Introduction
 |
| Figure 1: At 18,5km: Grinding it. |
The Helsinki Half Marathon was held for the first time. The race was held on Saturday June 7. I didn't prepare specifically for this race. This race was preparation for something else. The purpose of running this race was to have some fun (as you can see in the Figure 1) and to test my current level of running fitness. I am now on the second week of 20-week marathon preparation. I feel like I am at home in the races in Finland. I grew up running races in Finland. The Finnish crowd appreciates running and sports in general, and they cheer and clap their hands for the runners.
Also the Finnish summer is great. You can run free in the woods. After running one can take a dip in a lake or river. There is a nice network of running and biking routes in the capital, Helsinki. The parks are more like forests, because the Finns love the forest. I am no exception. There is something magical when you run here in the summer: it doesn't get dark, not even in the night. Any moment is a great moment for going out for a run.
The Route
I traveled to Finland four days before this race. My first observation and reminder while running here was how hilly the routes are in Helsinki and generally in whole of Finland. I have been running on almost perfectly flat terrain in Buenos Aires. The hills don't necessarily make a course harder, but they do slow down the pace. Running on flat is monotonous and relentless pounding; the downhills give the occasional moments of easing off.
 |
| Figure 2: The Route. |
The weather was nice for running: a cloudy 19 C. The wind was light, but drafting was still useful in some parts of the course. The race started at 10:30 am. According to my Polar GPS there was 112 meters total of climbing on the course. I lost to everyone around me on the downhills. About one third of the course was on gravel and the rest was on asphalt. The course had some pretty steep corners as well. But overall it was a nice route to race and run, but not a route for really fast times.
There was also nice crowd cheering over the course, various music performances, even cheerleaders and big thumbs up for all the volunteers in every corner (except one corner, heheh) making sure we didn't get lost. Lots of them were immigrants and being an immigrant myself as well I can relate to them and say that being involved in organizing sports events is a great way to get involved, to participate and to get to know how things work here.
Plan and Execution
My initial plan was to start out running at 3:40 min/km pace and see how I feel at the 12 km mark where the route turns left and starts heading back. I knew this route well. Some parts of it I knew like my pockets. But still the hills slowed the pace down more than I anticipated. I have ran too much flat lately. Any hill is a mountain for me. Downhills in particular: "Hey guys wait up, why are you all sprinting?"
The start of the race was rather flat and I controlled my pace according to my plan. Then between kilometers 2 and 3 the first uphill started. I decided not to worry about pace anymore. I was running quite comfortable but hard and I decided to run in the bunch and use them for drafting and pacing. I tried to get through the first part of the course as easy as possible. My plan worked great. There was an uphill part and then downhill part with pretty steep corners in the Pasila neighborhood. The 6th kilometer was the fastest of the race for me, 3:35.
At kilometer 7 we got to the shore, where the Vantaa River flows to the Baltic Sea, and there was some headwind blowing against us. I was running in a bunch of 5 runners at places 8th to 12th. I tried to draft as much as I could to save energy. This part of the course was gravel road. We were gaining on one runner ahead of us and caught him before the 10 km mark. He made a sudden burst of speed as we caught him, and left us behind again. But a few kilometers later we caught him again, for good.
 |
| Figure 3: Heart Rate (red line), Pace (grey line). |
My official 10K split was 37:55 (3:48 min/km) and I was running at 8th position in a group of 3 runners. The gravel road by the river turned to asphalt and started following the railroad at about kilometer 12, when we started heading back. A psychologically important detail. That is where I had planned to see if I could kick it up a bit. But I was running at pretty much the best pace I could produce that day. We were again a bunch of 5 or 6 runners, at places 5th to 10th. The leader of the women's category was running strong and got ahead of the group at kilometer 14. That started to split up the group.
 |
| Figure 4: Helsinki Half Marathon Top 10 Results. |
There was some up and downhill and I found myself running at position 9 when we got to the highest point of the course at 18 kilometers. The last 3 kilometers were downhill and then the final kilometer on flat. I was drafting behind the 8th runner until we hit the flat at kilometer 20, and then I released my finishing kick. He couldn't answer as I ran a pretty strong last kilometer (3:40) finishing at 8th position with a time of 1:20:28 (3:49 min/km). There were total of 1435 finishers in the race. My race execution and pacing was good and even. On this course I think this was quite close to the maximum that I could produce today. Check out my even heart rate and the results in Figures 3 and 4.
 |
| Figure 5: Running in the bunch at 13K |
Summary
My heart rate was pretty even during the whole race, average at 160 bpm, which is exactly my half marathon intensity. My personal estimate is that I can currently run the half marathon on a flat course 3 minutes faster than today. But who cares, the experience is more important than the numbers, right? Or maybe...
My Old Friend, Panu, was cheering for me and took this great photo at kilometer 13 (see Figure 5). I think it's time to wrap this up, because there's a barbeque after-run party starting. The event is not over yet. So far, it has been a nice, well organized event with a good personal performance. Can't ask for more. Running is great.
