Offenbacher Mainuferlauf
I said a while back, I think after the Alagastlauf, that I fancied doing the Offenbacher Mainuferlauf. I had heard that it is a fast course and I thought I could get myself in possible PB form for it. That started to look slightly less likely as the time passed, but I still felt like I could run sub37.
So after watching Kona until midnight, then sleeping dreadfully for 5h, I got up for the race. I am off eggs at the moment, so I ate oats, toast and a banana for breakfast. After watching the Kona marathon on fast forward, I was off to Offenbach.
Sick everywhere
I had to ride to Römisches Theater in the fog and dark. When I got their it was full of drunks and people had been sick everywhere. Lovely! The set up in Offenbach was quite nice, in a big school hall with loads of people. I have done so many little races recently, a 600 strong starter field seemed massive!
Good start
The Offencbacher Mainuferlauf started at 9am. I had a pretty good start place and got away clean too. There were some properly fast people there, so the front group was gone in no time. I settled in and saw 3:40 for the 1st km, all fine. I have been having some stomach aches and pains recently, along with a being on a strict diet, so I haven’t been feeling tip top. It had definitely crossed my mind that my blood loss might have happened again, but when I saw that my HR was 165bpm or so after 1km, I knew I was fine and good to race.
I kept everything under control for the first 4km. I was overtaking quite a few people and feeling good whilst keeping my pace up. As I passed the 5km marker I saw the time on my watch said 18:11. Right on PB pace. The 2nd half is always where it bites though, so I knew it would be tough.
On the edge
The course was really flat and there was no wind at all. I hung tough and my pace stayed constant. After about 8.5km I saw Konrad and Lukas warming up for their HM, it was a nice distraction from the pain! The last 1km seemed to take an age. Someone overtook me, but fortunately no one I know, so I could just increase the pace without killing myself to cross the line in 36:32, only 8 seconds off my PB
2nd best time ever
I am happy with that! It was my 2nd best time ever. I’ve only been sub37 once before and I am still a good 2-3kg over my optimal weight. I reckon I could be in the 35flat region when I am at race weight! That would be cool.
One advantage of doing a bigger race is that I didn’t win anything, so could leave pretty soon after the finish. I wished the TCEC boys who were running the HM well, and was off within half an hour of finishing, bliss!
Next Up
Next up – well I’m not sure at the moment. I could run the Mainz Charity Run and Walk next weekend, but might not. The Lindenseelauf 15km would be really nice to run at the end of November, but my Dad is visiting then, I think it might be a bit arseholey of my to spend the whole Saturday at a race, instead of going to the football or Heidelberg for his visit.
So if they are out, I think I might head to Rodgau sometime to try to set a new 10k PB. I need to find out the dates, but it is either the start of November or the start of December.
(There are hundreds of photos online from the race, but only of the people who ran over 40minute :-(, so this post is a bit colourless )
