music room to listen to the students that played after her so I was the one that had to hang around and wait for a little while. But that was ok and I had the chance to cool down and get my breathing back to normal before we drove back home again. All in all I had a great run and I think the time was well spent. Much better than just sitting in the car waiting during her lesson.

Snow

I had to stop this morning on my way to work to take some pictures. I wish I've had a better camera with me but I only had my cellphone. Anyway theese photos might give you an idea of the amount of snow we've had this winter. This snow was taken away from a larger car park area and piled up like this.

We usually don't get this much snow around here and therefor have not really been prepared for this kind of winter. One of the biggest problems have been where to put all snow.

Luckily, the snow has started to melt now and that brings hope that soon it will go away and spring and summer might come even this year.

See a few more photos here.

Winter run

Some photos from a cold run on a beautiful day.

Back home

I returned home safely earlier this evening after a fantastic holiday in Oxford, UK.

Thanks to everyone that made it a special and memorable event.

Thanks also for sharing your photos, my photos from the race didn't turn out too good, I'm afraid. Probably because my glasses were all wet and fogged up because of the rain, so I didn't really see what I took pictures of. I more or less just pointed the camera in one direction and pushed the button, not the best way of doing it.

I had the recorder going for the whole race and I listened through the audio last night in my guesthouse and once again on the bus this morning. That left me with two main thoughts:

• 1. I had such a great time running with you all. It was really fun. and
• 2. How...! am I going to edit this into something that will be interresting to listen to.

I ended up with 2½ hours of audio and the quality is both good and not so good. Soundlevels are all over the scale, some of the conversations are a bit hard to follow and there is also a lot of noise. - Useless? - I hope not. I have a few ideas.

All of it has great value for me to listen to, because I was there and this is what I experienced but for a regular podcast listener it is probably not so interresting.
Anyway I'm determined to give it a try, we'll see if I can succeed. It would be fun to be able to share our run from my perspective with you all.

Hopefully the next edition of the Running the Narrow Path podcast will contain audio from the Dream Inspires Run.

Interresting run in the forrest.

I had a great time in the forrest today. The weather was beautiful, a bit windy but that didn't bother me. I started out on my favourite loop, the one that I call the Oaktree - Yellow house loop. As it turned out I ended up running only parts of the planned tracks but that only made my run more interresting.

Usually I'm all alone in the forest but today I met a lady on the path in the middle of the forrest. I said: "Hi" and she replyed: "I'm lost. Can you help me?" She was out looking for mushrooms and got lost. I gave her directions for how to find her way back to roads that were familiar to her. From what I understood she was far away from where she thought but knew the location I pointed out to her and should find her way back to her car from there. I asked her if she had found any mushrooms and she had found some but for the last hour or so, when she found herself lost in the woods she had lost interrest in the mushrooms and stopped looking for them.
I hope she made it to her car allright. I'm sure she did. From the point where we met and out to the road it was less than two kms and a path or small road to follow all the way. Fairly easy if you don't panic or something.

After a while I came to a place where there is another path going in to the forrest, a path that I always thought looked so nice and often wondered where it leads to. Today I decided to find out.
It turned out to be a wonderful detour to my usual loop. I took me back to the track after a while. Going this "new" path is about the same distance, I think, but keeps me off roads and on nice soft paths instead so this might be my new regular Oaktree - Yellow house track.

On one of the new paths I met a runner (I don't think I've ever met one in the forrest before) He was followed by a girl (his daughter?) riding a horse. So I stopped for a little bit not to scare the horse. It was a nice break to the usual lonliness. And also fun to realise that other runners/riders also like the nice paths around here.

At one point I had to turn back because the path I was following kind of faded out into nothing. I went back and made another turn and found myself back on the road i usually run.

I didn't manage to run the full loop today because I found that I had been out a bit too long and we were expecting guests so I made a shortcut and ran the main road back home. My run today turned out to be 8.5km and even if I had hoped to go a bit longer I was really happy with what I accomplished.

I had such a great time today, exploring new paths and I found it quite interresting to meet theese people. It seems that I'm not the only one to keep the paths open.

Injured :(

Apparently I hadn't trained enough to do a half marathon. I did complete the race but at the last part of the race my knees started to hurt. It seems that I injured my left knee during the race and I have had problems running since then. My right knee is ok again and hopfully the left one will heal soon. On todays run I managed to run for about 4 - 4½ kms before I felt the pain. I guess that's good because earlier the pain started much earlier.

Any ideas how to heal faster, anyone? I've tried most things, such as massage, ice and heat, liniment, stretching, rest and prayers. What else is there? I guess healing takes time and patience, but it is not fun at all. I have been running three times a week almost every week since December, struggling through snow and cold without a single problem. And now, when the weather is warm and nice and I really would enjoy running - I cannot.

