Båstad in 2012

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Sightseeing before the race

My race would happen in southern Sweden, but before that we spent a week in and around Copenhagen in Denmark. We visited many museums, like the National Museum, for instance (here I am in the coin area, one of my favourite subjects):

Of course we had to go see the Hans Christian Andersen's museum:

The Geological Museum was fantastic:

This is not a construction site, it's an art installation in the Museum of Modern Arts:

Nyhavn and its multi-coloured houses:

We only saw the Little Mermaid from afar:

When we went to see the change of the guard, it was raining:

The jewels of the crown are superb:

If you only have time to see one museum while in Copenhagen, go to the Carlsbad Glyptotek:

We went up north to see Hamlet's castle:

The technological museum was a lot of fun:

We also visited Malmö, in Sweden. Here is the famous Turning Torso:

While in Malmö, we visited its castle, which is now a museum:

Back in Copenhagen, we visited the city's museum. In front there is a scale model of the city soon after its foundation, 800 years ago:

For some reason, elephants are extremely important in Denmark:

We saw this beautiful bird at one of the city parks:

We passed by the Tycho Brahe planetarium, but did not go in:

Two days before the race I was so sick (cold), I stayed in the hotel while my wife went out for more sightseeing:

She went to the war museum just to take a few pictures for me:

She said there were only men there... :-)


Race Day

I stayed at the hotel on Thursday, took a huge dose of drugs to combat my cold, so that I could go to Båstad, in Sweden, on Saturday to run my second ever half marathon:

Picking up the bib was a breeze, soon we were going to the bus that would take us to Torekov, where the start line was:

Stretching before the race:

Doing the ten second countdown in Swedish:

And c'est parti!:

Ten minutes later we were back at the start area and my wife got this picture of me:

While I was running, my wife had the time to walk around and take pictures of everyday life in a small Swedish town:

The first few kilometers were quite enjoyable, I was passing people left and right, I felt great!

But by km 5 the pain started everywhere, I had to slow down.

I stopped at every water stand. They were manned by the residents, who offered us not just water but other stuff as well (pickled cucumber, sweets, fruits, etc). I couldn't understand most of what they said, but I always finished my stay at each of them with a "tack" (thank you, in Swedish).

By km 13 two girls caught up to me and I stayed with them for as long as I could, we talked in English, it was quite nice.

But soon I could not keep up with them and I continued the rest of the way by myself.

The scenery is absolutely gorgeous, we run with the sea on one side and the forest on the other. But the course is rough, we go through some hard terrain. It felt more like a trail race than like a half marathon at times.

After much struggling, here am I coming close to the finish line:

And I go through with a time of 2h40m, a new PB for me:

I got this very nice trophy and a bag full of goodies:

The organization is really superb!

We went to have lunch at the offical restaurant of the race, the Pepe's Bodega:

By one of these strange coincidences, the restaurant's owner was a fellow Brazilian.

After lunch we walked around the small harbour are, the day was very nice:

My official result:

A personal best for me!

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