long time no see...or hear? Anyway... There wasn't really much to report. My preparation for this Marathon wasn't great. I hardly ran und so the following is not exactly surprising. Every run is becoming more and more of an act and I have less energy and desire to keep training hard inbetween the Marathons, which is a bit of a shame.
Bad Pyrmont - I didn't quite know what to expect. I knew it was going to be a hilly Marathon on a Saturday afternoon - all of which is new to me. I never was a very talented hill runner, so I never once thought that this was going to be a Marathon where I was going to get a good time. The drive was longer than I originally thought, about 2 hours. The little town was quite pretty. Lots of work was put into making it this way. A fountain here, a castle there, lots of places to sit and lots of flower beds. I had my trusted supporters with me again, Christine and Flori. Since the Marathon was starting quite late (1pm), we were still able to sleep in a little, even with the long drive.
We parked at a public carpark and walked a couple hundred meters up to the starting area. There, we picked up my bib and I made my final preparations. The start went smoothly, since the street was wide and there weren't that many runners. There also weren't that many runners who wanted to start sprinting away, since most people wanted to save their energy for the hills. After about 1 Kilometer, we started running into the hills.
From this point on, it is a little hard to remember the exact parts, since we ran some sequences of the course multiple times and there wasn't really a point to focus on for orientation. I started with a pace of about 05:45-06:00, which was already a time of over 4 hours. I didn't really care too much, however, I just wanted to arrive somehow. The course went through a forest for the most part, which saved us from being exposed to too much of the sun and heat. Roughly every 4 Kilometers, we were offered some provisions in form of food (bananas, chocolate, musli bars) and drink (coke, iso, water).
After about 16 Kilometers, I had to walk up my first hill. I wasn't the only one at least, which was good to see! I talked to a bunch of different people during the run. The interesting thing about these sort of country runs is, that you meet a lot of crazy people. From runners, who were using this Marathon as a normal training run, who were planning on doing another Marathon the very next day, to people who have finished some of the longest runs in Germany, like the 230KM TorTour race in 24 hours. 12 Marathons in a year sounds like something for children compared to that :)
As of this point, I basically had to walk up every hill. After KM 20 it got really tough. The uphill parts never ended, which was expected, since we were going towards the top of the "mountain". It felt like there was much more uphill than downhill, which wasn't possible of course. It was probably, because I was running the straight and downhill parts and walking the uphill parts, which made it seem longer. Also the downhill parts were steeper, so they were shorter in general.
But somehow I was still progressing, although slowly. I wanted to stay under 5 hours, so that's what I set out to do. At KM 38 I was sure that it was bound to go down to the bottom of the hill, but it just kept going up. I was getting a little frustrated now, but nothing I could do but keep going. Only at KM 40 it started going back down to the city. The finishing straight was quite nice. A wide dirt road, with lots of trees and restaurants, where people were sitting outside for an early dinner. I was almost by myself running down the street, but people were still cheering, which was really cool. Christine was also waiting at the finish and snapped a few photos. There is also a video of my spectacular finish, which you can see by clicking on the link below. It even has slow motion! Official time: 04:53:32. Well, not a great time in general, but since I climbed about 700 meters in altitude, I'm not too disappointed. Duisburg was flat (although hot) and I only managed a slightly better time there, so not too bad. I also have another even hillier Marathon in just a couple of weeks, so can't forget that.
I lay down on the grass and relaxed for a little. Afterwards I was able to have a free shower at the swimming pool. Unfortunately I had to give them my bib to do so, but it was definitely worth it.
As always, there are a few photos below. My next report will be in a couple of weeks for the Monschau Marathon!
Until then!
Stefan
Spectacular finishing video: Stefan Finish
Marathon profile.
Ready to go!
My loving supporters!
Mandatory selfie with my wifey.
Snapshot at the starting area before the race.
And off we go!
Lonely and alone on my last 100 meters.
Almost there!
And I'm done!
Relaxing on the grass.
Yes, the smile is a little forced.
And there is the certificate.
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