This trip did not start very well. After about 20 minutes in the plane I felt my nose closing up, I don’t know if it was from the air-condition or maybe some other draft I had gotten earlier but by the time we got to Germany my nose was running like crazy I was coughing and my throat was getting worse by the second. Then we opened the doors in Köln (23:00) and first the heats hits you and then the humidity…oh my god. I could hardly breath that’s how bad it was, even if you stood still you could not help sweating it was unbearable. We spend the night at my in-laws in a way to warm room, so I did not sleep very well. The next morning we drove to the Marathon city 5h away with +30°c most of the way. We got there just in time for the thunder and lightning to start !!!! Humidity again very high. We went to bed early and I managed to get a half decent night of sleep. Then next morning I was feeling better but still had a slight fever and was not really up for it but I still wanted to try and see how it would go.
The master plan was to start with the 3h pacemaker and see how that would go, I went with him for 1k then my pulse was 10 beats higher then it was suppose too and I knew right away that this was going to be about survival more then anything else. After 2k I was not felling great and I had already sweated through my T-shirt (yes it was already that warm at 7:30). People was going by me left ad right but I knew I had to go MY pace and did not try to keep up with any of them. Then after 10k I got a breakthrough!! I felt kind of ok the pulse was still a little high but I had managed to keep it stable so I tried to increase my turnover rate, according to my master-plan I was suppose to have done this at 5k, but at that point it would have been impossible for me to do. So I picked up a little speed and started picking up a lot of the people who had passed me earlier :) It felt good and I was still not pushing it, I was just a little above cruising pace. This lasted until half way which I did around 1:35/6. The next 3k I was with 2 others doing ok, then my reserves started giving up I slowed down, now I was just trying to keep running but it was not going to happen, I had to take a walking break at 26k. It did not really do anything for my legs, but it did bring my pulse down. From hereon I would run 2-2.5k and then do a 1 min walking break.
7 walking breaks and a lot of pain every time I would start running did not stop me. I finished the bloody thing !!!! With cramps hitting me 5m before the finish line I finished limping arouse the line.
I was done, legs in a lot of pain no fuel in me but I finished it. 3:27:13 not quite what I had hopped for but on the day a lot better then I should have done.
In the finished area I got my Traditional German cold finisher beer :)

2 days later and I am back in Iceland with a lot of sore muscles I have the hardest time going up stairs, but that is still A LOT easier then going down...av av av av.

I know now that I can actually run/walk 42k but it was a lot harder then I expected, but for the IM I do plan NOT to be sick before the start. And it might also help if I would get in a couple more longer runs before the IM, now I can do nothing but what for my legs to return to a “human” level so I can start running again.



Not get sick

Sat down, had a beer.


Not enough long runs


Very cool race in a very beautiful area