Göteborgsvarvet 2023
The 21k half marathon in Gothenburg is nothing new to me. Despite the fact that I am definitely not a fast runner, I do like and appreciate the crowd, the feeling during the race, the big "party" and the feeling after completing such race.
It's definitely a lot different from those long mountain races where you are pretty much left alone for miles without any human contact.
Still, my training suffered a lot. Well, since my ankle injury in December 2022 I lost a huge part of my motivation, my "mojo" and running was just a "must" to maintain a certain amount of fitness. I did decided to continue to train at a moderate intensity at about 40% of my normal volume and I knew that that meant a longer rehab time. Still, I didn't want to loose all my fitness. However, the stimuli to train was almost gone and all I was doing is pretty much maintaining, nothing more and nothing less.
You don't really need to be a pro-athlete to suffer major depression moments due to failure or injuries. It's quite common and everybody needs to find a unique way to find the way out of the dark abyss.
I was really hoping that the Göteborgsvarvet 2023 half marathon could give me that kick that I needed so much. That injection of confidence and boost my pride.
The race went well, I started running at a controlled pace. It's still a fast pace for me because I didn't do any speed sessions. Not even one! Still, I felt quite comfortable running at that 4:40 pace. I decided that that pace was good..... I could easily maintain that pace during the whole race without "killing" my body and enjoy the party. Well.... WRONG! After 10k I felt that I was pretty much done with the race. I was bored with all the "heja, heja" and the folk, the crowd..... the loud noise. I just wanted to run on another surface surrounded by trees and listen to the birds instead!
Well.... that "pittyparty" moment lasted just for a few minutes. Once that I reached the second bridge and started to pass a huge number of runners I felt that the boost was there.... I was pushing again and it felt amazing indeed! I managed to maintain the pace finishing the race with the avg. pace of 4:51 /km in 1h and 43 min. That one is my second best result! WOW
It's quite amazing that I managed to run that well despite all. Despite the lack of proper training, the proper mileage and without the proper mindset.
Now it's time to archive this short adventure of mine and dedicate my time to rest, recharge and start preparing both body and mind for the upcoming UTMB (Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc) race the 1st of September! That race is going to be a totally different beast! It's a 170km race around the Mont Blanc massif with more than 10.000m of elevation gain! :)
I will soon publish some content about my preparations for that race! :)
