Now it's for sure: Erik is back in the running scene. After accomplishing my 2 goals of placing TOP 10 and setting a new PR I am very pleased and the work I put into the sport paid off. Amazingly it took me 5 years to improve my personal best in the halfmarathon (previously 1:08:06h).
Here are the results of the race.
About the race itself (it was held in Calw on Sunday, April 6): The course was fast but not like a pancake - I already ran on faster courses, e.g. last year in Bad Liebenzell (only 5km away from Calw). The temperatures of around 6-7°C were just perfect and during the race there was no rain but the streets were wet from the rain that fell the night before. The race started as usual with some guys overestimating themselves (or just having too much adrenaline) and I was around 20-25th place after the first kilometer. After around 3 km the field was already a bit clear and a lead pack of 5 men already gapped the chasers, including me in the first chase pack (place 10-15). As usual I tried to stay in the back of the group and save some energy. We went through 10K in around 32mins, that was a bit faster than planned but the pace was feeling really relaxed plus in a championship race it's easiest to hide in a big group. The first time I pushed the pace was between kilometers 12 and 15 when I went to the front of the group and wanted to close the gap to the 2 runners in front of us (place 6 and 7). During those 3 km I made up around 70 meters and the 2 guys I wanted to catch were only 30 meters in front of me. However, I sensed that there were still some guys behind me in my wind shadow. I looked over my shoulder and indeed saw 4 other guys. At that point I decided that it would be better if someone else would make the pace, because I did not want to be the train for the other guys. So I shifted back one gear and settled in the group. But just as I was in the group I had a really scary moment. A runner behind me hit my leg with full power and I was on the way to hit the ground. I was really lucky that another runner in the group pulled me back back with his arm while I was on the way to dive into the asphalt - my head was already on the high of the other runners hip and he even had to lean forward to "save" me. One step later and I would have had a bloody nose and bloody knees. Puuuuh! After this incident I had of course some troubles to find my rhythm again. It took me around 1 km to get back to the normal stride and the good flow.
So there I ran: Around 10th position, 4 km to go and only 40-50 meters in front of me place 6 and 7. I knew, if I would wait until the last km I would not have the best chances, because there were faster guys with more leg speed. My only choice was to increase the pace steadily and that was what I did at around 18km. First I was surprised that noone of the group could follow me and I was alone at km 19, running in 8th position with those 2 other guys still in front of me. At km 19,5 I passed 7th place and he had not much to oppose my attack. At km 20 I closed the gap to the 6th place and tried to push to the limit. The maximum lead I could get on him was 5 meters, but he always came back. With 200meters to go he started a furious sprint and I had no answer to it. Still I was not unsatisfied crossing the finish line because I knew I was under the first eight runners, that are usually called to the award ceremony. However, I also realised (too late) that some guys from the (early) leading pack faded a lot and in the results you can see that it was only 12 seconds to 4th place!!
That's it for the race report. Next days I will maybe write something more about my 4-day trip to the competition and the conclusions about the race (I guess I still have to figure it out myself and process the race myself).
start of the race (me in the right of the picture)
the last step
crossing the finish line
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