18. volkslauf durch das schöne alstertal (1. laufcup)
23° celsius. sunny. 10:15 (1:40:20)
i really hate it when i had to wake up quite early on sunday morning. it was the first run of the hella laufcup 2008. this was also the first time that the halfmarathon would be the first event in the running order of the race, which normally took place on the last sunday of september. due to collision of city's event (alsterlauf vs cyclassics), the alsterlauf had to be rescheduled to take place a week later than usual, which inturn, coincide with the second run of the hella laufcup, the airport race. the organiser had to do something about it and therefore, the alstertal halfmarathon would be the first event, followed by the 10 miles airport race and finally 10 km alsterlauf. thank to this situation, for the first i was able to take part in the laufcup - usually the last run (this alstertal halfmarathon) coincides with my berlin marathon.
anyway, i'd decided not to drive there cos there wouldn't be any parking space available. took my bike and rode to the train station. due to construction, the final destination train station was closed. my idea of using the bike was good cos i didn't have to wait for the shuttle service.
parked the bike outside the school gate and soon i met many running colleagues, which i had not seen for ages (due to my lack of interest for training). a group photo was taken before we started our journey.
group photo
there were several other events for today. the 10 km walkers started first at 10 am, followed by the halfmarathon for the laufcup runners, then 10 km, halfmarathon, 4 km as well as kids run - in which order, i was not very sure cos i was running at that time :-).
there was a warm-up exercise conducted at the starting point, which was about 200 meters from the school ground.
loud music blasted from the speakers, as if to wake everyone up. i was unfortunately being knocked down by a runner while dancing to my mp3 music - i couldn't be bothered much about warm-up or clocking best time. i wasn't trained up neither for this event nor for the upcoming events, including the marathon later. anyway, the starting point was in the school field and at exactly 10:15 am, the race began.
the course runs along the river alster, over several bridges as well as watergates. it was a zigzag course at the beginning and it was only 5 meters wide maximum for the whole stretch of the course due to the nature and bridges. i had my fun running behind people or even overtaking them and the fun lifted much higher as i saw the hill in front of me. it was time for me to overtake the runners in front of me, or at least closing up the gap.
i saw three of my running colleagues coming from the opposite direction at the 10 km point where all the faster runners were. i was surprise that these 3 were running at about 4 min/km pace, even though only one of them had the ability to do so. i was quite jealous and at the same time angry with myself that i didn't train hard enough for this event. later on i realised that they were just doing their sunday long run and cheered me up along the way, whenever i met them.
one of the highlights running in the nature and along the river alster was running through the wellingsbütteler torhaus. this building also known as alstermuseum was built in 1757. running under the archway was great, cos from this stretch onwards it meant downhills.
even though i like the hills, there was always the downside. i had to terribly slow down running down the slope. i guessed due to this stopping, slowing down and sometimes sprinting down, my feet were taking the toll and i had to pay the price of getting severe pain in my toes as well as blister on my foot. i had to slow down after 15 km. at times i had to stop and walked. what a waste of time, after i knew that i could clock a good time inspite of the hills and little training.
i felt really terrible, not because i was tired but because i knew that i could still continue my pace if not for my feet problem. one after another i was overtaken by runners towards the last 2 to 3 km. even anka, one of my running mate, overtook and cheered me up to continue running. i was really down.
at the last 200 meters, i heard my name being announced from the loudspeakers and people were cheering all the participants coming in towards the finish line. i was glad that i was done for the day and drank as much as possible, thanks to the sponsor of the laufcup. unfortunately no medal was given (damn, i should say that i had kids), therefore a memorial mug from the organiser was substituted instead. by the way, after crossing the finish line, there was a tombola/raffle and as always i didn't win any price (what's new anyway).
i really hate it when i had to wake up quite early on sunday morning. it was the first run of the hella laufcup 2008. this was also the first time that the halfmarathon would be the first event in the running order of the race, which normally took place on the last sunday of september. due to collision of city's event (alsterlauf vs cyclassics), the alsterlauf had to be rescheduled to take place a week later than usual, which inturn, coincide with the second run of the hella laufcup, the airport race. the organiser had to do something about it and therefore, the alstertal halfmarathon would be the first event, followed by the 10 miles airport race and finally 10 km alsterlauf. thank to this situation, for the first i was able to take part in the laufcup - usually the last run (this alstertal halfmarathon) coincides with my berlin marathon.
anyway, i'd decided not to drive there cos there wouldn't be any parking space available. took my bike and rode to the train station. due to construction, the final destination train station was closed. my idea of using the bike was good cos i didn't have to wait for the shuttle service.
parked the bike outside the school gate and soon i met many running colleagues, which i had not seen for ages (due to my lack of interest for training). a group photo was taken before we started our journey.
group photo
there were several other events for today. the 10 km walkers started first at 10 am, followed by the halfmarathon for the laufcup runners, then 10 km, halfmarathon, 4 km as well as kids run - in which order, i was not very sure cos i was running at that time :-).
there was a warm-up exercise conducted at the starting point, which was about 200 meters from the school ground.
loud music blasted from the speakers, as if to wake everyone up. i was unfortunately being knocked down by a runner while dancing to my mp3 music - i couldn't be bothered much about warm-up or clocking best time. i wasn't trained up neither for this event nor for the upcoming events, including the marathon later. anyway, the starting point was in the school field and at exactly 10:15 am, the race began. the course runs along the river alster, over several bridges as well as watergates. it was a zigzag course at the beginning and it was only 5 meters wide maximum for the whole stretch of the course due to the nature and bridges. i had my fun running behind people or even overtaking them and the fun lifted much higher as i saw the hill in front of me. it was time for me to overtake the runners in front of me, or at least closing up the gap.
i saw three of my running colleagues coming from the opposite direction at the 10 km point where all the faster runners were. i was surprise that these 3 were running at about 4 min/km pace, even though only one of them had the ability to do so. i was quite jealous and at the same time angry with myself that i didn't train hard enough for this event. later on i realised that they were just doing their sunday long run and cheered me up along the way, whenever i met them.
one of the highlights running in the nature and along the river alster was running through the wellingsbütteler torhaus. this building also known as alstermuseum was built in 1757. running under the archway was great, cos from this stretch onwards it meant downhills.even though i like the hills, there was always the downside. i had to terribly slow down running down the slope. i guessed due to this stopping, slowing down and sometimes sprinting down, my feet were taking the toll and i had to pay the price of getting severe pain in my toes as well as blister on my foot. i had to slow down after 15 km. at times i had to stop and walked. what a waste of time, after i knew that i could clock a good time inspite of the hills and little training.
i felt really terrible, not because i was tired but because i knew that i could still continue my pace if not for my feet problem. one after another i was overtaken by runners towards the last 2 to 3 km. even anka, one of my running mate, overtook and cheered me up to continue running. i was really down.
at the last 200 meters, i heard my name being announced from the loudspeakers and people were cheering all the participants coming in towards the finish line. i was glad that i was done for the day and drank as much as possible, thanks to the sponsor of the laufcup. unfortunately no medal was given (damn, i should say that i had kids), therefore a memorial mug from the organiser was substituted instead. by the way, after crossing the finish line, there was a tombola/raffle and as always i didn't win any price (what's new anyway).
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