Over the hill

Erligheimer Volkslauf

15% off for Fast Running Blog members at St. George Running Center!

Location:

Baden-Württemberg,Germany

Member Since:

Oct 29, 2007

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Age Division Winner

Running Accomplishments:

Started running in 2004.

PR's

10k 37:44 Sülzbach May 08

Half 1:24:22 Bottwartal Oct 06

Marathon: 3:06:18 Antalya Mar 08

Short-Term Running Goals:

Train consistently.

Sub 37:30 10k

Finally break that longstanding 1/2M time

Run a sub 3:00 marathon.

Have a crack at a 5k, an uphill only race, a 50k.

Long-Term Running Goals:

2:55 marathon

37:00 10k

1:22 1/2 marathon

Place 1st in my age category.

Personal:

I'm a Brit living in a small town in the south west of Germany, on the edge of a nature park, the Schwäbisch-Fränkischer Wald. The landscape is very hilly with vineyards & orchards on the lower slopes merging into forest above. 42 years young, married since 1997 to my lovely wife.

Favorite Blogs:

Click to donate

to Ukraine's Armed Forces

Miles:	This week:	0.00	Month:	0.00	Year:	0.00

Sun, Apr 20, 2008

Race: Erligheimer Volkslauf (6.2 Miles) 00:38:34, Place overall: 9, Place in age division: 4

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
0.00	0.00	6.20	0.00	6.20

Time to start racing again to end lack of cheesecake complaints from my spouse. I am trying this year to run as many new races as I can instead of repeating favourites so we drove 30 mins out to Erligheim for a 10k Volkslauf.

Weather - it was cold and very misty that unfortunately didn’t lift until long after the race was over.

Profile, the course was 2 x 5k rounds, first k was in town with lots of twists and turns and cobblestones, gradual 25m incline to the 1,5k point, then gradual downhill, followed by a steep incline of 40m just before the 3k point, 4th k was wavy and then the last k was fast downhill.

I warmed up by following the course in the contra direction for a couple of k and back. This was a mistake, I should have followed the course through the town and remembered the turns.

1k splits:

1. 3:34, 2. 3:44, 3. 4:19, 4. 3:54, 5, 3:33

6. 3:48, 7. 3:50, 8. 4:23, 9. 3:57, 10. 3:32

The first round was hard and steady, I had focused myself on a young runner that usually finishes 30secs to a minute in front of me. I at least wanted to keep him in sight throughout the race. This worked until the beginning of the 2nd round in town, I lost him and also missed a left turn marker, my mistake as the course was well marked with arrows on posts. I ran straight on, realised something was wrong, stopped, looked back and was waved back by a following runner. This had cost me about 10-12 secs and 2 places. I was really annoyed and determined to get my placing back and put on a hard surge uphill to regain my place. The two following runners then overtook me on the downhill, I overtook them again on the steep uphill and then I held them off on the wavy 9th k but I was tiring and knew what was going to happen. Sure enough, the last k mad dash downhill, both overtook me and I couldn’t keep up with them. Consolation coffee and cake in the sports hall rounded up the morning. I thanked the young lad that had waved me back on course, he told me he had thought I was trying to take a short cut which horrified me as I believe in fair play and cannot stand cheats.

One last thing, the 2nd place woman overall races regularly in the area, she ran a fairly hard 10k course in 51:31 and she is 66 years old. Not bad ah!

Comments

From Dale on Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 10:02:49

Nice race report. I don't recall cobblestones offering much in the way of traction, but it sounds like the course was "interesting". Sorry you missed a turn but better in a "cheesecake" race than a "goal" race. Still haven't found any races over here that offer cheesecake.

On the plus side of things, it appears your fitness hasn't waned at all....many good races ahead this year. And more cheesecake.

From Kim on Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 10:28:22

I love the names of races you do! I wish we could hear you say them! What a race! I don't think I would like running on cobblestones at all! However, they sure are a fun look that we don't have around here! Too bad about the wrong turn.

So did your wife run this one? If she did, tell her to get on and let us know how it went for her.

At the 1/2 marathon Tom and I did a few weeks ago they served powdered sugar donut holes and they were fabulous! I think that's the closest thing to cheesecake we will have served to us!

From Tom on Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 13:49:54

Ian good job on the race! It's so aggravating to get off course and hard not to let it mess up your concentration. Great work getting back at it after the wrong turn and running tough the last part of the race.

From Brent on Mon, Apr 21, 2008 at 22:25:46

Ian, cool race report, nice effort to race your competitors. No doubt, cobblestones, mud, crazy weather, you have been one of the warriors of winter, WOW, have a good spring and summer racing.

Stay Cool, B of BS Rools out

From Ian on Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 06:39:18

Thanks for the encouragement.

Dale, keep searching, that cheesecake is out there.

Kim, donuts are just as yummy. I never used to have a sweet tooth but I crave these things now. Johanne didn't race, she's running slow and easy by time at the moment.

Tom, thanks but I need to run tougher than tough at the end of a race to hold my position.

Aqua-man, I could never wimp out of a session over winter as you never did. Great effort with your cross training, you'll be breathing air again soon.

From MichelleL on Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 08:18:43

So sorry about the wrong turn! I think this is a good race for you, since you got within 34 seconds of your PR under those conditions. However, next time don't let anyone pass you in the end--I think that you could have dug down to prevent the last minute pass and that you could have kept up with them. The question is how to dig deep for that will when you are exhausted at the end of a race. I have the same issue often at the end of races. I think we can almost always shave off 5-10 seconds at the end but choose not to because we are tired. Do you feel like that was the case in this race?

I like to think each race is an opportunity to learn about racing. What do you think were your take-aways on this one?

From Ian on Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 06:55:56

You made me think on my run this morning Michelle. In the end the race wasn't that bad, 130m (429ft) ascent and my 2nd fastest time.

Lessons learnt: If possible warmup over a tricky part of a course.

Don't let my concentration lapse, I was so engrossed on following black shirt that I missed the marker post to turn.

I dealt out a lot of energy quickly to regain my place again, I should have stayed cool and steady and gradually worked myself back into position.

The last thing about digging deep at the end is a question I always ask myself. Your comment is spot on. Some races I fight to the last drop and even when I am dead tired can pull an extra last effort out of the hat. Other races I lack the will to do that, shying away from inflicting that last bit of pain on myself.

Add Your Comment.

Keep it family-safe. No vulgar or profane language. To discourage anonymous comments of cowardly nature, your IP address will be logged and posted next to your comment.
Do not respond to another person's comment out of context. If he made the original comment on another page/blog entry, go to that entry and respond there.
If all you want to do is contact the blogger and your comment is not connected with this entry and has no relevance to others, send a private message instead.

Debt Reduction Calculator

Featured Announcements

Most Recent Entries:

New Kids on the Blog
(need a welcome):

Lone Faithfuls
(need a comment):