Why?

Wednesday - 6.5km

Friday - 6.5km

Flemming, a former colleague (and mentor) in MTN, commented on one of my posts:

"Once you realize the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty and wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural & simple, in itself an ecstasy".

Yes please. Very true. It is not about the destination, it is about the journey. When it comes to marathons this is especially true. There's plenty of time to think when putting one foot in front of the other hour after hour, so most runners tend to work it out on their own. As am I. A marathon is 99% training and 1% race day. No point in training for a marathon if you don't enjoy the training. I do though. Training is something I look forward to. It is something my whole system is craving for. I'm already thinking about what to do after the Comrades. I need to line something up.

Last weekend, after the marathon, one of Celine's colleagues asked me why I would want to run an ultra marathon. How do you explain it to a non runner? Knowing that any attempt would be futile, I simply replied 'Why not?'. Honestly, there are many, many different reasons why I want to run the Comrades. I summed it up in one of my first blog posts: Achievement was the key word. It still is. But more and more, it has simply become a good reason for running 4-5 times a week. If Flemming is right (and he usually is) then with time, I'll get to the point where I don't need a reason anymore. Where each run in itself is the reason. Where time, distance and personal bests no longer matters. Maybe, after the comrades, that's going to be the case.

When we climbed the Rwenzori mountains some weeks back, my friend Alex and I talked about how reaching a goal often is an anticlimax. For me, the highlight of the climb was not the summit. We were up there for 2 minutes, it was freezing cold, there was no view at all and the glazier below was getting more and more dangerous for each minute we spent on celebrating. The highlight was definitely not the summit - the highlight was the 7 full days we spent in the mountains, filled with incredible views and unbelievably beautiful landscapes. I've got a feeling that I'll look back at the Comrades and make the same conclusion. I'd be surprised if crossing the finish line is going to be highlight. After all, I need to run 1500 kilometers before that. Hopefully the hours and energy spent on that will be rewarding in itself.

Ad finem.

Marathon Madsen

Kampala Marathon

Friday - 6.5 km

Sunday - 42.195 km

Running the Kampala Marathon was, as expected, much harder than running the Copenhagen Marathon. My finishing time was 4 hours and 18 minutes. Not exactly record breaking. Nevertheless, I'm more than happy with it.

There were moments of suffering that I won't forget about anytime soon. The sun was relentless and I was close to getting seriously dehydrated, so there wasn't really any other option than to walk for a it after each watering station and drink until the dizziness and the heavy tingling sensation in the arms was gone. On the Northern Bypass and in the hills of Mengo I struggled. In short, it was a hard run at times, but I completed it and thats what counts...

18,000 people have signed up for the Comrades Marathon next year. Registation has closed. Fortunately I signed up and paid some time back, and with my 4:18 minutes run on Sunday, I have qualified for the Comrades. I'm in. The first part of my plan held up.

Last night I decided to aim for running the 89 kilometers in less than 9 hours. There is a lot of statistics available on the internet about this particular run. On average, around 20% the participants do not finish. And only around 20% manage to run the distance in less than 9 hours. All that remains now is to run the 1,600 or so training kilometers in order to get fit enough for it. There are 172 days to go. That's less than 10 kilometers per day. How hard can it be?

Ad finem

Marathon Madsen