Today, I joined a 5km fun run - Vårruset (The Spring Rush). It is pronounced as vor-ru-set. I am so happy and excited because I am back running again! I have missed the running atmosphere, the crowd, the cheers and the medals. I did not join any runs in Stockholm because everything costs so expensive here. I mean, the running fees. For this run, it costs SEK325 / RM163 for a timing chip. I was not ready to pay so much for a 5km fun run. Can you imagine now how much it would cost for runs that are further than 5km?
I joined this run courtesy of my company. It was for females only. It was a charity run and at the end of the run, the emcee announced that the run managed to collect SEK3,5 million for the children cancer foundation.
At 5.30pm, all of us gathered at the lobby of the office. We got our running jersey and bib. On my bib, it states 'Du är grym' which means 'You are awesome'. We took the train to Universitet station (the red line) and there was a huge crowd there. Everyone was walking towards the venue which was in Norra Djurgården. Can you guess how many runners were there? It was a 2-day event and there were 16 500 runners! I was shocked!
Everyone got their spots to lie on. This is because we will have a picnic bag after the run. A group of 6 will get a picnic bag.
That is our group. Ladies only.
A group of runners warming themselves up. It got sunny after a while. It was 16 degrees and was cloudy (when the sun was hiding). I was cold. When the sun came out, I removed out my rain jacket and tied it around my waist.
Two minutes prior to my run, I was hopping up and down to warm myself up. Suddenly, my right ankle gave way because of the uneven ground. It hurt for a while and then the pain disappeared. I thought - 5km. I can survive this. I can run. Which I did. I ran, and after the run, I was nursing a slightly swollen ankle with my frozen lunch box at home.
I completed my 4.86km (it was not 5km) run within 29 minutes 33 seconds. It was not very fast. I am just happy that I completed it. I was placed 1086. Most of my colleagues completed in about 24 minutes or less.
Coop, one of the giant supermarket stores in Sweden was the main sponsor, so our goodie bags had a couple of groceries inside. Look at that mountain of goodie bags!
My goodie bag and my medal.
Our picnic bag. We had tortilla wraps with salad, keso cheese, hummus, nuts and sauce. Very yummy!
I am writing this post 3 days after the run, and my swollen ankle does not look so bad, although it is still swollen. I did not regret running! It was a fun experience!
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