After the race

Two days after the race I feel pretty well. Feet, knees, and muscles are no problem anymore, in fact except for my left calf and left ankle I didn't encounter any pain during the race. But these two were bad enough. The ankle started to ache after around 25k and the calf after 34k. actually that's not new for me in most of my marathons I got the nearly same pain after around 28 to 35k. It feels like my leg is "founding" and gets very slow. Real concentration on each next step helps to continue the race but a (temporary) speed loss is hardly avoidable. But as I ran with my fellow Udo, and he had similar problems with his calf, together we were strong, haha... Ah, wait, I had another pain after the race, and this one is also very known, it's my lumbar vertebra / back. No surprise as I really do not enough gymnastics exercises at all! Herefor I need some advice ;-)

If you are interested, here are my 5k splits:
05k - 0:23:27
10k - 0:46:04 (0:22:37)
15k - 1:08:40 (0:22:36)
20k - 1:30:26 (0:21:46)
21,1k - 1:35:33
25k - 1:52:59 (0:22:33)
30k - 2:15:57 (0:22:58)
35k - 2:40:18 (0:24:21)
40k - 3:02:54 (0:22:36)
42,2k - 3:12:10 (1:36:37)

Finally, I had average times of 4:33min/km resp. 7:19min/mile.

The marathon(wo)men before the start (By the way, Charlotte is 57 years old and she clocked with a 3:43!!!).

It's the Olymp!

Yeah, I did it again. I promised a race report but as you know I am pretty lazy ;-) Actually on the last day of the Olympic Games I felt like being a member of them. See below I was honoured ;-)

Okay, they didn't play the national anthem, I didn't get any Cup, there was no laurel crown, finally I was just in 3rd place of my age group and not overall but at least there was a podium and they clearly said my name (and I got a medal!) ;-)))))

Anyway, the race was as expected. It's a medium tough course, a bit hilly and, off course after 2hrs running each stone on the way hurts a bit more ;-( The weather was at least the first 2hrs very runner-friendly. Afterwards it got a bit hot but as the whole course (except for the first and last two km) is leading through a deep, deep forest it was okay.

I ran nearly the whole time with my best fellow Udo:


Stats:
Distance: 42.195k
Time: 3:12:10
Ranking: 7/177 (overall)

Team Work

Today I was not alone. My little girl supported me to give everything I have in my 6k-rest-run-before-marathon...

Lazy

Oh, I am really lazy in updating my running blog, sorry for that but, in fact, there is so much to read from the RBF ;-) Especially the blogfather is pretty dilligent in blogging (by the way, Mark, congrats for your nice half marathon race and don't trust any official time ;-))... Anyway, at least I ran pretty regularly during the last days and could get a total of 80k each for the last two weeks, not to bad. I also decided to start next sunday in the Koberstädter Marathon. I ran this one back in 2001 (3:22) and 2003 (2:59). It's a pretty nice one, nearly the whole distance is ran through the forest, a bit hilly but not to much. It's not a course for a PB but for having some "fun", you know what I mean, marathon fun ;-) I don't intend for maximum run meaning running at my limit but I will see, maybe I can clock with 3:10 to 3:20 that would be fine. I will keep you updated and try to prepare a little race report.

Saalburg

Stats:
Distance: 28k
Time: 2:23

Morning Run

Nice run today 7 AM in the morning, pretty cool and fresh air, I love it.

Stats:
Distance: 11k
Time: 0:58

Weekend runs

Had some nice runs on the weekend. I always like to run on the weekend in my local area, nice fields, pretty forests...

Saturday:
Distance: 10k
Time: 0:49

Sunday:
Distance: 20k
Time: 1:40:30

Great Day

As posted today in the morning I had a really great start to my day with the 20k cool run, afterwards level of enthusiasm was a bit lower during working day but the day ended with a new great cultural experience. Actually my wife intended to see a play of our local theater with a friend but her friend hat do cancel it and then it was on me as we were lucky to find pretty fast a babysitter for our kids. The play was pretty different from the ones I saw in the past. The audience comprised just 24 persons divided in two groups of each 12 persons. It took place in a usual hotel in a city nearby (Wetzlar), we were welcome in the hotel lobby, an actress played on the piano for a while, afterwards we each group was directed in two differen hotel rooms, we sat down on chairs, on the bed, we were just in the middle of the scene were two actors played their (and our) roles. It was really strange to be in a usual hotel room (which I know pretty well from my work trips) and to watch/be part of converstaions between completely unknown persons... But really cool and highly recommendable!

Fun Run

Yeah, that's my weather!!!! Last night it rained a bit and cooled down, today in the morning at 7 AM it was lovely "cold" with a bit of sun. Oh yeah, I loved it, actually my goal was to run about 15k. That's pretty a lot for me, mentally ;-) I just have a 10k round here and for the 15k I have to run a more hilly course. Anyway, it turned out that I was as fresh as I wasn't for some weeks (I think), the time and the distance just passed and passed and passed. In the end I had a 20k super-cool morning run to write about ;-) This brought big motivation, waiting for Autumn and possible some race challenges, haha...

Stats:
Distance: 20k
Time: 1:43:30

Sunday, Monday, Friday

I am really not as reliable in regular blogging as I'd like to be. Maybe it's this really hot and humid weather what keeps me away ;-) Anyway, here are the stats from the last three days:

Sunday:
Distance: 7k
Time: 0:34:00

Monday:
Distance: 15k
Time: 1:16:00

Tuesday:
Distance: 16k
Time: 1:23:00

7th "Lauf um den Dornkopf"

Race day ;-) Today was the 7th run around the Dornkopf in Langd. Actually it was a pretty disappointing race for me. I couldn't motivate myself to give 100% as I'm usually able to do (at least what I think are my 100%), accordingly three (usually slower) runners passed me in the last third of the race. I recognized this mental "malfunction" right away after the first 500m of the race, usually I just run as fast as I can from the beginning and try to defend the won meters until the finish line but today it was different ;-( It seemed I was afraid of loosing against some runners I already know, off course it was a tough and pretty hilly course but same conditions for all... Anyway, I have to be more focused next time!

Course profile:


Stats:
Distance: 10k
Time: 0:38:25
Rank: 7/109