After a week of recovering and getting ready for today's 1/2 marathon, Philip (my Belgium buddy), Uli (our house photographer) and myself were ready for action at 7am in front of the mighty Olympic Stadium. This time the start was staggered in age groups and I was off 2 minutes ahead of Phil....not that it made a big difference, as the first of the 50+ guys steamed pass me after 2 km into the race. It was a perfect day and a relatively flat course which was made for fast times. I was sucked into the speed of the group and powered along in just over 20min for the first 5km, which of course was way to fast and I paid the price in the last 5km which took me 27min. Overall I did not reach my goal of 100min and finished in 103min for the 21km. It was just sooooo hard to keep up with all those fit old farts. It is encouraging seeing 70 year old men running hard and leaving younger ones behind but it is just bloody hard to keep motivated if it happens to you in a race. Moral of the story is that I probably have to keep going, stay fit and have fun for another 35 years before I have a small chance of a medal....there were still a handful of 80+ runners competing but hey, being in the first 5 of a World Masters Game is not too bad after all. I liked the comments of the 99 year old and 6 gold medal winner who said that no one should ever mention the world old to her...unless it has a G in front of it!
So, 2009 is done - 2'000km, 4 pairs of shoes, a great 100km North Face race and a fun time at the World Masters Games. Now a few weeks of resting, staying fit and relaxing before starting a new adventure in 2010!
Happy Feet and stay fit
Markus
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