Vällingby Marathon 2012 - The Race

Crazy! I think this is the word the best describes the Vällingy Marathon 2012. During the night appr 10-12cm of extremelly wet snow fell to the ground. It was like the first snow of the year. It was cold and very very wet.

Pre race
Took the bus and train to Vällingby. Arrived at 10:00 - 1 hour to go. I was not impressed at all of the facilities. I understand that this is a very small race but still - I expected more. This is the oldest marathon race in Sweden - hence make more of it.

I met Mahesh 10:40. He was just about to do his first half marathon race of his life. He couldn't get a tougher first attempt. We had a chat, talked to his family. Start was actually 15 minute delayed.

Start - 10.5km (first lap)
Vällingby is a 4 lap marathon. We run it in a 8, so Vällingby centre is basically passed during 2 times every lap.

During the first km if was obvious how crazy this was. Snow all over the place and it was so very wet. In the beginning I tried to avoid the big water ponds but after a while it was just to run through it. Think Tjurruset and you get a good picture of the race. The first km was a little bit too fast but then I managed to stick to 5:30-5:35 pace. That pace felt good (heart rate at appr 163). It was great to run a new race and I almost felt like an explorer during the first lap.

Second Lap
During the first lap I had my iPod working. Listening to some podcasts. After appr 16km the iPod died - it was simply too humid. That sucked big time. I love to listen to podcasts when I run. Now I was all alone. All alone. Second lap was ok - I think I passed the 1/2 marathon at appr 1:58:30. I understood that if I want to break sub 4 hours I need to increase speed a little bit. During the last 4km of the second lap I ran together with two guys. They ran in appr 5:40 pace but at the end of the lap they did some 5:50 and even 5:55. When we came to the water stations at the start of the third lap I decided to pass them.

Third lap (21-31.5km)
Good and strong lap. I think I kept 5:15 km during a lot of kms. But at the end of the lap, maybe the last 3 I realized that I am getting tired. The legs (calfs) were really dead. Probably because of the weather. The feet were totally soaked and the frequent running in mud like Tjurruset made the calfs work more than normal.

Fourth lap - 31km - finish
Pew. Tough tough. I really wanted to go sub 4. I knew that I needed to maintain appr 5:45 pace during the last lap. I actually passed some runners during this lap who were basically dead. I guess that gave me some energy since I knew at least that I was faster than these guys. The last 10km were bascically one step at a time. I was tired. Pain in the legs. Focus on the next lamp post. Try to catch that guy. Time? Ah - need to increase a little bit. It felt liked I was walking but I managed to keep that important 5:45 pace. At the end I made some very slow ones but I think that I never did one km that was slower than 6:00 pace.

Finish
I finished! 3:58:16. I was so tired. During the entire race that had only been serving water and sport drink. Now I noticed that they prepared some fodd. I asked them and they said that its gulash soup with sour creme. Do you want? God yes! Give it to me! So I basically swollowed huge amount of soup in no time. It was so so so good. Some lemonade to that!

Walked back to the "dressing room". Took the bus and came home 1hour later. Very tired. Very tired.

All-in-all. A cool experience. Amazing weather and conditions. I haven't been this tired in a lot of races. The cons of the race were lack of fodd during the race and lack of indicators where to turn during the race. I actually ran in wrong direction 2 times. That is not good!

So now we are looking forward. Bike races! We will probably do Hjälmaren runt May 12. Then its Stockholm Marathon beginning June, Vätternrundan June 16 and Jubileumsmaraton July 14! Great!

El Maco