Kolding Half 2025

I recently ran a half marathon in Kolding, Denmark 🇩🇰: Kolding Half. Last year my wife participated in the 2024 edition of the event there and since there were some bus logistics issues she let the organizer now. As a token of gratitude the organizer handed her a free spot to the 2025 event, which she then donated to me 😀. So that’s how I ended up in Kolding’s half marathon 🤗🕺🏼.

If you recall my last race notes, then my family came too late to see me enter the finish line. Well this time was totally opposite 🤭 - they were there even before I started. And they also came to see me when I finished 🤩. Below you see my wife, Casper my youngest and Nala our dog - walking next to Koldinghus and Slotssøen.

There were pacers for 1:35 and “slower”, but since I wanted to aim closer to 1:30 I had to go without. So basically that means standing amongst the runners right behind the elites. Pretty crazy to think about it really 🤣. Well there is a range of paces amongst runners there, where mine is amongst the slowest. But still … it does indeed feel awkward to go almost near the front at the starting line. Nevertheless it also makes no sense to start mid pack, only to try to pass everyone in the beginning.

This was a really nice race route through Kolding. Beautiful and scenic. Ran past Koldinghus around Slotssøen (Lake) and then on city roads, into the city center streets and back again out into some nice living areas etc.

But unlike the other few road marathons I’ve tried, this one felt super hilly. In a trail race that would be normal (and in fact this would not feel hilly at all). But for a road marathon where you push pace, then this was a real eye opener. I immediately dropped pace when running uphill to keep effort under control.

Side remark: here’s a fine poster my wife and son made for cheering me on 🥲. It says “Let’s go dad” and below “Faster, faster, …”. And here’s a random picture of me showing the race t-shirt (…🤣).

The weather was awesome. But it did feel quite warm (when you combine a harder effort with heat). Luckily, multiple places on the route, the crowd sprayed water at the runners; So I ran through them all head on 🤣. I also had to drink water from two of the aid stations. It was actually not my plan … but the heat gave me little option.

On the day I gave it what I had. A race time of 1:32:58 and a position 164 of 1421 finishers. And even though I naively had hoped to run a bit faster, then under the circumstances (warm, hilly, windy) I feel happy with my performance 🤗🕺🏼.

Recommended?

Yes!

Once again a race from KriXrun that is just awesome. Everything rocks. Good energy in the start and finish area. Interesting and challenging route (may not be PB material, but it is a lovely tour around Kolding). Very engaging spectators: full of energy no matter where we were running. Loved the water 💦 “services” out there. Oh yeah also plenty of aid stations out there - invaluable on a hot day like we had here 👌🏻👏🏻.

This race gets an almost top of the line 4-star rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️