Baden Marathon
I've gone international! Despite a harrowing experience with travel and jet lag last April in Boston, I wanted to run a marathon back in Europe, or Germany specifically. This race was just seven weeks after a particularly brutal flame-out in San Francisco, and five weeks after a freezing cold mountain race. Too much? Perhaps, but compared to those events, this marathon was as easy as they come.
All my fears regarding the time adjustment proved to be just that, fears. I slept great! As well as I ever have before a marathon, a solid eight one-half hours, and felt awake and alert as I headed out to the start. The start was as close as I have ever been to a start, just ten minutes walk. No busses to take. What a nice change.
The weather was perfect. Cloudy, overcast and cool. It was all coming together, and once we got going, I found a fairly fast, yet comfortable pace to start. I was shooting for a 3:00 hour finish, which I thought was attainable given the very flat course.
I had some trouble with congestion. Streets in Europe are narrow! I was crowded in the group around the 2:59 pace setter (who carried a balloon instead of a sign), and after someone stepped on my foot, I shot out ahead to get some space.
After some time in the city of Karlsruhe, the course took us along some rural hiking and biking paths. I realized I was going too fast, but didn't slow down too much. I wanted to push things a little, but shortly before the half-way point, the yellow balloon caught me, and I knew 3:00 was not going to happen.
As the second half unfolded, I was caught by surprise at a couple of climbs onto overpasses we had to do, as well as some stretches of gravelly road, so it wasn't all a cake walk. Also, I wouldn't recommend running on cobblestones after 22 miles; that was extremely uncomfortable. The race highlight in this half was a tour of the Schlosspark, the tourist attraction of the city.
Crowds were out and about, cheering us on. I was quite impressed by the turnout actually, but all their encouragement couldn't keep me from slowing significantly during the last 10km, after what felt like a strong 20-30km stretch. I still felt like I was moving pretty fast (nothing like the disaster of San Francisco), and only one person overtook me in that stretch, as far as I can remember.
I finished in 3:05, which left me feeling a little disappointed after everything had gone right, from sleep to preparation to race pacing. But I guess that's all I had in me for this race. I am looking forward to the winter in California, where the quality of my training might go up without the energy-sapping heat I endured over the summer.
The finish area had free beer, so that was my isotonic drink of choice as I waited for my legs to recover enough to be usable and carry me back to my hotel. I'll need a couple of days to reflect on all that went right today, and see if I can apply any lessons to future races. But right now, I think I hear a couple of German bottles of beer calling my name.