Christianshavnermilen
July 8, 2008
The nice thing about running in the same race every year – or in the case of the Christianshavnermilen several times each year – is that it is easy to gauge your performance. You face the same hills, the same twists, turns and more or less the same crowd of people.
I’ve been running the Christianshavnermilen since … 2003, I think. It’s hard to remember when my first time was, but I can say for sure that I have been doing it for so long that I almost have the course memorised. The only part that still catches me off guard is the last two-kilometre stretch, where you pass by a series of identical buildings. I always think ‘this is the last one’, only to be disappointed when the finish line doesn’t appear shortly after.
The race distance is one of my favourites. A Danish mile, or just over 7.5km. You get to run as fast a 5k, while at the same time testing your endourance, like in a 10k.
The course is also one of my favourites. It runs around and through the Christiania squatter colony. The back strecth runs close past a number of hippie cabins, and quite often there are people there to cheer you on. It used to be the only real drawback was the smoke, both from their fires and from their weed, but it seems like there is a lot more trash out there these days.
I guess if there is one other not so nice thing about running the same race year after year is that you have to watch your times get slower and slower. I gave yesterday’s race everything I had and felt appropriately spent afterwards. My 36:00 minutes seemed good enough at the time, but when I looked back at last September’s run – the last Christianshavnermil I ran in, I came in at 33:00 minutes.
The clock is ticking.
Just follow the guy ahead of you.
