A Race around Djurgården

And so summer running season has begun, and with it, another race. Last Wednesday, 2 colleagues and I ran the Milspåret around the very beautiful Djurgården. There was a 5k and a 10k - we signed up for the 5k, although 10 minutes before the start, we thought maybe we'd made a mistake and signed on for the 10k. Fortunately not. The group of a few hundred runners warmed up together, dancing to Eric Saade's Popular (if you haven't seen it, watch here for Sweden's 2011 Eurovision song, which came in 3rd - although you probably won't want to waste your time watching the whole thing, a minute will suffice) on this windy, sunny evening, then headed to the start line and were off. 

The first half of the race followed a small river lined with trees and a perfect running path along the edge. Then through the forest and along a rolling field in to the finish. The race ended, in my case, 24:45 minutes after it started - a fast 24 minutes running alongside Tracy, who kept me going when I felt like slowing down. She finished 10 seconds ahead of me in 7th place for the women; I came in 8th out of 82! Not too shabby. And Maija finished her first 5k race ever - hopefully not the last : )

Take 4 of post-race joy