I guess I should make myself a recoveryplan. What if I do my old leg strengthening program and stretches daily. - That have helped before. I should probably shorten my runs too, to a distance that I can run without pain, That would be 3½ - 4 kms based on my experience today. OK that's what I'm going to do, and now that I've written it down here, I can't cheat, can I. I guess I could log it all on Buckeye Outdoors too, that might make me even more disciplined. Yes my decision is made - recovery plan starts tomorrow, and I'll be back running as usual in notime. (I hope)

Gothenburg half

I finished my first half marathon in 2:21:27.

More info later.

Counting down

Only a few days left before the Gothenburg half marathon this Saturday.
When I received the race information a few weeks ago, I got really nervous. It struck me that this is for real. Now I feel comfortable about it. I have never done anything like this before so I don't know what to expect but I figure that if I only can be at the right place when it's time for me to start, I'll be ok. Then I just have to follow the crowd I guess. I'm sure it will be crowded, over 50 000 entrants. And even if there will be some that doesn't show up, there will still be a lot! of people there.

The race starts at 2 pm but I'm in startgroup 16 (out of 19) and we are scheduled to start at 3:46 pm.
Based on my 10k race last week and also on things that I've heard and red during last week, I have now formed a race plan for myself. My plan is this: Enjoy the event!
I'm not going to focus on time. I am going to check my splits to see what happens but I'm not going to let the split times matter that much. The main goal for me now is to reach the finnishline and to have fun on the way there. If I could do that in 6min/km I would be so pleased but if I'm going slower, that's fine too.

I haven't decided if I'm going to try to record some audio during the race. It would be fun to be able to share that with you in my next podcast episode but I guess I'm a bit scared of what people around me are thinking. On the other hand I will probably be rather anonymous in the crowd so it might be safe. It also depends on the weather. The forecast said warmer temperatures this week, and that could mean anything above 10C /50F.

My bib number is 56 640, if anyone want to check my result or something. It might be a challenge though, since the website is mainly in Swedish.
I'll let you know how it goes, here on my blog and I intend to tell you all about it in my next episode of the podcast.

21.2 kms is a bit longer than I have run before and it will surely be demanding at the last part of the race. I'll be fine for the first 10 - 15 kms, - 18 maybe, but then... we'll see.
I'm sure it will be fun though and I'm really looking forward to this Saturday.

Gohenburg half marathon

Race report

Today I ran a 10k race in our town. The race is held in the evening, starts at 6:30 pm, it's a really nice event organised by a running club. I don't really know how many runners that took part. My guess is around 100. The race goes for two laps on parkways and roads in town. It's well organised with many people that helps around the track with stopping traffic when the track crosses roads and also people who directs you into the right path when there sometimes are many options. Many runners, including myself, use this race as a dress rehearsal for the Gothenburg half marathon.

I ran this race last year in 1:02:18 and my plan this year was to go faster than that. My 10k PR was 57:57, and I was aiming for 55 minutes this evening. I had thought a lot about a plan or strategy for this race. I think I do much better if I have a plan to follow. So my plan was to run the first 5 kms at a little under 6 minutes each km and then have strength left to speed up a bit for the second half.

This is what happened:
Just before the start I met an old friend and we chatted a little about everything and nothing, and suddenly I heard "GO" and we took off. I started my stoppwatch (I thought). I was running with my new watch because it has a memory for laptimes and I thought that if I push the lap time button every km I don't have to do so much calculation in my head. Later in a race I find that to be difficult, probably due to lack of oxygen in my brain. After about half a minute I looked at my watch and it hadn't started. I must have pushed the wrong button. OK I estimated that we were about 30 sec in the race so I pushed the right button and thought that I'll just add 30 sec to my total time and the first km lap. the other laptimes each km should be ok. No big deal.

As always, I got carried away and started out too fast.
1 km - 4:29 and add 30 sec thats 5 minutes. Still enough oxygen to figure that out. Way too fast. Have to slow down.
2 km - 5:30 Still a bit faster than I had planned. Slow down a bit.
3 km - 5:36 Better but could slow down just a little bit more to be strong enough at the end.
4 km - 5:30 Faster? but I'm slowing down, am I not? At this point I gave up my plan and formed a new one: I'm feeling great, why not go on and try to hit the 5:30 for a couple of kms more, and we'll see what I can do at the end.
5 km - 5:32 Perfect! according to my new plan. My wife and daughter applauded and cheered me on at the halfway point. That is always a source of energy. Now I really started to enjoy the evening. The weather was nice, around 15C (60 F) and the sun was shining. The wind was a bit cold but it wasn't too bad. Many parts of the track were quite nice. Soft walkingpaths - that I like.
6 km - 5:44 I walked for a little bit at the waterstop. Maybe I walked for 15 sec. Perfect again! Really enjoying this race now. Feeling strong. I think that only one runner passed me for the last couple of kms.
7 km - 5:32 I am really good at this! I even overtook a few runners at this point. I am great! I can do anything!
8 km - 5:38 not too bad. Only two kms to go, lets see if I can speed up a little.
9 km - 5:13 yes! I could go faster! ok this is it, only 1 km to go, give everything you have now Krister. I wonder if I can overtake the guy dressed in black and white a little bit ahead of me. Yes I can! go go go.
A few hundred metres before the finnish line I passed him and I felt great. My wife and daughter cheered and I finnished the race in 54:04 a new PR. I ran the last km in 4:54.
I was really tired but happy with myself and what I had accomplished.

