2008 Karstadt Ruhr Marathon

It's Monday afternoon, and I can't really walk up or down stairs, but yesterday I made it through my first marathon. It went smoothly -- well, about as smoothly as I imagine a marathon can go -- and I finished within my target window in 03:52:46 (that's slightly less than 9 minutes per mile, a pace that I was able to keep steady throughout). Frederic, Ximo, and Yossie, friends from my the Reetz group, were there to cheer me on at the finish, and they were also able to take a few photos, which I have included here. Though downhill overall, the course was somewhat hilly throughout -- surprising given that the region as a whole is relatively flat -- and there are a few uphill stretches towards the finish that were agonizing. The course was noteworthy in that it was a "twin marathon," with two starting points and a single finish. I'd have to look to verify the total number of people, but there were 8000 marathoners at my starting point in Dortmund (so probably roughly double that in total), and a many others running the half marathon along the same route. On the following page, one can see the rankings for my age group. It's hard to navigate if you don't speak German, but if you click on my name, you can see my splits (as recorded by an electronic chip that I wore on my shoe):

http://ruhrmarathon.mikatiming.de/2008/index.php?page=3&content=list&event=MDE&ageclass=H&sex=M&num_results=25&split=FINISHNET=

My knees held up just fine. After an extra-cautious week leading up to the race, I decided that it was becoming more of a psychological ailment than anything else, and so I elected to be hardheaded and run it. And I'm glad that I did, my joints felt fine throughout the race -- that is, until the last several miles when pretty much my entire body was hurting from fatigue.



My running strategy was simple but effective: hold back early, then find people who look like they know what they are doing and draft behind them. In particular, I ran behind a married couple for the past 15 km -- they were looking fresh while the rest of the pack was suffering badly -- and their intelligent but brisk pacing was really key in helping me through. At that point in the race, I really didn't have the mental or psychological discipline to keep a steady pace on my own, and subconsciously watching two people with good form helped me maintain my own -- despite great physical discomfort. In some ways, the final stretch (roughly the last six miles) is a sort of "death zone" where you can look around and see people crashing, and it's difficult to sustain any kind of forward movement when your own body is beginning to shut down. There, a team -- even if it was a makeshift team, in my case -- really helped me. Afterwards, the husband came up to me, and congratulating me said, "Good running, my shadow!"



So, I made it and survived to tell the tale. I'm happy that I was able to meet my two goals (even if they were somewhat modest goals): to finish, and to finish without needing to stop to walk. Generally, I would say that the event was quite enjoyable; there were a lot of fans along nearly the entire duration of the course, there was live music at some points, and the weather held up quite well (despite warnings of rain early in the day). The final thirty minutes were trying -- in a very serious way -- but I was able to persevere, and now on the other side of the race, it's as if a tremendous burden has been lifted from my shoulders, like having just done well on an important exam. Moreover, there is a simple pleasure in having taken on a major challenge and completed it.