Hi there,
After the marathon there is a new marathon coming up. That’s exactly my thought three days after the latest accomplishment. The next marathon will probably be Oldenburg marathon in about four weeks, so there’s hardly any time for recovery, but let’s try anyway.
This post, however, will provide insights into the Küstenmarathon in Otterndorf. I had agreed with a friend of mine to drive to Ottendorf in Northern Germany and to take part at a marathon run there. This would be my first marathon this year, as based on the setbacks experienced during the past year, other things in life have appeared to be more important than a top result in a marathon race.
Otterndorf is a little German municipality with a few thousand people living there. It is located at the North Sea with the river Elbe in the immediate vicinity. What I had found out before the event about the place and the marathon route was that one could expect an even, steady route as well as brisk winds from the sea.
We arrived in Otterndorf on Saturday afternoon and went first to our place of stay and after that to get our race participant numbers and other stuff that was provided. The school acting as the central scene for the marathon preparements and aftermath was a fine place for an event like this. There were enough volunteers taking care of the practical issues and I immediately felt great to be there. The hospitality of the people was evident and also pointed out that they probably have many tourists and visitors in general.
After that we had a quick meal, did some shopping and went back to our accommodation to have a good night sleep. For me it was not that good, but fortunately the previous night had been good and I didn’t feel too bad when waking up at 07:30 in the morning. After a quick breakfast with bread, yoghurt and coffee it was time to pack the backpacks and drive to the starting area. Even though there altogether were about 1300 runners in all groups and races involved it didn’t feel too big due to that the different races started at partly different times and did not all follow the main route (the marathon and the half marathon race did) of 10,55 km.
After a short waiting we were able to get started. The goal of me and my friend was to finish the race in a time of under four hours. This was a realistic target after a non-optimal training summer. We tried to run every km with the pace of 05:30 – 05:45 min/km, which was a really good strategy. There were many spots at the running route with drinks and I really felt confident I would not miss too many own energy gels or bars (I had forgotten to buy them in advance).
The race proceeded in a steady tempo. The weather was actually quite optimal – with the temperature of about 12°C – 15°C during the race and not too much rain nor wind (we did get our part of it for sure, but it was not too much, fortunately). We were able to keep up with the target pace quite well; only after about 34 km the running started to feel hard, but as we had run wisely, we could finish with the almost steady pace, with the finish time of about 03:52. I must say I’m really satisfied with the race, happy to have a good running buddy that could support me during the race and happy to having been in Otterndorf. It surely was a nice experience.
Now I’m feeling quite tired still, but as I stated at the beginning of this post, the next marathon (number 25 for me) is already in the planning.
Until next time, Cheers!