Nascida e criada em Portugal. Já morei na Polónia, no Brasil, na República Checa e agora é a Suécia que me acolhe.
O meu blogue, tal como o meu cérebro, é uma mistura de línguas. Bem vindos!

Born and raised Portuguese. I have lived in Poland, Brazil, Czech Republic and now I'm in the beautiful Sweden.
My blog, just like my brain, is a blend of languages. Welcome!

sexta-feira, 5 de maio de 2017

Växjö's Half Marathon

Last weekend we, the usual 3, ran the half marathon in Växjö. None of us had training as much as wanted. Among other things we were all sick at one point or another and had a lot of work or a new job to suck our energy. 

Picture taken by our local supporter

Still, the race was a promising one, because the course was beautiful and flat, and there were only around 250 people registered. There was also a 5k race starting an hour before ours and a 10k starting 2h later. The 10k was actually the main event with about 1000 people registered. That made it quite perfect, because it was never crowded to run the narrow paths of the half marathon, but there were a lot people around so we wouldn't feel lonely for too long. 


The course was breathtaking, probably the most beautiful 21km I have ever ran, even if it was a two-lap race. Half of each lap went through narrow roads and small paths inside a forest, that was partly along a lake. The other half was a full lap around the most famous lake of Växjö. There was a point in which the path actually went in between two lakes (or if it was through the same lake, I actually don't know). It was warm but not too warm, the sun was shining and the water was reflecting the light in a beautiful way. There and then I had my runner's high - that moment when the endorphines kick and the world is beautiful. 

I'm so lucky to be here running, it's so beautiful, my life is so beautiful, everything is perfect, oh how lucky I am.

Down there in the background is me. It was really nice to not run in a crowd like in most races.

Of course that was during the first lap, when I had 11km to go. In the second lap, with 1 km to go, I tried to go into that mood to forget how tired I was. The feeling was still there but it was a bit faked. It still kept my mind busy and I ran the whole thing without ever stopping. It was not the easiest half marathon I have ever ran and the fact that I hadn't training enough was clear, especially the day after. Still, I did it and I was super proud of myself, because I actually broke my record in an official race (my current record is during a training... I know, not common, but I was inspired that day). 

The boys also did quite well and we were all happy to be there. We had a wonderful supporter that did her best to be present and cheer us up when we most needed (with 2km to go I was dying...).

I wish I had pictures of the course but I don't. I do have some pictures of the city and I will be posting those soon in another post.

 Växjöloppet, May 2017, 1h50m46s



No fim de semana passado, corremos os 3 do costume a meia maratona de Växjö. Nenhum de nós tinha treinamento tanto quanto gostaria. Entre outras coisas estivemos todos doentes numa altura ou noutra e houve muito trabalho ou um novo trabalho como no meu caso a sugar a nossa energia.

Ainda assim a corrida prometia, porque o percurso era bonito, plano e havia apenas cerca de 250 pessoas registradas. Havia também uma corrida de 5k que começava uma hora antes da nossa e uma de 10k duas horas mais tarde. A de 10k era o evento principal com aproximadamente 1000 pessoas registradas. Isso tornou o ambiente perfeito, porque foi possível percorrer os caminhos estreitos da meia maratona sem uma multidão a correr, mas havia muitas pessoas ao redor para não nos sentimos sozinhos por muito tempo.

O percurso em si era de tirar o fôlego, tendo sido provavelmente os 21Km mais bonitos que já corri, mesmo sendo uma corrida com duas voltas iguais. Metade de cada volta passava por estradas estreitas e pequenos caminhos dentro de uma floresta, que em parte estava ao longo de um lago. A outra metade era uma volta completa ao redor do lago mais famoso de Växjö. Houve um momento em que o caminho era entre dois lagos (ou se talvez fosse através do mesmo lago, não sei). Estava quente, mas não demasiado quente, o sol brilhava e a água refletia a luz de uma maneira especial. Foi precisamente nesse momento que tive o meu momento alto - aquela altura em que as endorfinas actuam e o mundo se torna o local mais bonito de sempre.

Sou tão sortuda por estar aqui a correr, é tudo tão bonito aqui, a minha vida é fantástica, tudo é perfeito, oh como eu sou sortuda.

Claro que isso aconteceu durante a primeira volta, quando tinha ainda 11km para correr. Na segunda volta, a 1km do fim, tentei entrar nesse estado de espírito para esquecer o quão cansada estava. A sensação ainda estava lá, mas o sentimento foi mais forçado. Ainda assim ajudou a manter a minha mente ocupada e fiz a corrida toda sem parar. Não foi a meia maratona mais fácil que já fiz e o fato de não ter treinamento o suficiente foi obvio, especialmente no dia seguinte. Ainda assim, fiquei super orgulhosa de mim mesma, porque bati o meu recorde numa corrida oficial (o meu recorde atual é durante um treino... eu sei, não é normal, mas devia estar inspirada nesse dia).

Os rapazes também acabaram a corrida bem e estávamos todos felizes por estar lá. Tivemos uma adepta maravilhosa que fez o seu melhor para estar presente e animar-nos quando mais precisámos (a 2km do fim eu estava a morrer...).

Gostava muito de ter fotos do percurso para mostrar mas não tenho. Tenho algumas fotos da cidade, que vou postar em breve noutro post.

8 comentários:

  1. Congratulations on your PR! The course by the lake looks beautiful. I'm sure it made up for how tired you felt. I hope to run another half marathon, maybe this fall. I've got a lot of training to do. I've mostly been riding my bike, lately.

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    1. Thank you Laurie! It certainly was beautiful. Riding your bike is already training. I will also run more races soon. Good luck to your training!

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  2. Well done. It can't have been easy without enough training even with a very picturesque course.

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    1. It was harder but still doable. The views helped a lot.

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  3. Congrats to the three of you. Especially not having trained beforehand. The nice weather and beautiful surroundings certainly must have helped. I'm not a runner. I did walk a marathon with a friend when I was 15. It's always those last one or two miles that are the hardest. :)

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    1. Thank you! No matter how far or fast you go, the last miles are always the last miles ;)

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  4. Congratulations Sara on achieving your best record even though you hadn't practiced enough.

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    1. Thanks Sami! The effort was worth it, but I will train more next time.

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