I am writing this late for a few reasons, but I don’t want to not write a race report, so here it is!
Lindenseelauf
On the 15th, so 11 days ago, the Lindenseelauf series started. It is made up of 3 races. A 10km run in October, a 15km run in November and a final 10k run in January. I have done the 15km and the 2nd 10km before, but I fancied trying the whole series this year. My form obviously isn’t tip-top after a pre-marathon taper and post-marathon rest, but what the hell, I like racing and it is good to have a reference point to know where I stand.
I went to the market with Katja and had a coffee, before cycling to Russelsheim for the race. I got there about 40 minutes before the start and signed up for the whole series. Sebi Dahl and Konrad were both racing too. Both are fast but Sebi is about as fast as me, so he is a good goal for me to beat.
Muscle ache
I didn’t do a lot of warm up but felt ready at the start line. My recent low carb diet which had meant that my heart rate had been crazy high during my recent training. I also had done some 400m repeats 3 days before and still had muscle ache in my calves! So the race started and I felt pretty controlled. I wasn’t flying, but I felt ok, even though I say that my HR was higher than normal. After 3-4km there is an uphill that I don’t love, but after that the course is pretty fast and flat.
I went through 5km in 18:20, but I wan’t overly confident of even splitting the race. Sebi was about 20m ahead of me and I thought I might catch him, but it didn’t quite happen. After 8km I felt tired and was running slower than before. I had overtaken an African runner, who then promptly overtook me again with about 1km to go. Another guy caught and overtook me with about 1km to go too. That doesn’t happen too often to me, as I usually pace quite well (you can see them both in the 2nd photo).
So coming over the finish line, I saw that I had run 37:30, so the 2nd 5km was just over 19 minutes… urgh. Sebi was 10 seconds ahead of me.
Disappointing
I don’t think any of the TCEClers were very happy with their performance. I have run 30 seconds faster on the same course in January, but I guess that isn’t that much faster given that I knew I wasn’t on form going into the race. Konrad blew up too, he usually runs 34 mins or so, but ‘only’ managed 35:30.
Everyone headed off straight away, leaving me alone to await the results and prize givings. I was 11th overall, but 2nd in my age group, so got a bottle of wine. They messed up the team rankings, so we came 3rd instead of winning it, but I got a 6 pack of beer for that anyway. The tombola is pretty crazy in Rüsselsheim. I reckon about 50% of racers win something, I was in the unlucky 50% this time, but what can you do!
I will be back on November 19th for the 15km, I doubt I will be on top form then either, I am going to write a post explaining why, so I won’t give any spoilers now!
See you soon!