Copenhagen: home of Carlsberg, the first parkrun outside the UK and the Øresund bridge.
The 40,000 places for the Broløbet Bridge run commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Øresund Bridge sold out last year within an hour.
Carolyne and I added our names to the waiting list and then I completely forgot about it until Priya mentioned earlier in the year that she was going and asked if any other Saltwell Harriers had been successful. Josh, Amy and Adrian were also had places through Josh and Adrian’s employer who had been involved in the original construction of the bridge in 2000.
With only a few weeks to go the organisers announced an official resale platform so Carolyne and I set about trying to get hold of a place. After about a week of frantic clicking every time a number became available Carolyne sent me a message to say she’d been successful while I had taken my eye off the ball to do parkrun. I needed to try harder! About 8 hours later and I was also in! Neither of us knew the exact details of what we had purchased but we had places.
I’d done the Leeds Half-Marathon about 5 weeks beforehand but had actively reduced my mileage since then so I dug out my Hal Higdon training plan and took a look at where I should be in the training program 2 weeks out from the race. 10 x 400m reps. Ah, my favourite session! Perfect! So I started with that, followed it up with a 10 mile long run and a new pair of shoes and then it was taper time.
The run itself
Carolyne was in the wave 25mins before me together with Amy and Priya so I set off to the start with her thinking this gave me plenty of time. How wrong we were! I have never seen a toilet queue like it! We queued for over an hour meaning Carolyne actually missed her wave. We made it into my pen as it was moving but that was only because there was a delay to the start. Crossed the start line 25 minutes late but we were finally on the way. Spectators could only watch the first 2 km or so in Denmark and a similar section in Sweden so Bill hired a bike from the hotel and said he would get as close to the entrance to the tunnel as possible. I spotted him right on the bend, shouted, gave him a wave and told him to watch out for Carolyne behind me as he’d been expecting me to be the last Saltwell to pass.
Then I headed off towards the tunnel. About 5k of the race passes under the water. The organisers had explained that the ventilation system in the tunnel would be switched off because it is very noisy and so that we could experience the ‘atmosphere’. A distinct lack of Oggies and I would have much preferred a reduction in heat. I have never done hot pod yoga but I imagine it’s fairly similar. As I frantically wiped the sweat from my brow, one of the lenses fell out of my beloved Roy-Bans. No that isn’t a typo, they were purchased from a very reputable dealer for €10 at the start line of the Lanzarote Half last year and have served me well at runs ever since! UV protection: questionable.
Eventually I saw the light at the end of a very humid tunnel. As I exited, dripping in sweat, I was very grateful for fresh air, an overcast sky and a breeze as we started the slight climb onto the bridge itself.
I’d been wondering what it would be like without spectators for most of the course but actually there were plenty as people had got out of their stationary cars on the other side of the bridge to cheer us on!
The views from the bridge were amazing. Lots of people stopped to take photos especially at the point we crossed the border into Sweden.
My pace had been slowing down on the way up to the highest point. That would be the lack of training. I was still running well though and I kept promising myself I had a downhill section into Sweden once I got to the top.
Unfortunately for me, the down hill wasn’t quite downhill enough to get me back under sub-2 pace and with about 3km to go I accepted I was going to be just outside of 2 hour.
Once off the bridge there was lots of support on the Swedish side coming into the finish, a couple of turns and I knew I must be close to the end. 200m to go and I suddenly hit a wall of people. I stopped dead. Confused. Have I crossed the finish? No, I’m right under an arch that says 200m to go. As I glanced at my watch the lady next to me asked “have you stopped your watch?” No, I replied, we haven’t finished yet. I looked around and everyone had their phones in the air taking photos of this incredible scene. We still hadn’t moved anywhere when looked at my watch again. 3 minutes had already passed and I noticed 13.2 on my watch. I decided I’d done the distance and was stopping my watch regardless as I wasn’t having this shambles on Strava! Thank you Strava for a moving time of 2:02!
A full 11 minutes later I crossed the actual finish line. What a ridiculous end to a race?!
Once reunited with my phone I had a few choice words about my official time of 2:14 and managed to find Carolyne to join another never-ending queue for a bus back to Denmark.
After about 90mins of waiting we learnt that there had been accident on the bridge, that it was closed and that there were to be no more busses back to Denmark. We set about trying to get to the train station with the thousands of other stranded runners. I suggested we just start a new life in Sweden as it seemed far easier.
A mere 5 hours after finishing we were back at our hotels, medals in hand having survived our ordeal on only a packet of Haribo.
It was a great experience and weekend overall but I won’t be signing up if they do it again for the next celebration.
Words by Claire Lloyd; Photos by Carolyne Hargreaves
