May 2010 — Tor on Marathon

Copenhagen marathon 2010

By Tor Rønnow on Monday, May 24, 2010

Sunday 23th of May will become a historic day in Danish marathon running: this day, Copenhagen marathon lifted itself into the brand of International marathons with a spectator-crowded Capital cheering the runners through a very scenic and adventurous route passing many parts of Copenhagen !

Here the pack is flowing through idyllic Nyhavn,

and moments later “Langelinie”, the home of the famous Little Mermaid (presently outsourced to China !).

Later, we passed the museum of the renowed sculpturer Linus Thorvaldsen…

an at parts we were enduring cobblestones and rather severe turns

passing many historic buildings, churches, squares and places in Copenhagen…

and after the endurance of the 42.195 meters, the runners could finally celebrate the completion of Copenhagen marathon 2010 on this very fine day for distance running indeed.

You find the full story with images and video here.

Marathon

End of Year 6

By Tor Rønnow on Saturday, May 15, 2010

My first marathon was in Copenhagen, Denmark six years ago, ie. the 16.05.2004.

Thus, my personal marathon year spands from the 16th of May each year and I have thus just now completed my sixth year of marathon running :

Year 1: 4 marathons – including Berlin and London !
Year 2: 12 marathons – including Stockholm, Amsterdam, Dublin, Elbtunnel, Paris and Hamburg.
Year 3: 28 marathons – including New York, Boston, Rome, Barcelona, Vienna and ‘my own’ event GARMIN Rudersdal marathon.
Year 4: 36 marathons – including Chicago, Magdeburg, Paris, Zürich as the biggest events. Notably, I collected the last of the World Majors with the completion of Chicago Marathon.
Year 5: 46 marathons ! Including marathon no. 100 and two-on-one-date (28-jun-2008) as some of the memorable events. To be highlighted is also the fantastic Swiss Alpine 42 K, Zürich New Years Eve, Budapest, Frankfurt and Dublin, Rotterdam and London marathon where I ran in my Spiderman suit… with a concussion !

Year 6: 57 marathons ! Including North Sea Beachmarathon (weeekend Triple !), Samsoe, Blokhus, Thy and Fjordmarathon, the perfectly organized HCA marahton in Odense and my new PR in Amsterdam as the top races in 2009, the year in which I completed 61 marathons !
2010 thus far indcludes Barcelona, Rome, Hamborg and Limestone Mine as the main races.

You can find picture and stories from most of these races via ‘My marathons’ from the menu at the page left.

Marathon

Marathon in a Limestone Mine (Kalkmine)

By Tor Rønnow on Saturday, May 15, 2010

Thursday, I completed one of the toughest marathons ever for my part, the absolutely brilliant “Underground marathon” in Jutland, Denmark, including 12 trips into two Limestone Mines plus a quite tough hilly route all in all.

We were in the realms of the Danish Robin Hood “Jens Langkniv”…

… and so many of my friends and running mates were present… we had a wonderful and challenging day indeed !

Here we see Mogens Pedersen just leaving his first pass in the Mønsted Mine…

… and here we fully understand what unusual sorroundings this race took place in ! Look at this !!!

Tough hills had to be conqured as well…

… and cute goats to be passed too. Sexy small bastards, eh ? 😉

Later, the Daugbjerg Mine was on the route, this one much more narrow and low, thus the use of a helmet was imperative…

… as you might comprehend by this picture:

After four tough rounds I was a very happy man to finish this one off.. and in a for me good effort, I believe, having overun several of the usual suspects otherwise (almost) always faster than me.