The Bridge Run

--Links to the Bridge Run are in the ‘Links’ section--

Saturday morning – the leg was a little stiff, but I went for a walk around Kastellet, another good running spot with its own lake, and it felt fine again. I drew up a mental list of pros and cons:

Against running:

- The injury might come back and, if it did, I would be off running for another month at least

For running:

- I am this week’s dutyman, so this would give me an excuse to divert the duty calls to a colleague

- I will have the best part of next week off running anyway, as I have a business trip

- It is the last time the bridge run is happening

- What else is there to do on a Saturday afternoon?

- If I get injured, I will probably be back up and running by the end of July – not the end of the world

- If I get to the finish, a nice Swedish girl would give me a medal

The last point was good enough for me. I arranged to meet two friends from work, Claus and Niels, at Niels’ house near the pick up point for the buses to the start, and slowly cycled the 8km to be there.

In hindsight it was a pretty optimistic move – to run a half marathon on 11km training in the last 5 weeks, 8.5 of them the previous day. The day was warm – hot by the time we started – with a light westerly wind. This meant the apparent wind on the bridge was zero, as we were running east, and it soon felt very hot. I realised this was not a day to break any records, and decided to carry my camera and a water bottle and just cruise along best possible.

The start of the bridge run is on an island – the bridge itself does not quite go all the way across the sound. Instead at the Danish end, it reaches an island and the link becomes a tunnel for a few km, surfacing again by Copenhagen airport. As you cannot get to the island under your own steam, a fleet of buses was laid on to get people there.

I tried a short warm up run along the gravel track. Things did not feel so good, though it seemed that keeping a slow speed helped. I stretched again and then went to find my start position – having got under 1 hour 30 in the last year, I was entitled to a ‘seeded’ position. This is important as all the seeded runners start first; there is then a gap of 3 minutes to the next bunch, then further starts at 2 minutes intervals, as the start area itself is quite narrow. So I left Claus and Niels and spent the remaining 10 minutes before the start stretching on the roadside barrier.

(Right - Claus, Niels, me)

Off we went at 3 o’clock. The northern carriageway had been shut to traffic, and on such a clear day there was great visibility in both directions. We were in sunshine, and the few showers to the north did not head our way. The first 2 or 3 km I took very slowly, and was in or near the back marker group of the seeded runners.

(Right - Passports please - the Swedish border at about KM4)

I was not looking at my watch on purpose, but was probably doing well over 5 minutes per km at that point – giving a finish time of over 1 hour 45. However as I got going, the leg felt better and better – until at the ‘peak’ of the bridge, at 5 km, it was pretty good. I was not quite up to my normal speed, but was not going badly either. I started to overtake people – clearly there were either a lot of the seeded runners who had lied about their best times, or were recovering from injury too…surely not all of them?

(Above - all downhill from here - the crest of the bridge at KM5)

(Below - traffic passing below)

(Above right - self portrait while running - looking reasonably happy!)

There is about 5 km of downhill running on the Swedish side of the bridge, up to the toll gates, (which lane for runners?) where you take a left and head through a park and into the suburbs of Malmo.

Passing the 11km mark, I realised I had now run beyong the sum total of my training since mid May!

The suburbs are not very inspiring but are pleasant enough. Unlike on the bridge itself, where spectators are not allowed, there were plenty of people out to watch. A few had set up their garden sprinklers, which was a welcome move in the heat.

By the 15km mark I was feeling my lack of training in my legs, but as I was not moving so fast I was not actually feeling tired. The 18km mark came up, with the glimpse of the stadium I remembered from last year – it is actually the finish line, to which you are brought almost within sight of, before diverting round a pleasant park for a final 3 km loop. Last year, running fast and having been out the night before, this was highly irritating, however this year I had plenty in reserve and coasted round the park. The twinge did not quite put in an appearance, though particularly over the last couple of km, the leg did feel a little stiff.

On into the stadium, about a quarter lap, and there was the finish.

I managed a highly respectable 1 hour 35 and 7 seconds, stood in the water mist for a while and carried on to the water ‘trough,’ was given a medal by a sweet Swedish girl, picked up some bananas and chocolate and went and sat in the sun by the finish for Niels and Claus to come through. The Swedish commentator was announcing in a thick accent that we should stock up with ‘water, bananas and other tasteful things,’ and that we should ‘remember to leave our “ships” (chips?) before exiting the stadium,’ so most runners were doing just that – sitting on the grass waiting for their friends to arrive. Very pleasant.

Niels ended up at 1 hour 52, and Claus at 2 hours exactly.

We left our ships, having worked out that he was referring to the timing chips on our shoes, got back on the bus to Denmark, and went for a beer at Niels' house. The gamble appears to have paid off, and while I am not up to full speed, I am getting over the injury.

(Right - the easy way home - on the bus)

For comparison:

2005 - 1 hour 26, 5 seconds. 44^th out of 162 seeded runners, 65 out of 3825 overall

2006 – 1 hour 35, 7 seconds. 188 out of 344 seeded runners, 344 out of 4904 overall