Mattias Bramstång

I remember my first marathon fifteen years ago, I remember the second and third one. Actually I remember them all and I have done 99 marathons/ultra marathons so far. I’m a runner and I will always be that. I hope…

When I started this blog many years ago there were not so many blogs about running, nowadays there are plenty. I feel happy about that and it also means I don’t have to keep my blog active for some time. Others will keep mankind running. Please inspire each other to join the running society!

See you out there!

After many month without long distance runs I realised I was afraid for running beyond 30 km. So I went to Växjö just to run a marathon in a comfortable speed and try to go steady. I was surprised of how well it went; I felt great all the way and could even push it quite hard the last lap (of 8). I finished with 3:22:33.

Two weeks later I just had to push it some more and find out what I was able to perform. I went to Skovmarathon in a beautiful beech wood outside of Hilleröd in Denmark. It rained intense some hours before start but the last hour before start it stopped and the sun appeared. It became perfect marathon weather. The track was better than I expected, just a few puddle and not so many slippery spots….

I started the first 10km at sub 43min. I felt out of shape. I thought I better slow down and jog the rest. But not yet, first I wanted to do a decent half marathon. After 15 kilometres I ran in to the back of the pack runners on the 10km-race. I had to dance around them all the way to they finished. At the same point I went out on the second (and last) lap. I just managed within 1h 30min. I felt inspiration in the beginning of the second lap and wanted to keep the pace as good as possible during the upcoming kilometres. At 35 kilometer I run into back of the pack runners of the half marathon race. This time the dance between slower runners was less easy. But I manage to finish this slippery and quite demanding track with more than 300 altitude meters at 7^th place in 3:03:39.

Almost 6 years after my first marathon I ran this one. This race became my first marathon below 3 hours. It felt amazingly. It required me 18 marathons of experience and years of preparations in order to succeed with this exploit. An imagination was realised. Now I was a faster runner than I ever expected myself to be. I made it with just 24 seconds to spare and I thought that I never have to run this fast again. Never. Now I’m a sub-3 runner, it’s hard to believe and every time I look into the mirror I still cant understand it. But I am a sub-3 runner. That’s it!