Gebirgsmarathon Immenstadt

Event Stats:
Name Immenstädter Gebirgsmarathon
Date 08/01/2009
Location Immenstadt, Germany
Event Mountain Marathon
Finish Time 08:14:02

After having a ton of fun at last weeks marathon in the Algäu region, I figured I might just do it again. Found a cheap hotel and took the train down on Friday afternoon. The town – more a village actually – itself has not much to offer, so it was just dinner and off to bed early.

(As almost every time) I was ill prepared for the race, not only physically, but also as far as knowing what the race is about. I had assumed it is called Gebirgsmarathon (mountain marathon), because it is held in a mountainous region of Germany and probably has some hills in it’s course.

‘Some hills’ in numbers translated to 2700m (8100 ft.) of difference in altitude uphill and 2400m (7200 ft.) downhill. Subtracting about 7km of course that was more-or-less level, that means 35km with a total difference in altitude of 5100m, resulting in an !average! incline of 14.5 percent. A category one climb in the tour de france is a total joke in comparison.

Before the start

Pickup of the ‘race packet’ (an envelop containing the race bib) and payment is 30 mins. before the race, all is held in a very familiar setting and it is clear to see that everyone is a veteran here.

Start at 8:00 and after 2 minutes it is clear that I will bringing up the rear end of this event. Doesn’t matter, I’m here for a fun run anyhow. First aid station after 6km, took me about an hour and I felt like is was about to die. And it went all downhill from there. (Unfortunately just figuratively).

Steep downhill sections interchanged with inclines before each of which I was just staring at the mountain in front of me thinking ‘this ain’t true’.

5 mountaintops later, I reached the halfway-point after 4:00 hrs. Had some coke and bars, relaxed for some minutes and then started the way back. Unfortunately that wasn’t any easier.

Reached the finish a bit after 4 pm, totally dead but happy.

Picture gallery here

Race conditions: 4/5

Not too warm, dry, sunny, for the mountains that certainly is perfect conditions, absurdly difficult terrain and slippery cow dung might spoil your experience

Scenery: 5/5

Spectacular, what more can I say

Difficulty: 5/5

Perverse.

Information: 2/5

Low key event, website rather not working

Finisher medal: 0/5

NO finisher medal, how crappy is that

Goodies: 2/5

A (rather simple) finisher shirt. That’s it.

The Cheer: 2/5

Well, it’s a run in the mountains, so there is no spectators, but most passing trekkers cheered us on.

Overall: 4/5

If a run in the mountains is what you want, this is great fun. If you are looking for a marathon, or want to try a train run for the first time, better go someplace else.

rating: 4 of 5 stars

Who likes swimming will love this book. A great short read that will make you set your alarm clock an hour earlier to go to the pool tomorrow.

Santiago Marathon Expo

After biting through the last one, my training over the last month has been pretty consistent, my back/leg/knee problem is getting better, so I felt confident I would actually race the Maraton De Santiago.

I arrived in Santiago on Friday and have a hotel that is 2 blocks from the start line and 4 from the expo, so everything was pretty much stress-free. Picking up the kit took 2 minutes, the problem with the misspelling of my name was resolved in 30 seconds (and in perfect English, as about everything here)

The expo revealed that of the roundabout 12.000 participants, about 6.000 would run the 10k, and another 4.500 the half-marathon , so that there would actually be only 1.500 runners for the marathon. But, giving out identical t-shirts to all participants , the crowd in all media coverage will look huge. Very slick

Also, and I’m sure this is the beginning of a trend, chip time was not done with champion-chip but with a one-way 3×4cm plastic card. And yes, i did take it apart after the race, and yes it is a simple RFID.

I didn’t sleep to well the night before, so I traded some extra nap-time for solid food. Breakfast therefore consisted just of a liter of coke.

Left the hotel 30 minutes before the race, got to the starting line to watch the usual spectacle of runners trying to desperately inflict some last-minute injuries to themselves (they call that ’stretching’) and off we went.

The first couple of km’s the race is on on the alameda, a big, 4 lane road, so that congestion was no issue at all. I didn’t even bother to bring a HRM; since the objective for today was to run the whole distance without a time goal I figured, PE would do. I managed to stick to a 6 min/km pace pretty well for the first half, reaching the halfway point in 2:07.

A little earlier than expected, people started crumbling right from the halfway point on. At around km26, the 4:15 train – very small, and a bit ahead of time – passed me, and I stayed with it for the next 10k, before letting it get away to take a pee. Aside from that break, I think I was passed by only 2 runners in the second half, which is quite nice.

Nutrition went pretty well, sticking to Gatorade every 5km and 3 gels (km 21, 29, 37), I only really felt a bit weak between km 38 an 40. Somehow I missed the 41km mark and suddenly was able to see the 42km arch ahead of me. Picked up the pace, passed about 25 more runners on the last 700 meters, including a ‘Markus R. memorial sprint’ to the finish line for a total time of 4:19:05. Certainly not a great time, but that was not the objective.

Now, after beer,steak, fries, coke, shower and nap (in that order), I feel quite happy and am looking for the next one (D’dorf in May) and ultimately, IM Lanzarote.