I had a great race even if I was a bit angry with myself for not starting my watch at the right point. My watch showed 53:40at the finnish, 24 seconds off from the official time so my mistake at the beginning wasn't really a problem. I was also a bit confused when my first plan didn't work. My second plan was better. Maybe I don't have experience enough to form a race plan. This was my fourth race, so far. But there will be more. Racing is a lot of fun.

Tagged

I've been tagged, to be honest I think I was tagged long ago but have got away with it so far.
Now it is probably about time that I put down some things here, things that maybe you didn't know about me. If you go on reading this you can considder yourself tagged and that means you are supposed to give us some facts about yourself on your blog, but there is always the opportunity of cheating. I'm actually cheating a bit myself here, because I'm supposed to write down 25 things but couldn't come up with that many. Here they are:

• I grew up on a farm. But since I gave this information away in #11 of my podcast, I have to come up with something more - What about: I know how to milk a cow, ride a horse and drive a tractor. At least I think I remember how it is done.
  
• I sang in differrent choirs for many years, and enjoyed it very much. I don’t remember the songs though, but will forever treasure the memories, the friends and the “team spirit” we had in some of the choirs.
  
• I have been married for 21 years this summer. We had a Greek orthodox wedding.
  
• I own a LandRover SIII, 109STW (with a broken gearbox, unfortunately) The car has turned into a renovation project that I don’t really have the time for.
  
• I don’t subscribe to any newspaper at the moment and seldom watches the news on TV. I don’t want to know about all the evil things people do to each other.
  
• The only University degree I have is in Modern Greek. I don’t practice the language enough though, I can understand an everyday conversation quite well but find it hard to say something myself.
  
• I keep a list of “Birds - seen and/or heard in/from our garden” together with my youngest daughter. On this years list we have almost 10 birds so far. We hope to get to see a lot more shortly, as the migrants returns for the summer.
  
• I write with my left hand, but use both hands equally for most other tasks.
  
• I have only sat foot on a treadmill twice. When I was consulting a physiotherapist for a knee injury some years ago. And when I was trying out a new pair of running shoes, only a few days ago.
  
• I have never had any weight problems so far. At health examinations they usually seems to think that I need to put on some weight.
  
• My favourite food is - almost everything really, but I avoid fish and dairy products because of a stomach issue. Even beer is a bit of a problem sometimes. I don’t miss the fish and the yoghurt that much, but a nice cold ... mm I’m getting thirsty...
  
• I enjoy to read books, I prefer a mystery or a thriller but also like travelogues, memoirs or maybe something about historic times.
  
• I have tried hanggliding once. It was a bit too difficult for my liking. I never got the hang of it. (-oh sorry, couldnt resist that comment.)
  
• I like to solve crosswords, I find sudoku a bit boring but have found that it is great for falling asleep.
  
• I survived a carcrash at age 24. A little while ago I realized that I have now lived as long after the accident as I had before. - Strange, the last 24 years seems to have passed much quicker.

Ok, now you might know me a little better.

Colors of autumn

I took a few photos of the sky on an evening run a month ago. The colors were amazingly blue.

I also took some photos on my Z10k run in mid october. The colors this time was more yellow and red.

Theese are the images and colors I'm going to recall in my mind when running in the dark, during the season to come.


See my photos here.

I'm still here

Hello!

Just a short blogpost to let you know that I'm still here.
Due to a too busy schedule during the summer, I have not been able to blog or podcast for a while. Even my running have suffered and I don't understand how I shall get myself ready for the ½ marathon I signed up for at the festival of races. I might have to do the 10k instead.

Hopefully the daily routines will get back to normal again after the holidays but for the near future it seems to be a bit too much on the workfront, with working quite a few late evenings for at least the next couple of weeks to come.

That's bad for getting time for running, I'll see if I can get a few lunchtime runs in. I've tried that before and I think I can fit in a 5k run on my lunchbreak every now and then. It just takes a bit of planning the day before to pack my running shoes and things.

