How five became ten

I was only supposed to run five kilometres today. But thanks to a breakdown in the city’s subway system, I got to run ten.

The Amager Strandløb offers a 5K and 10K run along the beach at Amager Strandpark. The route, a five-kilometre loop around the city’s new enormous manmade beach, sounds like a refreshing run. Unfortunately, what the organisers didn’t really consider was 1) there is absolutely no shade along a beach 2) lots of people like to cook out on the beach on a summer evening.

Despite the blazing sun and the suffocating smoke … no, no despite, because. The blazing sun and the suffocating smoke added to the agony of what was probably the worst race I’ve ever suffered through.

Part of it was mental. I was planning to just run the 5K, but the subway broke down and I missed the start, and had to wait for the 10K. I am capable of running ten kilometres and have done it many times before, but since I haven’t run anywhere near that distance in many months, I had settled on the shorter race. I just wasn’t mentally ready to go twice as far.

The other part was definitely physical. The first 5K actually went well: 22 minutes. But part way through the second half – around 6 km – I had a breakdown of my own. By 8km I had completely withered. My final time was 48 minutes, only six minutes difference, so maybe it just felt a lot worse than it was.

I’m still a little dazed, so it’s hard to think or write coherently.

How five became ten

I can’t really recall much of this route, but from what I remember it was relatively simple – start, run with the pack for the first lap, get passed by about a thousand people on the second lap, finish.