In 2010 I ran a half marathon over the Öresund bridge and this year I wanted to try a city run.

My commuting friend, Christian, recommended Göteborgsvarvet. It’s the biggest event in the world of this kind. About 60.000 registered runners ending up being around 50.000 that actually take the tour around Göteborg.

Since January I used a program from jogg.se together with our neighbour, Cathrine. We started with 2 training 2 times/week and when the weather became warmer and better, we trained 3 times/week. The goal was to finish on 2 hours.

We took the train to Göteborg in the morning the 21 May. It seemed like a surprise for the train crew why there were so many people on the train with jogging dress. Fortunately Cathrine had reserved seats. After arriving at the stadium, we had to kill a few hours since we were in the last group starting at 16:00. The weather was nice and there were several big screens and entertainment to keep us occupied.

It was great to run through the different kind of scenery, parks, bicycle roads, bridges, harbour side, The Avenue etc. Lot’s of people cheering and lot’s of bands playing, even if we were the last group. Imagine it’s even more party earlier on. Passed the finish line on 2.05.11, which I am very happy with.

There were large shower facilities, one for men and one for woman, wide apart from each other. It was little bit challenging and with a bit too narrow comfort zone taking a shower at a place like this…

Another challenge was to manage to reach the train home in time. The last train left Göteborg to Malmö at 19.42 and we had to run the last part – how fun was that with 21,1 km + in the legs already? The public transport between Göteborg and Malmö could be improved on a day like this.

I like to thank my coaches Mogens, Christian, Bo (also for letting me borrow his Garmin :-), Andreas and of course the “co pilot”, Cathrine, for helping me full fill this goal.

Göteborgsvarvet 2012 is May 12 and I have registered. Maybe see you then 🙂

Göteborgsvarvet on Facebook
A Göteborgsvarvet video – on Facebook
Take the tour  – from 2010 with comment in swedish
Article in Swedish how to prepare the last week
Dogme video filmed by our running coach @ work, Mogens and edited by his son Lars that made it on 1.09