Event Stats: Name Rock and Jog Date 09/23/2007 Location Bensheim, Germany Event Halfmarathon Finish Time 01:56:00

I saw some advertisement in a German triathlon magazine by the Erdinger brewery (probably best know for their sponsoring of Lothar Leder and Faris Al Sultan) a while back. The advertisement encouraged the reader [...]]]>

Jog and Rock

Event Stats:
Name Rock and Jog
Date 09/23/2007
Location Bensheim, Germany
Event Halfmarathon
Finish Time 01:56:00

I saw some advertisement in a German triathlon magazine by the Erdinger brewery (probably best know for their sponsoring of Lothar Leder and Faris Al Sultan) a while back. The advertisement encouraged the reader to become a member of their ‘Team Erdinger Alkoholfrei’ (‘Alfoholfrei’ meaning ‘non-alcoholic’). Intrigued, I checked their website and signed up.

The deal, in my book, is a good one: You pay 20 bucks a year, for this you get some goodies, discounts and can apply for free race entries for races that Erdinger sponsores. So far I have applies for to and got accepted for 2. Not bad. The Bensheim Halfmarathon is the first of them.

Just an hour south of my place in Germany, this race – supposedly – features a ton of bands along the course and the race organizers encourage the folks living along the race venue to turn up their stereos. Hence the name Rock-And-Jog.

The race started at 11 AM, which is quite a relieve after all those early-morning starts in the US. I arrived early, had some breakfast and got to the start. The course, on wide roads and utterly flat, leads through residential areas for the most part and starts and finishes in downtown Bensheim. But apparently everyone was either still asleep, or gone for the weekend, or perhaps running the race. Anyhow, I think I heard about one stereo turned up and 2 bands and that was it. Weak.

Other than that, pretty uneventful race, I had some problem with my right knee, so I took it slow, to not ruin myself a week before Berlin marathon.

Event Stats: Name adidas Helvetia Half Marathon Date 06/09/2007 Location Hillsboro, OR, USA Event Halfmarathon Finish Time 01:45:09

Coming as part 1 in my ‘Goofy’ attempt (the term originates from the Disney marathon weekend, where Saturdays Half-Marathon features a Donald Duck medal, Sundays Marathon a Mickey Mouse medal, and runners finishing both events [...]]]>

Event Stats:
Name adidas Helvetia Half Marathon
Date 06/09/2007
Location Hillsboro, OR, USA
Event Halfmarathon
Finish Time 01:45:09

Coming as part 1 in my ‘Goofy’ attempt (the term originates from the Disney marathon weekend, where Saturdays Half-Marathon features a Donald Duck medal, Sundays Marathon a Mickey Mouse medal, and runners finishing both events get an additional Goofy medal), I decided to go full out today, and then try to have fun and enjoy the scenery while the lactate burns in my legs at tomorrow’s NODM.

I finished in 1:45:09, which beats my old PR by a solid three minutes. {Pride}

Race conditions: 4/5

Light rain that picked up over the race, but remained at a comfortable level with temperature in the 70s, very good running conditions

Scenery: 2/5

Located in Hillsboro, Oregon, the course features smaller streets through somewhat hilly farmland. It sure is beats running through an industrial area, but is in no way spectacular

Difficulty: 2/5

A rather hilly course, 98% on paved roads, good solid running, but for a road race tougher than expected.

Information: 4.5/5

Good website, pre-race eMail update, easy to find race site, large, exactly placed mile markers (I guess having adidas as a sponsor helps). Only thing missing was the marker for the half-way point.

Finisher medal: 2/5

Small, clean design, and not really great

Goodies: 4/5

Cliff blocks, 10% Off with sponsor adidas, a 10$ voucher for the spaghetti factory, and not too many useless flyers make for a perfect goody bag.
The T-Shirt was simple and simply not nice, but post-race burger and a (for pay, but that might just as well be due to legal issues in Oregon) beer garden tops it. No Raffle though.

The Cheer: 2/5

The volunteers were encouraging – they always are, but I doubt I saw more than 20 spectators outside the start/finish area. A stadium finish, though!

Overall: 3/10

A solid race, but nothing spectacular. Probably a good one to hang out and chill afterwards, if the weather is nicer. If you are in the area, definitely go for it. If you have to travel for it, pick something else.

A week aftter the California Halfironman, the Vernionia Half Marahon was certainly to be booked under ‘active recovery’.

Vernonia is a small village about an hour or so northwest of Portland, OR. Aside from 13 (!) [...]]]> Event Stats:
Name Vernonia Half Marathon
Date 04/07/2007
Location Vernonia, OR, USA
Event Half Marathon
Finish Time 01:53:54

A week aftter the California Halfironman, the Vernionia Half Marahon was certainly to be booked under ‘active recovery’.

Vernonia is a small village about an hour or so northwest of Portland, OR. Aside from 13 (!) churches, the villages greatest feature (for me, who got up at 5:00 to drive there) was an absolutely fantastic coffee shop.

The race course took was basically a loop on a paved bike path, very falt and smooth. Thing were going smooth, my legs didin’t hurt at all, when suddenly, at about mile 10 two things happened.

It started to rain seriously, and the paved bikepath gave way to a – now rather muddy – gravel and dirt road. But it was way too late in the race to seriously annoy me, so I just picked up the pace a little and finished in 1:54 (so much for recovery ,-)

Awesome raffle at the finish!

Shamrock Half Marathon

Here is what I know:

I drove to Millersylvania State Park on April 17, I ran a Half-marathon there, there were other runners there (although not many and I finished in [...]]]>

Shamrock Half Marathon

Here is what I know:

I drove to Millersylvania State Park on April 17, I ran a Half-marathon there, there were other runners there (although not many and I finished in 1:48:42. I also remember signing up (and paying) for this race.

It was a out-and back race, rolling hills, on a street through the state-park. Weather was OK, not too cold, some rain, but not bad.
I actually ran quite well and I think I finished fourth.

However, I can not find anything about that race online. It is like it never happened. Strange. Very strange.

Small(er) race organized by Frankfurts most prominent running club. Early Sunday morning start means a pretty empty city. Run went OK for the first part, but I bonked pretty hard at about km15. Good early season race.

Went out way to fast, didn’t get enough drink in and bonked. End of story. I better adapt to the climate in California.

Jet-lagged, out of shape, smoking again, but at least I kicked myself to get back into running. Result shows how well I’m doing.

Small local event. Ran with @Michbeck, but realized pretty soon that I was a little faster. So I picked up the pace. Pacing worked this time, as well as nutrition. Had a very strong finish and feel ready for Frankfurt. [...]]]> Event Stats:
Name Karlsfelder Seelauf
Date 09/19/2004
Location Karlsfeld, Germany
Event Halfmarathon
Finish Time 01:54:08

Small local event. Ran with @Michbeck, but realized pretty soon that I was a little faster. So I picked up the pace. Pacing worked this time, as well as nutrition. Had a very strong finish and feel ready for Frankfurt. Michbeck finished only a couple of minutes behind.

Great Organization, a good part of the race on trails, good cheer and beer at the finish. This was my first halfmarathon. Pacing worked well fro the first 18km, then I picked up the pace way to early, and ran [...]]]> Event Stats:
Name Altötting Halbmarathon
Date 09/05/2004
Location Altötting, Germany
Event Halfmarathon
Finish Time 02:04:08

Great Organization, a good part of the race on trails, good cheer and beer at the finish. This was my first halfmarathon. Pacing worked well fro the first 18km, then I picked up the pace way to early, and ran out of gas with alsmost 2km to go. Otherwise I think I could have stayed under 2 hours.