Helvede I Nord
Today I ran a half-marathon. The aptly named Helvede I Nord, or in English Hell In the North.
The race is called Denmarks maybe hardest half-marathon. It starts in Tisvildeleje and runs through the forrest, hills, sand, and trails of Tisvilde Hegn.
There were several factors that helped make this one of the most grueling things I’ve ever done. First of all it had snowed during the night and left a good inch of wet snow on the ground. As people passed over the snow it was compacted into something closely resembling ice in slippery qualities.
Secondly, I have just bought new shoes. Not something in itself that should influence this race. However, the reason I bought new shoes was that, on my 25 km run last Sunday, my right shoe started squeezing into my ankle. When I put on my shoes this morning I could feel that it would start doing the same right from the beginning. Therefore I had little choice but run in my new shoes. My new shoes which I had only run in once before.
Lastly, the route is just really hard. The last 5 km contains 4 really hard hills you have to run up, or as it turned out in my case, walk up. The first of these hills comes directly after almost 2 km in the sand dunes and on the beach.
The race was really beautiful. The sun almost broke through the cloud cover before the start, but that was just a feint. Around the 11 km mark it started snowing again, and kept on snowing for the rest of the 21.1 km.
After I finished in the descent, but not great, time of 2:02’40” I talked to some of the other people I had met on the route, and those that had run the race before told me that the conditions had made this the hardest time yet. A heartening feeling for the next time I run it. And I will. This will probably become my favorite half-marathon, closely followed by B.T’s, and I can very well imagine that I will go up and run the route again sometime over the summer.