Copenhagen Marathon 2022

Having booked this in 2019 and it getting cancelled multiple times I didn’t ever think I’d get to run it!

While the marathon isn’t my favourite distance, I do love it, especially a big event city marathon. Having visited Copenhagen previously and had an amazing time I was really keen for this to be my first race in a different country.

So how did it go?

The short version.

Everything didn’t quite go to plan but I took nine minutes off my previous best and finished in 3:16:40

Thanks for reading! 😄

The longer version

Where to start? Lets get what went wrong out of the way first.

Money – While it didn’t specifically impact my performance, leaving my wallet in the car back in the UK did nothing to keep my stress levels down while I was supposed to be taking it easy. My bank, Lloyds, weren’t much help.

Their website had this section.

Brilliant I thought. They’ll be able to sort me some cash or something to tide me over for a few days. The first person I spoke to hadn’t got a clue about how to get access to emergency cash. After speaking to a supervisor the only option they gave me was to report the card as lost/stolen, even though it wasn’t, and cancel the card where they (or rather, Visa) would be able to organise emergency access to some cash. At this point though it had taken so long to sort it was early evening so banks and the like would be closed so how was I supposed to organise food and drink?

I didn’t have a lot of confidence in what I’d been told so I called the number specifically for lost or stolen cards. I essentially got the same information. I needed to eat that evening so decided I’d chance Google Pay using my phone, see how I got on and if I was still having a problem the day after I’d go down the card cancellation route. Fortunately I’d picked the right country. Denmark by all accounts is already a mostly cashless country and seeing as it was just me there was no danger of me hitting contactless transaction limits (about £40 as far as I could tell)

I’m fully aware this was my own fault. But why have a section on your website about getting access to emergency cash while out of the country if that isn’t something that’s actually on offer!

Pacing – Quite simply, I went out too fast. I actually ended up running my fastest ever half marathon as part of this race. In my defence on that part, I’ve not attempted a half marathon PB in some time and with the recent improvements in my running I’m due one. But it still points to me going out faster than I should have.

The main reasons were really around pacing groups and my own (stupid) choice to run outside of my own ability. My first three or four miles I was basically on plan, but I ended up getting caught up with the 3.10 pacing group, in the wrong way. I don’t like running with pace groups. I understand why some people want them and they do a great job of helping people achieve goals but I find the crowds that come with them too stifling. I should have let them come past me but I decided to stick ahead of them, wait until it thinned out a bit and then let them come past me. They didn’t catch me until 18 miles though! This is where the part about running outside of your ability comes in.

At my last marathon in Manchester I basically ran the plan perfectly. It wasn’t really until a mile or two before the finish that the legs started to go, but even then I wasn’t exactly suffering. It meant I’d hit the time I wanted but at the back of my mind I wondered for ages after if I’d been too conservative with the plan. I’ve also had some really big improvements recently across other distances so while I knew I was running at an ambitious pace I was feeling really comfortable so I thought I’d stick with it and see what happened. I’d had something similar happen during a 20 mile race as part of the build up where the goal on reflection had been too conservative and I’d changed it on the fly and had a great result. That didn’t quite work here.

What happened were two things. I inexplicably ran my fastest mile of the day (at that point), tried to sort it out, went slower then somehow ran my fastest mile of the race at 17 miles. Then the pace group caught me. Between battling with getting the pace right and going too fast and so many people coming past it mentally finished me. I battled on for a couple of miles but after that everything started getting really difficult. The official pace graph I got in my results shows it.

I do wonder if I hadn’t had that little 5k period would I have been able to hold the pace I was at. Even though I was going quicker than I planned I was feeling comfortable and pretty consistent.

But, that doesn’t take this into consideration…

Water / Vomit – I got my hydration very wrong on this run. My usual plan is to grab a bottle from the first water station and gradually sip it until it’s gone. Then do that again and again. I don’t take a sip and then chuck the bottle away. Event organisers are recognising this happens though and how much waste it generates so at this race they switched out bottles for small paper cups and I didn’t realise. It’s hard drinking from a paper cup while running, you lose most of it just grabbing it and then you have to drink what’s left straight away.

It ended up being unexpectedly warm. The day I arrived it was overcast, windy and a little bit chilly. If the wind had gone it would have been perfect but the wind disappeared, the clouds went with it and temperatures went through the roof. It turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous day, but that’s not conducive for marathon running. As a result I didn’t drink enough, by the time it had started to get difficult (because of going too fast) I was desperate for water and was stopping to take two, three or four cups at each stop but it wasn’t enough and I started to feel a bit queasy. I battled through it and when I got to the final water stop at the start of the last mile I was offered a massive cup. I grabbed it and downed the lot!

It was Red Bull.

