I had a very pleasant trip to Washington D.C. this past weekend. I did not get to meet Barak Obama but I did indeed see the crowds – thousands of people – Saturday at the Jon Stewart rally at The Mall downtown Washington, that was a pretty chaotic and pretty entertaining affair.

Anyways, the main purpose of the trip was of course the Marine Corps Marathon 2010. MCM is also called “The Peoples Marathon” and there is actually no big price money in this event, ie. it is indeed a run for the ordinary man and marine. It proved to be a good one, such.

Raceday started rather early and taking the Metro from Court House to Pentagon at 6.20 pm proved to be a late call, actually.

The first 10 k turned out to include quite a few hills and ramps. Looking behind, I clearly started off much too fast. The first part of the race was primarily in green and soothing surroundings and certain parts had an almost meditative atmosphere.

Later, civilization and cheerful spectators appeared, indeed adding to and uplifting the experience of the event. The crowds in US just simply ROCK ! You MUST try a (big) US race once in your running career !

The highlight of the race was to me the part through the Smithsonian area, The Mall, just after passing The White House (!) and the Washington Monument. On this picture we see the US Capitol in the background.

The last part of the route included passing of the Pentagon and the finish at the famous Arlington Cementary…

… to cut the story short… I dragged myself through and got the medal. Jobe done !

So I can easily recommend a vist to the Marine Corps Marathon and to the many museums in Washington, the Holocaust Museum being the absolute most impressive and heartbreaking to see. But just to walk around The Mall and the Smithsonian area is filled with big and lasting impressions, with historic sites and monuments, and with touching memorials documenting the strive and losses of the American people. God Bless America and the Marine Corps Marathon too ! Go visit !

You find the entire story on the Marine Corps Marathon 2010 here (Danish) and here (English).

Today, prof. Klarlund and I appear in an interview in Politiken. It seems that the interview is not online (as for now) so you will have to buy todays Politiken newspaper to read it. The interview is about the forthcomming book, obviously.

You can purchase the book online at e.g. motionslob.dk

I have been so busy with the book the past months so normal duties have lagged behind. Thus, today I have updated stories for months back. I’ll post a few hightlights here from the larger races.

Firstly, I had a great weekend in August running my first dublet this year and celebrating my marathon no. 200. Saturday was at scenic Samsø…

… full story here and Sunday incredible Blokhus and marathon no. 200, full story here.

September was a rather poor month runningwise and I had to cancel several races due to the last tasks on the book projekt. Fortunately, time allowed participation in two great races, first Fjordmarathon (report here)…

and two weeks later the perhaps best organized race in Denmark, H.C. Andersen marathon in Odense, the only race that I have run in “all” my marathonyears since the start in 2004 (2010 story here).

Now, autumn is hitting Denmark badly and I think we were quite lucky to save an absolutely perfect and very nice race this past sunday in Greve, check it out yourself here (Sydkyst Fall).

I believe I am not alone with the wish for a warm and short winter, please greenhouse effect do your job in Denmark !

Some are vicious
some are fools
and others blind
to see in me
one of their kind