Race Report Weiher Half-Marathon

I had a rather restless sleep last night, it was warm and humid making it difficult to sleep deep. As I stepped outside to test the air at 7 a.m. you could already feel the thick air. I knew the half-marathon today was going to be a rough run compared to others.

Weiher is a small town of about 5K located 15 minutes north of our house. I arrived about 50 minutes ahead of time and gathered my start number. The storm clouds were starting to move in as I took my place in line at the bathrooms.

Shortly before the race I jogged for five minutes to warm up, which left me dripping in sweat. It was already warming up pretty well 26C/79F shortly before 9 a.m. and the air was thick with humidity.

As I lined up at the Start with the other 200 participants the announcer reported that a tornado had touched town on the edge of one part of the race course and had felled several trees, but the path was now free and wouldn’t slow us down – and I didn’t even know they had tornados in Germany, hmm.

Anyway promptly at 9 a.m. we were off. I tried to start slow, I knew it would be a long race today and survival was the key. I quickly fell into an average pace of about 5:15/K (827/M). Even at this somewhat slower pace I was breathing heavier than normal.

Around the 4-5K point it finally started raining, a slow drizzling rain that did little to cool anything off and probably made the humidity worse. This drizzle continued for at least a half-hour, letting up sometime after I passed the 10K point. I reached the 10K point in around 51:30, an average pace of 5:09/K (8:17/M), at this point it was still theoretically possible to beat my best time (1:48:12), I decided to give it my best shot anyway.

Soon after the 12K point I latched onto a younger, tall dude who slowly ran past me. I tried my best to hang with him. After a few minutes a young, short young lady eased past both of us and we both fought to keep up with her.

At the 15K/9.3M aid station (every 5K was an aid station) I walked long enough to eat a banana and drink a couple cups of water, I ended up falling behind the two I had been following. I did my best to catch up again, eventually passing the dude, the young lady disappeared after awhile, she was just too fast for me.

By the 17K/10.5M point I was hurting, the humidity had zapped my energy, my legs were hurting from the long run I did Friday night and the are was STILL thick as molasses. I struggled on the best I could, but I knew I was slowing down. My reserves were spent, so I just concentrated on at least trying not to slow down further.

With less than 2K to go I saw a runner from the Phillipsburg Running Club a minute or two ahead of me. I concentrated on trying to catch him before we reached the finish line. So I stretched out my pace as best I could and slowly reeled him in, indeed passing him the last 100 meters before the finish line.

As I approached the finish line I heard for the first time, “Here comes Jack, from the LT TSV Graben,” my first race as a member of the Graben Running Club!

I finished in 1:51:03, more than three minutes slower than my best time, but probably about the best that I could have gotten out of this old body today. In any case I am very satisfied, it was one of the toughest half-marathons that I have ever run, the amount of effort required surpassed even the two trail half-marathons that I have run.

After refueling and showering I headed home, ate again and crashed on the cough for an hour nap. As I write (4 p.m.) the sun is shining, the temperature has risen to 36C/97F and it is sweltering hot outside, time to go to the local bier garden for some food.

Have a nice Sunday!