Date: 2010-04-10 10:38:12 Created: 2010-04-10 06:34:00
It is less than twenty minutes past mid day, I am having black coffee and am generally enjoying life.
This morning, my alarm was set half an hour earlier than on normal weekdays. The reason was that I, along with roughly 400 other people, ran a half marathon distance along the lines of 1980's göteborgsvarv. We started at eight o'clock and ran at a quite firmly maintained pace of six and a half minutes per kilometre.
Well, except for the final kilometre or so.
The very last part of the run was from Heden up to nya Ullevi, around the stadium and back to Heden. Once we reached the crossing over to nya Ullevi the leaders/pacekeepers announced "okay, free speed for those who want!"
If someone had told me, say, five years ago that I would be able to run for two hours and still have the mental and physical energy left for a long and intense sprint to the finishing line, I am not sure I would have believed it.
But I did, and what a great way to finish a great run it was. When I heard the announcement, it was as if the whole run had been a buildup to that release of energy, that picking up of pace and letting everything flow freely. Bang.
I am not sure how fast it was in absolute terms.
It does not matter.
Right then and there,
in the morning sun,
it was perfect.