MY MEMORIES

Charles Glenn Petersen

1983 - Mississippi Years

Denmark (continued)

The following day was a half marathon run over the bridge, which again started on Funen. I had stayed overnight with my friend, Bent Fredsgaard in Kalundborg, which is on the western shore of Zealand. In the earlier morning, Bent and I and his friend, Søren Jensen, were driven south to Korsør by Bent’s wife Birgit. There were busses taking runners over the bridge to the start of the run, crossing number three.

There were many thousands of runners congregating on the Funen side of the bridge. It took us what was literally hours for the half marathon to start and for us to get to the starting point where a hundred runners were let onto the route every minute. The run along the causeway was long and boring, just runners on the road parallel to the railroad tracks with nothing but water on either side. The bridge rises to a height of 62 meters (over 200 feet) above the water in about 1.4 miles, a steady uphill slog. Then a little over a mile between the bridge towers, before the 1.4 mile downhill. The uphill wears you out, the downhill is a steady pounding on your knees. Again I got several acknowledgements from my sign which made for a nice distraction, since on the way up the slope Søren went on ahead and Bent fell behind and I was all alone. On the way down a young lady said to me as she passed me, “Hi Charles. I didn’t think I would see you again today.” It uplifted my spirits and I cruised on to the finish, crossing number four. We found one another and then Brigit who was waiting for us by the car with hot wet towels, dry clothes, and ice cold beer.