April 4 2004 19th year April weather, perfect for running
(12 degrees, a bit of sunshine, little wind, cloud cover)
19000 runners Three costumes spotted Drinks: water and
lukewarm tea Course: flat (the only hills are a couple of
bridges), scenic - all the great spots including Checkpoint
Charlie Mood: crowded, festive, friendly Facilities: had to
use water bottle to pee into before start; bananas, beer,
massage, plastic thermal sheets, no q at chip retrun, no q
at diploma print-out stall, good fun
Juast got back from Berlin after the half on Sunday. They
changed the ´start/dfinish this year but seem to have
forgotten that 19000 runners need more than 10 portaloos at
the start (where there were no trees or bushes apart from
those just outside the cathedral which were too exposed to
[censored] in). The road just before Unter den Linden was also
too narrow to funnel all the starters into their pens. I
should have been in "C" pen but when the race started I was
still inching my way along the fencing past pen E; I
climbed over and started from there. So I had lots of 2
hour plus runners in front of me. But I didn't mind as this
was meant to be my last LSD before Hamburg on 18 April. At
5 k I spotted the 2.15 pace balloon some way ahead;
overtook it a k later, and then the 1.59.59 pacer at about
7½ k. I was keeping to about 5.11 per k, too fast as that
is my goal 'thon pace; half way came at about 54 minutes so
I slowed down big time and walked through all the water/tea
stations. I passed several of our club members and tried to
encourage those who looked troubled; I caught a guy at 18 k
who runs in one of my groups at the club (we train at about
8.20 per mile) and he was really suffering so I bullied him
a bit, teasing him for wanting to walk etc. Anyhow I ended
up with 1.54.48, my slowest half ever. He did 1.57 and
swears he'll never run another. The finish area was chaos,
with too little room to funnel through to the medals,
bananas, etc. But a party atmosphere prevailed. The real
news tho is that my wife ran her first half. She'll be 55
in October. She did it in 1.58.44. Brilliant. She's already
talking about her next half. There'll be pictures of the
social side (68 people from our club went) tonight or
tomorrow. The link to the home page is blovstrod-blovstrod-Open ↗
loverne.dk/: then check for anything that says "billeder".
There are also some from our first beginner's session of
the year on 1 April. I've volunteeered as an assistantcoach
this year as my legs need a rest.