Copenhagen Half Marathon- The Reasons Why

In my last post, I mentioned that my next race target is the Copenhagen Half Marathon on 13th September. This is for a mixture of running and non-running related reasons.

 

The running ones stem from a desire to go into the autumn/winter road and cross country relays and beyond a bit fitter than in previous years. Often I have felt caught cold performance wise by the time the relays come round. Targeting a half marathon means pushing my mileage up for a spell and hopefully spin off benefits in race performance when I bring it back down. I also wish to keep my running fresh to prevent staleness creeping in which can happen if you're more or less churning out the same races on an annual cycle. Copenhagen is a race I've never tried before whereas the Stirling 10k on the same day is one I've now been to 3 times.

 

As time goes on, I'm also finding more and more that without goals to aim for, my motivation drops and training falters. July this year is a case in point. I had no major race to aim for so I more or less took the month off. This year I seem to have moved towards a pattern of selecting a target race, training specifically towards it, having a short down period afterwards (okay, July was a bit longer) then selecting the next one. My best race performances in 2015- Armagh, Birmingham and the BMCs in Stretford and Watford- have all been approached in this way. I didn't consciously adopt this approach, rather, it has slowly evolved and it seems to be working.

 

Not wishing to fix something which isn't broken, I've plotted out a 6 week build up to Copenhagen. I'm currently in week 2. I'll share my training at a later date, provided I get the desired race result.

 

The non-running reasons relate to my 6 month exchange at Lund University in Sweden for 6 months between January and June 2004. Lund is an hour away from Copenhagen by train across the Oresund Bridge. My then student budget stretched to a few trips to the Danish capital at that time. I particularly remember my parents and brother enjoying their excursion to the Carlsberg Brewery. The free samples beat taking a bank loan for a pint in a pub. The race is 2 days before my birthday and it has now been over 11 years since I left Lund. I haven't been for a single return visit. I've had a few false dawns over that decade and a bit but, encouraged by one of my bosses, I'm finally grasping the nettle and just doing it. I arrive in Copenhagen early evening on Friday 11th September and the plan is to get the nostalgic homecoming to my Swedish alma mater completed the following day and also have an excursion somewhere on Sunday afternoon after the race. Where I go and which country it will be in depends on how much time I will have. I fly home late afternoon on the Monday so there may be more time to do something that day as well.

 

I generally get misty eyed and sentimental when I think back to those days. Life was so different. I had a rag a muffin dress sense, dyed blond hair (in an effort to blend in), didn't have a job (student grants, loans and family sustained me), lived in student accommodation comprising a room and bathroom while sharing a lounge and kitchen with up to 14 others. I didn't drive and my main modes of transport were my 2 feet and a bicycle. I was care free and it constituted, without a shadow of a doubt, the best 6 months of my life. I would do it again tomorrow given the chance. In fact, I intend to live the way I did for these few days I'll spend back there. The hotel I've booked does bicycle hire after all. Who knows who I'll meet (probably no-one) but I look forward to being the 20 year old me again for a brief period.

Weighing up the running and non-running reasons, it certainly appears that the latter outweigh the former.

Above: a snap shot from life in Lund in 2004. Strange dress sense and dyed blond hair.