Category: Running Race Reports

It’s been a while since my last race hasn’t it! My dad visited 2 weeks ago, then my uncle and cousins last weekend, but this weekend is back to normal and I could try my hand at the Mörfelden Adventslauf 10km.

The run up to Mörfelden

I feel/felt like my form is great at the moment. I kicked up to just under 100km a week of running a few weeks ago, as well as doing some quality and a long run per week. The last 2 weeks have been, shall we say, a little more relaxed. Not much quality, more days off and no long runs. It’s fine, as Paris marathon is still a loooong way away, but I think my form may have slightly dipped.

Running or clubbing?

Anyway to Mörfelden. I cycled to the train station where a night club was still playing music at 07:30! Kid today eh? I got my 2 trains, then cycled to the Waldstadion, getting pretty lost on the way. I was still there at 08:50 for a 09:30 start, so all was fine. Continue reading “Mörfelden Adventslauf 10km”

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 )

Trail Running

A colleague of mine organised a run last year for the first time. Last year it was shortly after Berlin Marathon and I was still resting up. This year I didn’t have a good excuse (except the difficulty in getting there) so I decided to take part.  The Hüffelsheimer Panoramalauf is a trail run, with 3 distances – 5km, 11.5km and 22km.  The 22km looks and sounds tough, a bit much for me at my current fitness level, so I took on the 11.5km race instead.

Hüffelsheimer Panoramalauf

I got the train to Bad Munster, then cycled 6km uphill to Hüffelsheim. I ran what I thought was the last 700m of the course as a warm up, it was 700m downhill, then I ran back, 700m uphill – tough running!  Luckily I found out that isn’t the right route for the longer distances races though!

Continue reading “2. Hüffelsheimer Panoramalauf – My second win ever!”

Windräderlauf

I’d seen that the Windräderlauf in Wörrstadt was on this weekend and I thought I would sign up. On Monday I went to the website, but found out that the deadline was already passed, oh well.  Then on Tuesday I saw that Lex Laufexperten posted about the race, asking if anyone fancied it.  I checked again and could sign up. I guess they had changed their minds!

So after a heavier than normal running week (for the last few months anyway – about 70km) I headed to Wörrstadt nice and early on Sunday.  I decided to cycle 6km to the train station, get the train to Wörrstadt, then cycle from the station to the start, that should save my legs a little.  Online it said that there wouldn’t be any toilets at the race, sounds like a nightmare too me! Luckily there were toilets at the start.

Continue reading “1. Windräderlauf – My first race win!”

Alagastlauf

On Friday I didn’t even know that the Alagastlauf was on this weekend. I had planned to swim and bike on Saturday, then run a bit longer on Sunday.  Then on Friday evening we were out at Katha’s until quite late. Katja and I went into town on Saturday to have a coffee and a general potter around, when Jochen asked me on Facebook if I fancied running the Alagastlauf on Sunday.  I hadn’t run it before, so though – why not?

The Alagastlauf is a 10k, but 4 x 2.5km loops. I didn’t know until i arrived that it isn’t very flat, there aren’t hills, but it rolls all the time and has a good bit on cobbles too.

Top 3?

Jochen had run it last year and had run a good 38:45 time for 3rd place.  I had expected that I could run a flat 10k in 37:30, but with the bumps, I thought 38 minutes would be okay. Hopefully that would be good enough for a top 3 place, who knows. Continue reading “Alagastlauf 2017 – Gau Algesheim 10km”

Firmenlauf

Last year the firmenlauf was perfectly placed for me, just before the Berlin marathon and I was on good running form. This year I am on good lazy form and got a cold the day before the race. So now that I’ve got my excuses out of the way, I can start with the race report.

It’s always a funny time of year at work when the firmenlauf comes around. People start asking me about my running, and exaggerating my abilities (you’ll win or run 14 minutes!). I tried to play it down this year and was actually a little worried about remaining number one in TRON as some people had asked about my pace, as if they were comparing and fancying their chances!

A bit under the weather

I was at the CIMT annual conference until just before 6pm, so had to hurry up to get to the start. I swam in the lunch break to get the blood flowing, I wasn’t feeling good though, it was just a head cold, but made me less confident..

