7.5km on a 4-lap
course sounds like a weird race and it was a bit unusual,
indeed.
Firstly, because I’m not really
used to running short distances, i.e. anything under 10k, or a half
marathon even. And this isn’t because I’m a super long distance runner for whom
these shorter distances are too easy a task but simply because I’m too slow for them. I like to trot along for hours, preferably through a forest
or up and down some hills, at a comfortable
pace. I dread fast road races
because all that matters is how fast you are.
Nevertheless, I signed up for this
race because the running club was aiming at earning the prize for the
largest team – a roasted pig - and because I thought it would be a good
test for the 10k race I was planning to do later in
July.
Even though Großlangheim is our
neighbouring village, which I regularly pass on my quests to the Schwanberg
hill, the course was unfamiliar to me. There had been rumours of a nasty hill
and I was uncertain whether I could keep up my desired target
pace of 5 minutes per km.
A couple of days before the race, I prepared a playlist on Spotify with songs whose beatsper minute match the
desired race pace. Sounds complicated but there is a website for it (jog.fm)
This was the second unusual
aspect – I hardly ever run with music, only when I’m doing speed work on track
on my own. The last time I did this was when I ran a mock 10k race on my own
in 49 minutes for the one and only time to date, so I thought I should give
it a try in a real race.
And lastly, the
fact that it
took place on a Friday night, after work, was a bit weird,
too. I got a nasty
insect sting on my ankle when running in the forest a
couple of days earlier and
my foot was still quite swollen, so I iced it
during the day and took a pain
killer and hoped that it would be fine.
My team mate Dany gave me a lift to
the start. We were both nervous and equally convinced that we were totally out
of shape for the race...
We arrived right in time for a little chat with the rest of the team and a group
picture. Then it was time to warm-up. This was when I realized that eating
cake in the afternoon was not a good idea. I felt a bit sick, bloated and so
slooow. I tried to do some sprints but my legs were as heavy as my breathing.
Not good.
Then it was time to line up
at the start. I thought the middle of the field was adequate but when the
gun
went off I struggled a bit to “get into the flow” as I had to pass many
slower
runners on the first km. But then the way was clear and I headed
off. The music
was pushing me and I suddenly felt good. Even the hill
didn’t bother me too much
during the first round. But I also knew I was
going too fast at this point and
would have to pay for it later. Of course
I did.
The second loop was much
harder and quite a few runners passed
me. I was breathing heavily already
as glad that the music was loud enough for
me not to hear it. On the third
loop, the leader’s group passed me. I was in
awe, trotting up the hill for
the third time, to see them fly up there so
effortlessly. But the good
thing about short races is that they are, well,
short. The last round
came soon and I quickly calculated that I could finish
under 38
minutes.
Up the hill one last time (Rage
against the Machine helped a lot.),
then I managed to get a bit faster
on the last stretch to the finish line.
As always, I was happy that it was
over, that I could stop and
give my burning lungs a little rest. My Garmin
displayed a time of 37:31 and I
was quite pleased with that – target
achieved J I grabbed a
drink and watched some more team mates finish,
everyone seemed pretty happy with
their result.
As I needed some more kilometres in my
weekly distance account, I
decided to run the 5km back home, so I set off
early before cooling down too
much. A couple of minutes in, a minivan full
of teenage girls with loud music
playing stopped at a crossing and the
girls were cheering at me. I was cheering
back doing a one-man- wave.
The way home was tougher than expected
and a slow jog was all I
had in me towards the end. Back home, I
received a phone call from Dany telling me that 3 other woman of our team and I
had won the first place in the women’s team ranking. Too bad I missed the
awards ceremony! She later brought me my share in the gift basket – three
bottles of wine, sweets, foot balm, shower gel, a straw head, laces, and a
small plant. Not too shabby..
Even though the race went well, I decided against doing the 10k
race on 5 July as there will be a trail race (22km) the day after which sounds
much more enticing :)
My upcoming races are:
Altmühltrail, 22km trail race on 6 July
Schwanberglauf, 10.4km hill race on 18 July
Then the serious training starts for my first ultra marathon in
September.
Thank you for reading &
hope you liked my first (written)
blog post!