Less than 60km to go, to the marathon. A race preview.
Now it's all about counting down the last easy kilometers before the marathon. Today was the last faster run (2x3 km around the lake in 10:12/9:58). Somehow it felt not so easy and I hope the first kilometers (at least) in the marathon will feel a bit easier.
The weather on Sunday should be pretty warm (over 20°C) and sunny - maybe too hot, but since it's a championship race everyone will have the same conditions. Especially in the latter stages of the race it might get really warm and having a good pacing strategy is important. Now, I am a real fan of running negative or even splits, but with the heat and the profile of the course it will be a difficult task to run 2 similar halves. As you can see from the picture, there are 2 hills (bridges) at km 21 and 28.The race favorites (for the overall ranking) come from the Ukraine, Poland and Romania and they are aiming to improve the course record of 2:13:56. Stefan Koch is the clear favorite for the german title and he is even aiming for 2:13h. Even with a personal best of 2:17:17 (in his debut last year) and some german titles in halfmarathon and 10K that aim seems to be unrealistic for me, but we will see. The first candidate for 2nd place is Florian Neuschwander, who proved his good shape with a vice title (1:06:37h) in the German Halfmarathon Nationals earlier this year. Those are the race favorites for the German Championships, but there are some other contestant such as last years marathon vice-champion. I might go as one of the dark races and I'm fine with this role. It will be my first marathon and I will have to learn a lot. At this time I still have a huge respect when it comes to the kilometers after 35K.
The race will also be covered on German television at SWR for 4 hours, but I think there will be no live streaming.