Progress

My mobile phone alarm woke me up at 5.30 yesterday morning. When I set the alarm the night before I was determined to get up early and run the 19 kilometers before taking Viktor to school. However, my determination had somewhat faded during the night, because by the time I had switched off the alarm I had already decided that it was not a good morning for running and that postponing till the afternoon was an excellent idea.

12 hours later I was cursing my early morning decision. The first 10 kilometers were unbearably hot and humid. No breeze, no shade. I felt like I was running in a sauna. It was hard to find anything positive about running at that point. But, as the sun eventually started to drop down towards the horizon, the temperature and humidity dropped too and by the time it was dark, I even felt a slight breeze.

I finished the 19 kilomters in 1:41:11. I had hoped for 1:40, but given the conditions I wasn't at all disappointed. More importantly, by the time I finished I still felt like I had at least another 5-8 kilometers left in me at the same pace. All in all, I was happy with having persevered and finished in a reasonable time.

Copenhagen Marathon is exactly 2 months away. From now on each week involves a long distance (between 21 and 32 kilometers) run each Sunday and then shorter runs (8-10kms) on most other days. It is intimidating, but I've been through this training schedule twice before and I know that it is doable. Moreover, this is nothing compared to the training regime that awaits the last 6 months before the comrades, so I'll just take one day at the time, put my head down and focus on getting the runs done. Preferably in the mornings from now on.

Marathon Madsen