The Hans Christian Andersen Marathon is run, naturally enough, in the city of Odense and named after its world-famous writer. It was run for the first time in 2000, which means that I first ran in its second year – and again in 2010. I had signed up for 2003 but had to stay home because I wasn’t well. In 2001, the run also hosted the Danish Championships organised by the Danish Athletics Federation.

 

 

Although The Hans Christian Andersen Marathon was a young event, the island of Funen has proud traditions in this classic distance. The very first marathon was run on Funen in 1903 on a route which took runners back and forth between Odense and the port of Faaborg, although only five people ran. This was only seven years after the world premiere of the modern marathon at the Olympic Games in Athens in 1896.

 

We had to leave early that Sunday morning to be ready at the start at 10.00. Steffen had signed up for a mini marathon for children and youngsters. The distance was a tenth of a marathon, i.e. 4.2 kilometres.

 

Most of the marathon was run in the city of Odense, but it also included part of the periphery. I decided to run hard from the start and was punished for it at the end of the day, when I had little energy left. I made a time of 4:24:44. At the finishing line, Giraffe Beer was being served, a strong brew by the Funen-based company Albani, which sponsored the run.

 

 

Steffen also put the pressure on early but was able to keep his good pace throughout the run. With a time of 0:16:08 he won the 10 to 13-year-old boys’ class. He was later sent a trophy and was thus the official Danish Champion.

 

The funny thing is that Steffen has never seriously trained. As a teenager, he played a lot of football, which kept him physically fit, and he was usually the fastest boy in his year at school at the annual sports day.

 

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