A.M. Me and Johanne jumped into a couple of races in the Schwarzwald, me a half and Johanne a tenner. They were part of a sports festival weekend organised by a small sports club in Ulm-Lichtenau. It was just workout races for us but we had a good time. The course was a delight, fairly flat, all rural, though woods on trails and on small farmland roads surrounded by sweetcorn fields and orchards. The temp was about 27°C/80°F, ok in the shadow in the woods but in the direct sun it was pretty warm. I didn't go banzai in this race, I went though the 15k point at 1:01, all pretty steady, overtook a couple of guys at the 16k point and that finally triggered off some race aggression. I didn't what them to overtake me and I then worked hard to the finish. Result was a 1:25:42 half, Overall 12th/155, M40 5th/32. The first 3 runners in my age cat were all in 1:21:xx times, I would have to make a huge improvement to be competitive, difficult to see that happening.
Johanne was very happy to run a PR in 55:42 for the 10k. She hopes to run under 55 mins in Sep and I am confident she will crack it.
This was a real friendly race in a different area for us, we couldn't fault the organisation, in the festival tent afterwards they actually had a vegetarian option for a change, spagetti and salad. Afterwards we drove 5k to the Rhein to a ferry point, there was a large procession of antique tractors, decorated with the German and Baden flags being transported across to France, old folk in their best smiling and waving from the back on their tractor trip. It was a happy weekend. | 