Race conditions: 4/5

Santiago is famous for having smog year round. Not today. The sky was clear, the view fantastic. In the sun it was rather warm, maybe 25-30C, in the shadow even slightly cool, maybe around 18C. A major downside is that almost all of the race is run on concrete.

Scenery: 3/5

Santiago is a very nice city, the marathon takes a nice route, a good deal of the streets are line with trees. But is is still a city marathon, so not really spectacular.

Difficulty: 4/5

The course is pretty flat, road quality is OK, but, as mentioned above, it is all concrete. So yes, a fast time is very well doable, but it might hurt some more than usual.

Information: 5/5

Website in English, expo and start right in the center of the city at metro stops, a flag waving volunteer every 50 meters or so, large km marker. Race results the same day. Perfect.

Finisher medal: 4/5 (3/5)

Good medal for international standards, for South America very good

Goodies: 5/5

Just paper in the race kit. But entry came with a very good quality adidas clima-cool shirt. And entry was just 23$. Which is considerable lower than the value of the shirt. And no, shirts cost (at least) the same here than anywhere else.

The Cheer: 3/5

The cheer at the start was fantastic, later, when only the marathoners were running, considerable less. But there still was a cheer, and also notably from the people living at the race course. 4 bands along the course were announced. I saw one, plus one stage, where clearly a band had played, but not anymore when I passed.

Overall: 8/10

If you feel the urge to run a marathon is South America, so far this is the one I would recommend. Very well organized and in a friendly city that is safe and easy to get around without speaking Spanish.

Now here’s a new concept: German Federal Police announced today that their Blacklist of sites that contain Child porn will only contain sites hosted outside the European Union.

That surely takes the cake as far as protectionism go. Happy filming ;-P

Original report (in German) here

Below

The Merkerser Kristallmarathon is special in a very particular way: It is run in a salt mine, about 500m (1500 ft) below ground. This come with a couple of consequences:

• It is rather dark, so you have to run with a flashlight
• It is rather warm, about 22C, which means you can run a marathon although it is snowing outside
• It is rather dry. Humidty in the saltmine was about zero and you could litteraly feel the moisture being sucked right out of you
• It is rather hilly. The tunnels in the mine follow the natural structure of the stone. The race had about 800m of incline.
• The race is run in 13 loops of about 2 miles, which makes waterstops easy to organize and working. Also, even with minimal effort you get some sort of cheer.

The course was a little short, it was much more taxing than I thought, but although I still had to make extensive walk-breaks, I already feel much better than in Curitiba in November.

Going south

Stefan Is On Vacation…

I will go to the northern end of Argentinia (La Quiaca) and then make my way southbound on foot, pushing a baby stroller with my running gear.

Let’s see how far I get.

Have a great X-Mas and such.

Maratona De Curitiba

Event Stats:
Name Maratona De Curitiba
Date 11/23/2008
Location Curitiba, PR, Brazil
Event Marathon
Finish Time 05:14:37

I’m still more or less untrained, the pinched nerve in my back is still hurting, but what the hell: After not making it to the starting line the last three years, this time there would be no excuse.

I got to to the start early, took some painkillers for the back and tried to stay warm in the cold drizzle. As soon as the gun went off, I realized that marathon in Brazil is more for serious runners than in the northern hemisphere; I found myself towards the end of the pack pretty soon. Made it till about km 20 (mile 13) alright, then my legs and feet started hurting. That was to be expected. In the meantime it had cleared up and was even getting pretty hot. Well, it’s Brazil after all.

I ran-walk-ran-walk-walked the rest, making sure to run the last 2km and passing a couple of other runners on the last stretch.

Finished in about 5:15. This is certainly a pretty crappy time, but I’m pretty happy I could run a marathon again at all. Looking forward for the next one.

Race conditions: 2/5

The day started out overcast, cool and with a light drizzle. It heated up pretty soon though, and around noon temperatures were in the mid 30s (mid 90s F). Being a city marathon, running was all on well-asphalted streets.

Scenery: 1/5

Curitiba is rather green for a 2+ million city and has a lot of parks. Unfortunately, the race course had nothing of that, just 42 km of wide city streets, asphalt, apartment buildings, no highlights whatsoever.

Difficulty: 2/5

The race is considered the most difficult marathon in Brazil, and for a reason. There is almost no plane stretch, it’s a constant, at times rather steep, up and down. Adding the high temperature (and my lack of training and in one word: Sufferfest

Information: 3/5

OK website, good registration site, good signs and km markers. Solid.

Finisher medal: 4/5 (2/5)

OK medal for international standards, for South America very good. Keep in mind that the race entry was about 15 US$.

Goodies: 5/5

15 US$ For a hip bag, a cap, a race shirt and a medal (and not to forget, a marathon), what more do you want?

The Cheer: 0/5

There were over 3500 athletes running, but I have run trail races with
50 participants that had more cheer than this. Wake up, Curitiba!!!

Overall: 3/10

Well, it’s a marathon, it’s well organized and tough. But for an experience, I’d pick something else.