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There were strategies, hopes and dreams. There were goals and personal bests. There was plenty of struggle but also some calm and joy.
Five runners from the Finnish running group Mellow Minutes toed the line of the 2026 Copenhagen Marathon. This is how they did.
"You're a finisher!"
“My original plan didn’t succeed,” runner Ronja Haikka says. “I am still in pain.”
A few days after the race, most of the runners are feeling exhausted, sore and tired. Some are even feeling disheartened.
It may well be the infamous post-race blues but the pain tells us that runners truly gave it all. Finishing the 42.195 kilometer (or 26.2 mile) competition is no small task. Congratulations!
Starting strong
Kanerva Arola started the race strong. “I started with a very ambitious pace running the first 15 km between 5:00 - 5:10 min/km”
Maybe a bit too strong as Arola claims to have hit the highly infamous “wall” already early on in the race. “I was running way too fast for my fitness level and quickly realized I had messed up as my heart rate went to the max.”
Arola started to feel unwell and was forced to slow down but unfortunately, never really recovered. “I ended up focusing on surviving the race, slowing down my pace and trying to get my legs to move forward. My heart rate stayed elevated for the rest of the race, even though I slowed down to an easy jogging pace.”
“I felt terrible,” she says.
Incredibly, the runner was able to keep going and pushed herself to cross the finishing line.
“The race itself was a struggle for me,” Arola says, “but I finished injury free, and that is the most important thing.” |
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Hitting Struggle Town
For Leo Kontinen, everything felt achievable until around the 25-kilometer mark. Then at 35 kilometers, things got extremely hard. "I knew the race would be physically hard, but I was not prepared for how difficult it would become mentally, especially after 35 km. That was the point where the real battle started for me," he says.
"This race was mentally brutal."
Kontinen crossed the finish line completely drained—but also proud. "I'm proud that I managed to fight through the mental side of the race and didn't stop or slow down. I got to experience firsthand that the mind gives up before the body does."
With 3,353 kcal burned, a 158 bpm average and 179 bpm max, and a 568 cardio load, he should be.
"It's exciting to realize that I can achieve more than I think I can."
"Right after the race, I said: never again. But now, after some recovery and reflection, I wouldn't completely rule another marathon out," he says. |
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Running on a fractured toe
Ronja Haikka fell before even reaching the halfway mark of the race. "With a bleeding knee, a fractured toe and a nail that came off, I fought until the very end," Haikka says.
"I'm happy about that!"
Looking back, "I felt pretty weak and low on energy that pre-race morning. I never ended up getting that strong, focused, or euphoric feeling at any point during the race."
Still, "the race went okay."
More than OK, in fact, as she ended up finishing the race in 3:36. That is a great effort!
As ticket sales open again soon — will Haikka be attending next year?
"Nope."
Sometimes recovery takes more time.
Finishing easy, calm and happy
For Alina Huldén and Jussi Hildén, the race was a bit more, let's say, breezy.
Hildén says he knew the race was going to be a good one already at the initial 5-kilometer mark. "I just had that good feeling," he says.
To ensure even pacing, Hildén took manual laps with the Polar watch every 5 kilometers:
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"My race was strong, calm and emotional. It was a special feeling running on Mother's Day and I thought of mine often during the race," Hildén says proudly.
Similarly, Alina Huldén felt happy with her results. "I felt very tired going into the last half, and I really wanted to stop running for most of it. But I also had friends and family send me voice messages, so whenever I needed a distraction, I listened to them, which did wonders."
Huldén finished right according to plan with a time of 4:44:06.
"I'm glad it's over," she says, laughing. "I've enjoyed the training a lot more than the marathon, so I guess finishing was a bit of an emotional anticlimax, but the festival part of the race was fun. Now I think I'll put marathons on hold for a bit and find some other running goal to train for," Huldén says.
To run or not to run — next year is still far away.
"We had a very lovely post-marathon dinner with the whole Mellow Minutes running family, after which we headed to an afterparty. It was so nice to see everyone let loose and get rid of the final bits of marathon stress," Hildén says.
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| Will you be the next finisher? |
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Be fast! Sale ends Sunday. |
| ** The offer is valid until May 17, 2026 for selected items at polar.com while stocks last. The offer cannot be combined with any other promotions and discounts. |
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