micke-midlife on May 9th, 2009

09052009_hcr_titleA great running event and by now the largest in Finland that brings the atmosphere of the bigger European running events to Helsinki. Start and Finish at and in the Olympic Stadium of 1952 is the right frame for this happening. For it being a half marathon it’s definitely not an easy run. Partly for the Finnish spring weather has always a surpise in store. This time a cool (8-9 degrees C), windy and rainy one-day package in a period of 2-3 weeks of warmer than averge sunny and dry spring weather. Guess which day the weather god chose. He doesn’t like runners, that’s for sure.

But what the event organization should change is the route of the run. The current route here. It’s unnecessarily difficult to run. There are too many corners and sharper bends, that break the running rythm. A lot of up and down and there are definitely better and nicer sights in Helsinki to come across on a 21km than the trees of the central park.

09052009_hcr1A better route along the streets of Helsinki similar to the annual marathon run in August would improve a lot for all runners. The ambitious ones would run better times, because the route could be designed flatter, with less sharp corners and bends and on tarmac all the way. The ones who are in for the event get better sights to see along the Baltic Sea bays and famos buildings and places in Helsinki and definitely more audience along the way. The wind is always tricky in cities along the sea shores, but that’s a question of organization. Of course, one big difference would be the requirement to close down traffic on some streets for a couple of hours. But one would think that the city of Helsinki is very much willing to help out on an event that promotes healthy living and demonstrates its feasibility in this fine city.

Race results here (only in Finnish, the English site wasn’t updated at the point of writing this blog post)

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