Anyway, I hope that your training is going better than mine and I hope to be talking to you soon through my podcast, I really miss that.

talk to you later

Krister

Oaktree-yellowhouse 10k loop

I brought my camera when running one of my favourite loops some days ago. I thought the track was around 10 kms and when measuring it with the "map my run" tool I found it to be 10.5 km, so my guess about the distance was quite good.

As you can see from the photos the track contains many different surfaces. I'm not so fond of the tarmac part but I need to run that part too, to get back home again. Maybe I should run the loop in the opposite direction and do the nice forest paths for the last part of my run, because that is what I really enjoy.

The track is very flat, so no hilltrainig when running this loop. I have found a few other 10k loops on the map, that contains a few hills but I have not tried them yet. I guess I have to do that in order to get fit for a race that I might sign up for and that I know is quite steep uphill in some parts. Maybe I'll bring my camera when I try theese new loops in a future run and I can show you what they looks like.

My training has been quite good for the last couple of weeks but could be better. I'm struggling to get the time for running. It seems that the calendar fills up with more things to do than I really want. Hopefully it will get better in a couple of weeks.

Krister

See photos from my Oaktree-yellow house loop here.

10k race

Yesterday I ran my first 10k race.

It was a beautiful warm and sunny evening and the track was nice. We ran two laps on parkways and streets in town.
I haven't been able to train as much as I had planned for this race because of a cold in the last weeks. But I'm very happy with my time - 1:02:18.
At the end of the race I thought about aiming for under one hour but I had to give that up and I did the last kms in my own pace. I really enjoyed it. I actually enjoyed the second lap more than the first.

There was about 100 runners participating and I finnished among the last ones but I'm really happy with what I accomplished and since this was my first 10k race I now have a PB wich I intend to beat next time.

I'll tell you more about the race in my next podcast episode wich I plan to post next weekend or so.

Krister

My goals

When I started this blog I posted a few goals in the right column next to my training log. Now let's see what have happened:

• To speed up a bit and run faster - I think I'm a little faster now but I haven't really been working on my speed yet, I have mostly tried to increase my distance.


• To be able to run 10k when spring comes - I have been running 10k in a slow pace and if nothing dramatic happens, I will run a 10k race on May the 6th


• To run a couple of Orienteering competitions during the spring - I will probably not be able to do this, but my youngest daughter is interested in orienteering so I will go with her on training once a week.


• To run the race "kraftprovet" in July (Swe) - I dont know yet but if the 10k race goes well and if I can continue my training the way I hope, It might happen.


• To... ... we'll see - I haven't really figured out what I meant by this so I guess we still have to see what I can accomplish

Maybe it's time to put up a few new goals here, I would like to try the phedippidations world wide half but I don't know if that's a realistic goal. But I didn't really think that 10k in the spring was realistic when I wrote that so I'm certainly going to aim for it.
I guess that speedtraining and runing up a few hills has to be a goal for me to make me a faster and stronger runner.
And I will have to keep the "..we'll see" goal to see if I can figure out what that means.

My kids thought it might be interesting for you to see what I look like so they made some portraits that I could post on the blog. I have to say that both of them are very good and this is what I look like, I guess that I have to post a photo later on so you can see what great painters my kids are.

Race plans

I had planned to run a 8km race this Sunday but...(excuses - excuses)
due to some obligations I just can't fit it in. Or to really tell you the truth, - I chickened out. -
I looked at the results in that particular race from earlier years and realized that I would be so left behind and finnish too long after anyone else and that just don't seems to be any fun. I decided to skip it and hopefully be back for it next year, when I intend to be in shape for competing with the times I saw in the results.

To show you, and not least myself, that I'm not a coward I'm signing up for a 10k race on May the 6th instead. According to the results in that race from ealier years I will be among the last ones to finnish but not the very last one (I hope).

I know that it is stupid of me to bother about that, I'm not compeeting against anyone but myself and I have never run a 10k before, so just finnishing will give me a PB - right?

To see if I could run that distance, it is a bit too long for me yet, I have built up my runs to 7,5 km at this point, I went out on a loop on roads and paths that is around 10km in a slow pace last Sunday. I ran that in 1 hour 20 minutes. Not fast but if nothing bad happens I will have no problems finnishing the race.

I was a bit disappointed with myself for not runing the 8k race but now I'm really looking forward to try my skills at the 10k race instead, I'm sure it will be great fun.
Last fall I corresponded with Nigel and when he advised me to sign up for a 10k race in the spring I though "no way that's going to happen.." I was really struggling to run 5k at that point. Now I'm getting there. I have to say that I am a bit proud of myself. We will see how I feel after the race.


Krister (:{

Problems solved?

Downloading and subscribing the Running the Narrow Path Podcast seems to work now.


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