Broloppet Half Marathon

Copenhagen to Malmo

Saturday 17th June 2006

Above: The Oresund bridge between Denmark and Sweden

B&R’s Ian Keyte had run this race between Denmark and Sweden  in 2002 and recommended it highly and with the announcement that 2006 would be the last time the race was held, we decided to tackle this unique event. So three B&R runners (Ian Keyte, Jane & Phil Anderson) made the journey to Copenhagen with their families, arriving one day later than planned because Birmingham airport was closed on Thursday after a cargo plane crash landed.

The tunnel & bridge link opened in July 2000 and the first race was held in June of that year before the road opened to traffic. The exact number of people who skated, cycled, ran or walked the course is uncertain but a figure of 78,000 runners is generally quoted.

The number of entrants has shrunk over the years and about 8,000 runners were pre-registered for this sixth and final running of the race. The organisers reckoned that there were runners of thirty-six nationalities entered; Danes and Swedes made up most of the field but there were over 300 Germans, 200 Italians and more than 100 from each of the Netherlands and the UK. Fortunately our previous half marathon times were good enough to qualify us for the “competition” class as opposed to the open category. Competition class runners were marked out by having low numbers (1–999) and Jane, wearing number 23, drew many curious and envious glances at the race registration at the Bella Centre in Amager on the edge of Copenhagen. From there it was a short coach journey to the start on the man-made island of Pepparholm. The advantage of having a low number was that it entitled us to an early start and got us onto the first convoy of coaches to the start. Surely then we would be first in line for the toilets at the start area? But no, we’d been beaten by the coaches bringing the first runners from the other registration centre in Malmo and we still had to queue! However, it was a spectacular place to wait with the Sound on one side and the Oresund Bridge above us curving away into the distance.

After a final energy drink at the water station in the start zone, we by-passed the growing crush of open category runners to get to our start pen at the front. We had the luxury of being able to stretch and warm-up whilst the masses had to wait behind the barrier (I felt that any moment an official would say that there had been some terrible mistake and that my 1 hour 28 minutes at Worksop wasn’t good enough and I would have to go to the back).

We were led up the access road on to the carriageway on the bridge and started bang on time. When Ian ran the race last, the start had been further back on the Copenhagen side and the first stretch had been the 4 km road tunnel but thankfully this year that had been replaced with a longer stretch in the suburbs of Malmo. Ian set off near his usual race pace and ran close to the leading woman for some time - he featured in the film clip that was used in the Danish T.V. news coverage of the race. I was less confident and started about two thirds back in the group and Jane kept further back so as not to get pulled along at too fast a pace early on. After the four hundred or so competition class runners had set off, the other runners were started in groups of about 500 at three or four minute intervals.

I had feared that the 10 km bridge stretch would be monotonous but it was the exact opposite. The left hand carriageway was closed except for one lane for emergency vehicles so there was plenty of room to run and the clear weather meant there was a clear view across the water – every so often we were greeted by the horns of boats passing close to the bridge. The first half was gently uphill and we crossed in to Sweden just before the central towers that had acted as a focus since the start of the race. In fact it was strange to have passed the towers and the lonely porta-loo perched high above the Sound and to be running on the gentle down hill towards the Swedish mainland.

Above: The effort shows at halfway in the Malmo suburbs as Ian is chased by Italian runner Antonio Rasera (134)

As we left the bridge and ran on the traffic-free main road sheltered by grass banks, it got warmer and it was a relief to turn left on to cycle tracks and quieter roads. Ian had started to feel the effects of his injury and lack of recent training by 7 km on the bridge and had had to reduce his pace but I still couldn’t see him (he claims that only the Scandinavian lovelies passing him kept him going in the race). There was great support from Swedes (with garden sprinklers and impromptu additional drinks stations) alongside the course and as we passed the halfway mark we all received a great lift from the runners waiting to run the second part of the duo-relay.

L to R: Phil, Jane & Ian at the finish at Malmo stadium

The course headed slightly uphill on quiet roads through the tidy suburbs of Malmo and with 4 km to go, I caught sight of Ian’s B&R vest as he turned a corner in the distance. Unfortunately, with 3 km to go Ian looked over his shoulder and spotted me and whilst he’d had to let plenty of runners pass him since the bridge, there was one runner that he was determined would not pass him. We entered parkland and passed Malmo stadium where we would eventually finish and ran the last 2 km on a shady road loop through woodland. Suddenly we were back at the stadium and the last 100 metres on the tartan track. Ian finished 14 seconds and nearly the length of the finish straight ahead of me. His time of 1-31-09 was 10 minutes down on the last time that he had run this race and was a personal worst for the distance but was an achievement considering he had not been able to train for a month beforehand. I barely had time to walk through the cooling water spray, hand in my chip and collect my medal, energy bar and banana and exit the track before Jane ran passed the final corner and into the stadium to finish in 1-45-25.

Dagmar, Lewis and Joshua met us in the stadium and we spent over an hour relaxing on the grass outside enjoying food and the free concert in the race village whilst hundreds of runners continued to finish. Fortunately, Lena who had kindly driven them over the bridge to meet us was able to squeeze us all in the car back to Copenhagen and saved us what would have been a very long wait in the queue for the shuttle bus back to the race headquarters. Special thanks go to Lena for helping us out so much on race day and to her and Lars for acting as such good hosts in Copenhagen.

The men’s competition class was won by Anders Szalkai in 1-10-46, 36 seconds ahead of Paulo Jensen. Ian (1-31-09) and Phil (1-31-23) were 126th and 129th respectively out of 312 men in this class and by my reckoning, Ian was the first U.K. runner listed in the preliminary results. The women’s competition class was won by the Kenyan Isabellah Amoro in 1-19-46, over 4 minutes ahead of Ingunn Bydinger. Jane was 54th out of 78 finishers and third U.K. runner in this category. The highest placed U.K. woman runner listed was 12th placed Caroline Real (Loughton A.C.) in 1-34-42. There were a further 4593 men and 1931 women finishers in the open categories and combining all the results, Ian and Phil would both have been in the first 200 and Jane would have been in the first 1,000 out of nearly 7,000 finishers. Team Fafa (Fleming Andreetto and Franck Bjon Andersen) with a combined time of 1-21-00 won the Duo-Relay in which 353 pairs of runners competed.

(P. Anderson)