Lovisa aims for her dream limit with the help of a personal pacer
She has never failed to achieve a time goal since she started running five years ago. Lovisa Tysklind, with the help of running star Suldan Hassan as a personal pacer, will not fail to achieve it in Göteborgsvarvet either.
“I’m aiming for under 90 minutes and I think I can do it with Suldan’s help,” says the 25-year-old.
Just like last year, Göteborgsvarvet organized a social media competition where the prize is a personal hare during Göteborgsvarvet. The hare in this case is Suldan Hassan, one of Sweden's top runners.
Lovisa Tysklind, originally from Halmstad but living in Gothenburg for the past five years, won this year's competition and is now preparing for her second Göteborgsvarv. In 2019, she finished with a time of 1:55:58 - now her goal is to finish in under 1:30.
"When I reached the 10-kilometer mark after Älvsborgsbron, I had never run that far before and the last eleven kilometers felt long. Last year, I had prepared well but unfortunately got sick and had to watch instead," she says.
It was in 2018 when she started running to feel better, and the joy of running came quickly. Every year, she has improved her times, and this spring she has been preparing by setting a personal best on the Varvetmilen with an impressive time of 41.19.
How does it feel to have a personal hare during Göteborgsvarvet?
"It has gone from being fun to feeling an enormous pressure, I've been thinking about selling him for a high price," she says with a laugh.
"No, but it's going to be really fun. My time goal is tough, but with Suldan, I get better conditions, and he has promised to pull me over the finish line if I can't make it all the way. I have to be careful not to go out too hard, I'll try to hold back a bit so that I can have a negative split (faster second half than first), which I did well on the Varvetmilen."
Suldan Hassan, who had an injury-filled last year, has started to find form again and will make his racing debut this week. He is looking forward to running Göteborgsvarvet together with Lovisa.
"It will be really fun to do it together and help her try to reach her goal. It was a great experience last year, and Jonas, who I ran with then, set a big personal record, so now the pressure is on Lovisa (laughs)," he says.
2023-05-07