Hello again!
I have had a very busy week due to lots of work and gardening. Fortunately I had some days off work due to the eastern holidays. Sorry that the post about the latest marathon accomplishment was delayed due to all other activities!
But let’s get back to the event and what happened there. As I stated in my previous post, the main target for this marathon race was to reach a satisfactory result (a run with no big issues, and with a positive flow). After having finished a marathon over 20 times, the basics are clear and obviously it would not make much sense to make big changes when preparing for the race.
This time I wanted to take family with me for a short journey and at the same time spend a nice weekend together. We hit the (rail)road at noon on Saturday – the trip to Cuxhaven takes about an hour and a half by train which is acceptable even for my son, who fortunately did not get too bored. The weather war very chilly and made me a bit worried ’cause I don’t really like the cold wind by the sea. In the summertime it would be different, but the temperatures were even below 0 degrees in the night.
On Saturday we had a short walk in Cuxhaven downtown and got to know the place a bit so it would be easy to find one’s way around on Sunday. The city centre itself is a pretty small one, with restaurants, cafés and many attractions related to the domain of fishing and sea in general. Due to this I ended up eating a portion of fish plate in a restaurant where we had our evening supper.
As usually, the hotels do not provide that much entertainment with the exception of the Internet and TV, but this time I was so exhausted I had to go to bed really early. The dawn of the following day rose bright and chilly, but this was to expected so I just had to wear a proper clothing. First, I needed a real breakfast to get started and gain enough fuel for the day’s grind. We stayed at https://www.havenhostel-cuxhaven.de/ which proved to be a solid place to stay: peaceful, cosy rooms and a breakfast with a plethora of alternatives. After a good meal, I switched to my running gear, checked out and headed to the place I could leave my stuff during the race which in this case was a large sports hall in a nearby school. As the event is fairly small to its size, there was no big rush to any place. Nowadays I really enjoy marathon events a lot more where I can move around without having to push myself through a crowd of people etc.
I landed on the starting grid about 15 minutes before the start and mainly tried to keep warm, as staying and waiting obviously did not feel any good at that weather. Finally the shot was fired and off we went. My target pace was 5:20 – 5:30 min/km which I considered to be moderate for my current condition. After having had a couple of weaker years when it comes to the training, it’s only sensible to be cautious. My race started pretty good I didn’t want to rush to the top group as I knew it would not do any good, but only concentrated myself on sticking to my race plan. The route of the Cuxhaven Marathon follows the outskirts of the North Sea with a brisk wind coming from the sea. There is a 10,55 km route that is run four times to reach the required distance. I personally find it a bit problematic having to run the same thing over and over again, but on the other hand, it is understandable for a small event to do like this to make it easier to arrange the services along the route.
As the race went by I could keep up the pace I selected and this time I didn’t have any extremely tough scenes, but all in all everything went pretty much according to the plan. This all may sound boring, and maybe it also was a bit of that. I don’t have anything special to report but everything went pretty smoothly and really provided a foundation for the upcoming races. This time I can to my satisfaction say that I ran the marathon.
The past always plays a role in the life of each one of us – so it is even when it comes to the sports accomplishments. As I have run a marathon about 30 minutes quicker than I did this time (the time at the finish was a bit under 03:50), reaching the finish line did not feel like anything special, but even a small disappointment. Anyway I got some confidence that I hopefully can benefit from in my next race. By the way, the next one will be a 10k race in my own neighbourhood, Vahrer Seen Lauf that I’m really looking forward to!
Until next time, bye bye!