We had the team photo at 18:15 then I decided to walk into the front of the start pen, instead of having to push my way in from behind. That worked out perfectly and I could start in the front row.

Fast start

After starting too fast (2:40/km is ambitious!) I settled in and the leaders weren’t really much faster than me. I felt decent and could pick off a couple of the stupidly fast starters after 2-3km. The course is still the same as last year, i.e. lots and lots of turns, and lots of cobbles. It’s also almost certainly short too, but it’s hard to know just how short it is. I think about 200m short, but it could be as much as 300m.

The rest of the race was pretty uneventful. I had 10:15 on the clock after 3km and 14:00 after 4km so I assumed a 18 minute time. After the last few twists I was out and just around the corner from the finish line with 16:45 on the clock! I thought I could beat my time from last year so kicked a little, and crossed in almost exactly the same time as in 2016 – in 17:08 instead of 17:07.

Title defended

I’ll take that though. I thought I’d be a good minute slower, last year I was ready to run a 2:55 marathon, I doubt I could do that right now. I also managed to defend my TRON/Biontech title, which is a nice little bonus.

So that’s that. I might run the Mainufer 10km in the middle of October. I have exactly 0 running PBs in 2017, it’d be nice to change that if possible.

Since my last race I haven’t been running too much. I managed to injure my right calf, meaning I couldn’t run for a week.  I have started running again since then, but not too much and no quality, except one decent 25km run. The Seppel Kiefer Lauf fit well for me as it meant I had an extra week of recovery than if I ran Frankfurt half marathon.

Seppel Kiefer Lauf – a bit scared!

I’ve been a bit worried about my running since Groß-Gerau, because it was such a bad race for me. I feel like I am on a downward trend at the moment, fortunately that only applies to running, not cycling or swimming.  At first I’d considered doing the half marathon at the Seppel Kiefer Lauf, but given my recent lack of running, I felt that the 10k was a better idea.

I got the train to Bad Munster am Stein and planned to cycle home from Bad Kreuznach after the race.  I knew that I have no chance of winning. Christian Bock and Lukas from TCEC were doing the 10k and they are much faster than me.

Blowing a gale

It was windy but quite warm, probably 12 degrees or so. The Seppel Kiefer Lauf 10km is 2 loops, on asphalt and flat, but with lots of turns.  The last race to start was the 10k at 10:25. I had plenty of time to chat to the people I knew there and do a little warm up.

The race started with a weird ever slowing countdown, then we were off. I was in about 15th place but some had taken off at an optimistic pace!  I passed Timo from TCEC after about 700m and he asked if I was making an attack, I said no, I only run one pace!  Soon everything settled down and I was in 8th place and felt ok behind 2 guys running into a strong headwind.  After the turn one of the guys started to pull away, whereas the other fell in behind me.

My Suunto has stopped working in the last few days, so I was wearing Katja’s Garmin 220.  I wasn’t so comfortable as I couldn’t see pace and HR at the same time.  After going too hard in GG, I wanted to keep my HR under check here.  It was all going fine after 5km in about 18:45.

Winning my Age Group

I left the guy behind me and fought back against the wind. Felix, who runs lots of the Wingert’s cup races, was just about 15-30m ahead of me, but I couldn’t catch him!  I saw on the out and back that Lukas was winning the race, so I gave him a cheer as we crossed paths.  The rest was pretty uneventful, I couldn’t catch Felix but no one was coming from behind either so I crossed the line just under 38 minutes in 7th place.

It wasn’t a great race for me, but it didn’t feel nearly as bad as in GG. It turned out that I won my age group which was nice, but as I was cycling home, I couldn’t take any prizes with me, so I didn’t stay for the prize giving.  The ride home was fun, the wind was very helpful and even with slightly tired legs I could cruise the slightly hilly 40km+ at over 32km/h.

So next up race-wise is the Polderlauf. I could do the 15km or the 10km. I think I will do the 15km, but I hope my form returns a little before then!

It is 16 weeks until Roth now, so that takes priority for me. The next post will be my start of Roth training post.