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.

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.

Thus, Im proud to have earned the coolest medal ever, this bat statuette.

You find the complete story from this fantastic marathon here.

Finally, I made it again to participate in Hamburg marathon – what a joy !

Not only is Hamburg marathon perhaps the best marathon in Europe it was also the last on my list that I did not have pictures from as yet. Yesterday, Sunday 25-Apr-2010 changed that and my collection is now complete !

So… Hamburg marathon 2010… what to say ? I guess one word captures it all: FANTASTIC !!! The organization was as always German “spitzenklasse”, the weather was warm and sunny and the crowds were amazing.. making the whole event truly outstanding ! Furthermore, my friend Stephan Grabow and I were dressed up as Darth Vader and Spiderman which made the run even more cheerful.

You find the entire set of pictures from Hamburg marathon 2010 here.

Sunday 21 of March 2010 was the day for the 16th Rome Marathon and the 50 years celebration of Abebe Bikila winning in Rome 1960 barefooted, Bikila becoming the first from the African continent to claim an Olympic Medal.

Rome Marathon is one of my all-time favorite marathons and it did indeed live up to my expectations once again. I simply love the city of Rome and to complete a marathon passing so many historic and eternal churches, St. Peters being the most famous one,

buildings, squares and places is just out of this world breathtaking.. well, even literaly for my last 5 km.

Nevertheless, it was a true priviledge to participate in this marvelous event have the Start and Finish at the foot of the mighty Colesseum.

Personally, the race became my 175th marathon… making my full list of turning 25 look like this:

25 27.08.2006 Landskrona (Sweden) Pictures
50 30.06.2007 Kristianopel (Sweden) Pictures
75 20.04.2008 Zürich (Switerzerland) Pictures
100 02.11.2008 Skovmaren (Denmark) Pictures
125 26.04.2009 London (England) Pictures
150 19.09.2009 Vänersborg (Sweden) Pictures
175 21.03.2010 Rome (Italy) Pictures