Varvet

Today was Göteborg's Varvet, their half marathon. It attracted 73,000 people. The adults ran today and the children run various distances tomorrow, depending on their ages.

We sat on the balcony and watched them all run by. Our flat was located at about 17.5km along the 21km route. They ran past for 4 1/2 hours, with the first at about 2pm (50minutes race time to that point) and the last woman walking past at 6:30pm. We saw a person in a bee suit, a small group carrying musical instruments, 3 firefighters running in full gear including air tanks, a guy in a cow suit and his friend dressed as we're not sure what but it was a body suit with pink fluffy ears and a pink fluffy tail. There were a couple of ballerinas, but most of the runners just looked either find and like they'd hit their stride, or else really tired and ready for it to be over. Most of them looked like they'd found their stride.

The race route started at Slottskrogen park, then down city streets, across the big bridge to Hisingen island, across Hisingen to the small bridge to come back over to town, up the Avenue to Götaplatsen, then a U turn to return to Vasagatan, past us, and back up to Slottskogen to the end. It was good weather for running today - dry, cool, mix of sun and cloud. The wind picked up the later in the day it went, but at least they didn't have the oppressive heat they've had in the past.

We were serenaded by 2 bands while we watched. A marching band settled itself to our left, at the corner by 7-11. They were good, but their repertoire was about 4 songs, and they took a lot of long breaks. To our right, another band set up outside the church beside the french place. They were much higher calibre musicians with a broader repertoire. Very good indeed.

Several spectators lined our part of the route. At one point, some young men came with fishing poles to dangle doughnuts for the runners. Neither the donuts nor the danglers lasted very long.

None of us are ready to run a half marathon, but if you are, mark your calendar for the end of May next year and come to Sweden for the Varvet. I'd be happy to come with you to cheer you along!