Photo. Organizer
Towards the never-setting sun, the half marathon in Helsinki.
After the marathon in Norway and running in Sweden It's Finland's turn – another Nordic country on our running map. The marathon did not fit into this year's plan, so we opted for “half”. The run was scheduled for Saturday, which made it possible to organize a very compact trip – just right for running and exploring Helsinki.
We picked up the packages on Friday – bag and starting number. The package could be enriched with free safety pins and a paid T-shirt. The running city was well prepared, large facilities, deposit tents and toilets. The partners of the run and the ubiquitous geese also exhibited.
Scheduled to start 8:15 – quite unusual, but the hour turned out to be a very good choice. With each passing minute, the crowd thickened and dutifully lined up in the appropriate time sectors. I didn't know the specifics of running in Finland so far and we didn't know where to position ourselves. I don't run at the same pace, I run at the beginning, a bit too fast, but I already have.
Tu, turns out to be running “for a given time” – hence the large number of pacemakers and times. No one is pushing forward and there is virtually no overtaking, which is very convenient. The route was led along sidewalks and promenades with quite an interesting course, including the most important places and monuments in Helsinki. Well secured, even if I was running alone, not with the crowd, I guess I would get lost.
Photo. Organizer
The weather was too good, it was too warm for me. The extremely bright sun was literally burning, though the temperature was hovering around 20 degrees. I enjoyed every gust of wind, which was a bit cooling and not bothersome.
Photo. Organizer
There were plenty of water and isotonic stations along the route. You could drink Red Bull twice and take gummies once. We got plenty of drinks at the finish line – protein drink, alcohol free beer, wodę, smoothies, Red Bull but there was nothing “permanent” to eat.
In general, the half marathon was not the easiest, although it was flat, it was winding and you had to watch out for curbs and variable surface. As usual, I ran without any expectations, byle do mety – watching the city along the way. Jestem bardzo zadowolona, the run was successful, Helsinki is interesting and worth taking a look at BMW HHM.
21K: 01:47:12 in 01:53:07
