The plan was to run at a nice and even 5:40/km pace to finish in 4 hours, but after feeling OKish for the first two laps out of four, suddenly I felt overheated and dehydrated and stepped off after 22km.
The pace on laps 1 and 2 was exactly as planned, 27:30 for the first 5k (5:30/km), 28:25 for 5-10km (5:41/km), 28:10 for the third 5k from 10 to 15k (5:38/km) and 28:53 for 15-20k (5:47/km). I was on track to run that four hour marathon, but somehow in the warm and windy weather wasn't getting enough water, energy or, something else. Oh well, there's always next year...
Tag: 22k
Sunday twentytwo
A nice way to get some variation into the long runs is to take the bus/metro somewhere far and run back home. Google says it's only about 13 km by car to Vuosaari, but if you follow the coast closely it's much longer.
km 2-4: Lots and lots of new houses in Aurinkolahti (Helsinki's own Santa Cruz) before a dive into a green area at km 5-6 (roughly resembling Helsinki central park). Over the vuosaari bridge at 7-8, and into Marjaniemi, an older housing-area around km 8-10. At km 12 you can look at the rich people who are envious of the even richer people, because they have a nicer RIB at the pier just down from their (multi?)million-euro villa. More lots and lots of new houses at "Eastend", a newly built area at km 14-15. The houses are built to look like (large) cottages in the archipelago with a grey weather-beaten-wood look to the outside. However closer inspection reveals it's not wood, just a paneled grey-painted wall. I wonder if admiral Cronstedt would approve? The Iraqi embassy at the 90-degree bend between km 16 and 17 looks as if nothing ever happened, with a well groomed lawn and flowers at the front. Gloves on for the windy kulosaari-bridge at km 18 which offers a nice view into the city center - you can easily count 5-6 churches another half dozen landmarks from here. The view would be even nicer without the architectural concrete-wonders of merihaka at km 20. Just after km 21 the restaurant on tervasaarihas put up a cheesy advert featuring santa-claus and santas-little-helpers. Since the pace was a slow 6:30/km-ish, I decided to quit at 2 hours 20 minutes, or 22 km.