42 kilometers straight ahead without one single hill, a brisk wind, the roar of the North Sea, changing surfaces but with sand all the way. What happens I wonder if you speed up your own run for a loving squeeze?

My first actual marathon in Denmark turned out to be an odd sort of race.
The North Sea Beach Marathon was run for the first time in 2000, so I ran in the second such run. The run is probably the only running event in the world run only on sand. In addition to the classic marathon distance of 42.195 kilometres, there is also a half-marathon and distances of ten and five kilometres. The year I’ve participated, the run began in Vejers and ended at Hvide Sande, as in the first year. Over the years the start and finish areas have alternated between the two places. Some years you run northwards and in others southwards. The half-marathon starts every year in Nymindegab and has the same finish as the marathon. The shorter runs now start and finish in the same place, so you run in one direction, then turn and run back. That was not the way it was in 2001, however. That year, the ten-kilometre race started at Skodbjerge Strand and the five-kilometre run at Hvide Sande South Beach.