Published 12th May 2025
I am aware this isn’t an ultra marathon, but I couldn’t not reflect on how the day went! I decided to enter this fairly last minute after not feeling totally broken by South Downs Way 50, and because it literally went within about 100m of our front door. I’m also continuing to train for Endure24 and would have needed to get a long run in this weekend; why not join the 21,000 other runners on the streets of Copenhagen?!
Firstly, the weather was perfect. It was a slightly chilly day, cloud cover in the morning with some sun in the afternoon, and not too much wind. I caught the Metro to the start, and was glad my stop was not too close to the start as it meant I actually got on. Later stops were too busy for everyone to get on, so I imagine that was a bit stressful for them. I debated cycling, but didn’t fancy later trying to find my Swapfiets bike from the probably hundreds of other blue-wheeled hire bikes at the start. I joined the inevitable massive queue for the toilets, envied the men who can pee anywhere, then dropped my bag off at the incredibly well-organised bag drop area. I headed to the start, which was slightly more chaotic. The paths are a bit narrow to join the start pens, and there were quite a lot of spectators who couldn’t read the “athlete only” sign and were generally getting in the way. Fortunately I didn’t need to stress or push through as I was in one of the back starting waves. Once at the start, inevitably I needed to pee again, so joined the much shorter queue in the start pen.
I had no plan for this race beyond enjoy it as much as possible. I was expecting a time of maybe 4:30, having done absolutely no road-marathon specific training and having the Hammer Trail 50km in my legs from last weekend. I set off near the 4:20 pacers but was content to let them go if needed… or so I tried to tell myself. After about 1km, I decided the pace was a bit slow and maybe I could just go a little quicker and see how long it lasted. At 5km, I passed through in just under 30 minutes, so I wondered if I could possibly beat my previous best time of 4:16… 10km passed by in about 59 minutes and the legs were still feeling fresh. I took a Voom bar with me as my nutrition; it’s roughly 4 gels in carbs, and took the energy drinks only at the aid stations (at risk of later experiencing the danger-farts). Around this point, near Kayak bar, I saw two of my friends, Owen and Chris, shortly followed by Rutger. Our names were all printed on the numbers, which is super nice as it means you hear supporters cheering your name, but hearing your own friends shout your name still absolutely tops it and gives a little boost.
The route is really well supported by friends, families, and music. I especially enjoyed the drummers, and got a huge boost from the choir, despite having no idea what they were singing in Danish about. At around 18km, I thought of my running split obsessed friend back in the UK (shout-out Craig), as I thought about doing a negative split. I was thinking, for Craig, I would push on at half-way, then push a bit more in the final 10km. I also thought my pace was super consistent and my Strava pace graph would look like a gentle but consistent slope (spoiler, it just wasn’t – I’m quite good at pacing by feel, but not that good…). At half-way, legs were feeling good, danger-farts had not arrived, and I was still steadily passing people. I was in my head and really looking forward to seeing the support crew at Marmokirken (33.5km and 34km), so it was a nice surprise to see my new flatmate Serge shouting my name at about 27km.
Along the route, I tried to read as many signs as possible, and remember my favourites. The support crew definitely had high ranking signs reading “who needs toenails anyway?”, “Hurry up so we can go drink!”, and “therapy was also an option”. I’m not sure whether Owens shout of “hurry up” was encouraging or not… it was definitely something. Some of my other favourite signs were “chatGPT can’t help you with this”, “if Trump can run, so can you”, and “stay fucking salty”. I also enjoyed the lady who had written “keep pushing”, then drawn a pair of open legs and stuck her face in the middle. I almost took a photo of that one…
The final 8km were a getting a bit sore, and not helped by the many other suffering people who had started to walk around me. They didn’t walk in single file, so it became a bit of a slalom of people, not what failing hip flexors need… Unfortunately for Craig, I didn’t speed up more in the final 10km, but I did try. My thoughts around 40km were that we could just round down a marathon, 40km would be absolutely fine. What’s 2.195km between friends?! But I didn’t stop there, and kept running all the way to the finish line to finish with a new best time of 4:07:44, around 8 minutes off the previous best time. I think the next road marathon goal needs to be a time starting with a 3, which feels very achievable now. But, that is a goal for another time. For now I look forward to Endure24 in just less than 4-weeks.
Copenhagen is definitely one I’d return to, especially if I were chasing a fast time. It was very well organised, bar the slightly chaotic start. The roads are wide, and despite the large number of runners, the course never felt overly busy. It was very well supported, the atmosphere was fantastic, there were plenty of aid stations, and the volunteers were enthusiastic and friendly. Overall, another fun day out.
Distinctly Average Ultra Runner 