Malmö, again

Being a city full of memories, reaching back to the 1980s in Beijers Park, through the late 90s of coming of age, to the open skyline of Kasai this summer, Malmö has always held a special place in my heart. Today, I got to race 42.2 kilometres through its streets.

For the first half marathon, I lived the dream of running in under three hours and thirty minutes, even if my heart rate was well above 170 bpm. Having passed the 21k mark in one hour and 43 minutes, it only took a few more kilometres for reality to catch up with me. With my knee hurting like hell and my stamina simply not there, from 32 kilometres onwards it became pure suffering, often with my pace dropping to between six and seven minutes per kilometre. Finishing in 3 hours and 53 minutes, I felt horribly nauseous but, luckily, both my parents were at the finish line and took extraordinarily good care of me.

A few hours at a Parisian café later, all parameters were back to normal and I could take the train back to Halmstad. Looking back on the race, I am still happy about finishing in under four hours and having had such a beautiful day by the water. Contrary to the forecast, the sun broke through the mist in ways that almost reminded me of California, and it is no exaggeration to say that I could see myself living in Malmö again sometime in the future, when the kids have grown up.