I’ve had energy drinks in the past but the last mile of a marathon is not one of them and as soon as it touched my lips I knew this was a massive mistake and seconds later I was doubled over at the side of the road emptying my stomach (sorry..)

Once I stopped retching I managed to get going again knowing I’d be at the finish line soon. Bizarrely I felt much better at that point and ended up getting back up to pace and just about managed my customary sprint finish/shuffle but that part was not fun!

The good stuff.

That all may sound doom and gloom but it’s not. I ran a PB!

The Event

The race itself was fantastic. Copenhagen is a lovely city and the route was great with lots of sights to take in. This was billed as a flat course and it really was. Very little in the way of climbing. Two bridges are pretty much all I can remember, one of which we did twice.

It wasn’t fully packed with people in the same way as somewhere like London or Manchester was but where there were people they were very loud and very supportive.

Red bull aside it was really well organised. Aside from the pandemic and my own ability to forget my wallet this was one of the smoothest marathon experiences I’ve had. I got all of the information I needed in the run up. The expo to collect the number was straight forward. The app was brilliant for people who were following and I got some decent pictures and videos all included alongside a good quality t-shirt and a pretty medal.

Start line was really easy to get to, bag drop was easy and queue free. Some more toilets would have been useful but there is never enough at any big race.

The volunteers, and there were a lot of them, were unbelievable. Every single person I saw during the day had a smile on their face and were more than happy to help or offer some words of encouragement.

Despite travelling on my own for this one I met so many lovely people, both Danish and British. I made it to one of the local parkruns on Saturday (Amager Strandpark) where they were having their 10th anniversary which meant for festivities! Also ended up having a beer after the race with a group I met at parkrun who were there to support some friends who were doing the marathon. I was really pleased about this as I’d have no one to celebrate with otherwise!

I even met running youtuber Ben Felton on the start line and had a brief little chat. I didn’t have the courage to ask for a pic. But do go check out his video of the race. He smashed his goal!

So, I’m calling this a successful race. I had a very nice weekend away, came away with PB and actually have some things I can go away and improve on next time.

Here are some pics! If you’re a running geek there is a bit at the bottom on what got me through the race.

Kit

I’ve pretty much got this part sorted. I can’t recommend enough making sure you practise in the kit you’re going to run in and figuring out what food you’re going to eat. Don’t just stick with the same gels because you think that’s what everyone does. There are so many different products now you can figure out exactly what works for you. It should go without saying but don’t try anything new on race day. It amazed me how many people were wearing their brand new shirts from the expo on race day!

Shoes – Brooks Glycerin GTS 19. Find the shoe that works for you and stick with it until they tweak it enough that it doesn’t. Then find something else.

Socks – It’s worth spending a little bit more to find the socks that aren’t going to give you any grief. I swear by Balega these days.

Underwear – Runderwear boxers. These were a game changer for me. Chaffing generally now only happens when I make mistake of some sort.

Between these three things blisters and chaffing are largely a thing of the past for me. Figure out what works for you on your training runs. Chaffing and blisters are not a badge of honour or something that you just have to accept happens when running!

There is also some vaseline in that picture. That’s exclusively to stop nipple bleeding!

Kit – just my club running vest and the very basic pair of shorts I always race in.

Flip Belt – I’ve got a couple of things I use for carrying stuff during a run but for this I went with the Flip Belt. Partly because of it being made from fabric so I knew it wasn’t going to chafe me but also as I needed to carry my inhaler and my phone. (and because I follow my own advice now!) I also used a cheap bog standard running pouch to stick the food in. They played together quite nicely.

Food – I decided a while back I don’t like gels. It’s possible I’ve not found a gel I like but I decided I needed to try something else and I’ve settled on two things.

Voom – Pocket Rocket Electro Energy bar. One square every 15 minutes. Makes a bar last an hour. They have a really good taster pack for trying their range. The recover fudge is amazing but so popular it’s hardly in stock at the moment!

Veloforte – they have a lot of products but I use their sweets/chews. Texture is like when you get turkish delight dusted in sugar. Similar to the Voom you have a square and make the whole thing last an hour. These are a bit more of a pain to open and run with than the Voom but not a massive problem.

I mixed these two things up during the race for a bit of variation.

The only other thing in that picture I’ve not mentioned is this

It’s recommended to get some protein onboard as soon as possible after a big effort. I mentioned above about Voom and their recover fudge but I wasn’t able to get any in the run up to the race. As a result there is a white chocolate crunch “thing” I usually get from the supermarket when I can’t get recover fudge so I’d got some of that with me. However, at the expo they were giving out samples for Atnu protien bars. The banana one was amazing! I grabbed a few bars and they were spot on after the race. I’ve no idea if I’ll be able to get any in the UK but I’ll be trying!