Looong run

 This is running just the way I like it. Spontaneous, adventurous, exploring new places, with the sun warming your frozen body and with some nice company to chat away the hours with.

I ran to Linneplatsen to meet Marcus from the group, and we headed towards the port. There is something about sunny days that make me want to seek open water. The streets were pretty quiet, as it is a bank holiday, but people were outside walking or running. The biting cold made them dress up warmly in snug coats and woolly hats, but I still clung onto my t-shirt and running jacket combo. Anything else and it gets too warm, even at a couple degrees below zero.

We continued along the river and towards the sea, although the water was hidden somewhere behind the villas of Långedrag. We discussed briefly the possibility to run all the way around the peninsula, but it would have meant a much longer run for Marcus, that had to get home. So we cut through towards Mölndal instead, past multi-storey buildings and shopping centres. Traffic here was a bit heavier, but never so heavy that we noticed it.

I left Marcus and headed home after about 23 km, thinking I'd round it up to 25 km and then stop. But Gothenburg doesn't see such beautiful winter days that often; so I kept on running, planning on running around the neighbourhood to get up to 30. But then I got to 30 and I still didn't want to go home. I knew J was out too, and really, what better way to enjoy this weather than letting your body soak up all the D-vitamin it can get? I turned towards the sea again.

I was getting seriously hungry at this point. I had an energy bar with me, but A) I didn't want to stop except to take a couple of pictures and B) I suspected it was frozen and I didn't want to break a tooth. My energy was now waning, and the few sips of water from my bottle did nothing to quench my thirst. Only 5 km to go, I figured. I might as well eat when I get home. I was starting to get tired, but I managed to keep a decent enough posture.

The world through my sunglasses is a warm shade of orange

35 km brought me a few hundred metres from my door, and I walked the rest briskly. It felt great to know that, even though this run left me with a pair of stiff legs, I could still go through it at a faster pace than I'm used to (had I gone on like this I would have run the marathon distance in under 4 hours) and on an empty stomach to boot. It feels even greater that the first long run of the year was a pretty long one. It bodes well for my ultra training.