40 926 steps and 4 hours 5 minutes and 18 seconds later (my official time) I had ran my first marathon.
Running went quite smoothly. I had no trouble with any of my equipment, did not get any chafes and energy levels were high enough all the time. No fatigue or severe pains. My right heel was already quite sensitive before running, I wasn't quite sure I could make the distance. But that was ok after the first ten kilometres. After 30 kilometres running was becoming more difficult by every step and the last three were really difficult. At 32 km I had fifty minutes to make the last ten to win the bet. My heart rate had been abnormally high during the whole marathon. I usually had heart rate of 145 during my exercise runs and during the marathon it had been 160-170 right from the start. And I was running very carefully in the beginning. At 32 km I had been running with that kind of rate for three hours. I decided not to increase the pressure on that front. I am not sure my heart has been under such strain before. My feet were also quite kaputt. It welt like I was running with bare feet on the asphalt. So in that sense trying to increase my speed was a moot point, my legs were gone.
The above pictures are from Nokia's Sports Tracker application which I had record the whole run ( with my Nokia N82 with built in GPS). I started the recording well before the start line to avoid the hassle. So don't mind the stats above, they are not accurate because of that. There were a lot of people there. I think it took me a minute before I crossed the start line after the official start.
In spite of not being 100% satisfied with the time, I am quite happy how it all went. I only managed to run 250 kilometres before the H-day. I ran the second part of the marathon a bit faster than the first part, even if the runnig was getting harder in the end.
Atmosphere at the Helsinki Stadium after the run was (tired but) great.
What is hot and what is not changes all the time. There are even evergreens when considering the best dance music ever played, but those are rare. The trends push the envelope all the time and not everything what was considered good dance music a few years back can draw people to the floor today.
I like Timbaland et al. as much the next guy, but I just wanted to point out one of my favourites which comes from an unexpected direction: The Eurovision 2008 song contest. She is a versatile talent doing singing, acting, writing books for children and she even has active role in charitable organizations etc. etc...so no wonder that she is quite popular in her home country of Ukraine. And to close this introduction with some (other) useless facts the dress she was wearing cost 200.000 dollars according YLE's commentors.
Dress or no dress, she is hot. Whether the song survives the test of time is a different matter. Now, I like it. I give you Ani Lorak and "Shady Lady":
What are your favourites?
