The Aarhus City Marathon was organised by the athletics club Aarhus 1900. The marathon is, unfortunately, no longer run, but I was lucky to run in the Jutland capital while I could. I ran on Sunday 14th September 2003 and was alone on this trip.
The start was at 10 a.m., and running numbers could be picked up at Aarhus Cathedral School from eight. I had to get up early to make the 280-kilometre journey back in time.
The Cathedral School is not far from Store Torv (Big Square) and Lille Torv (Little Square) which were the start and finish of the run, respectively.
The marathon was run on a beautiful autumn day, and despite the name Aarhus City Marathon, we also ran through the suburbs of the city and into the green belt. There were water stations approximately every five kilometres along the route, which meant we got fresh water and energy drinks eight times during the race. At the finish, I also got apples and pieces of bananas.
I wasn’t in the best shape that day. That is to say that to start with things went very well, and I passed the half distance with the time 2:06:16. After that, my energy began to wane.
Somewhere after the 30-kilometre mark, I had to walk. That actually didn’t bother me because I wasn’t there to break any records or to finish within a specific time, so I decided to take things easy. But that was a mistake, however. A fellow runner told me that they had set a five-hour limit on the race, so I was suddenly in a hurry. Being satisfied with a slow time is one thing, but there was no way I wanted to risk having driven to the other end of the country just to drop out of the marathon because of the time limit.
So I was in a hurry and had to run the whole time for the next six to eight kilometres. A man’s got to do, what a man’s got to do. And I had to, so I did it. My time was 4:54:17. Once again I succeeded in crossing the line within the time limit in a race, where I got very close to the limit.
I am convinced that it is in situations like these when the mind takes over. “What you don’t have in your legs, you must have in your head”.
The journey home turned out to be rather trying. Having started a long day driving as well as running a marathon, I had very little energy left by the end of the afternoon. Half way across the island of Funen I got really tired, and I actually think I may have dropped off for a second. That scared me and made me extra attentive, so I wound down the windows and slowed down, while I looked for a service station, but there was none. It wasn’t until I got to Zealand that I found a service area just after the Great Belt Bridge. Here I tried to get some sleep in the car but didn’t succeed. However, by relaxing I did regain some lost resources, and after 15-20 minutes I was ready to complete my drive across Zealand. The following night I slept extremely well.
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