München M 2018

Date: 14 October 2018
Goal: Sub3h (deep inside me actually a 2:55h)
Finish: 2:57h (PB)
Rank: 81 / 24 (AG)
Shoes: New Balance Vazee 2016

Great weekend, great run!
Following a 1-month running pause (except for a few short runs with my son’s race-buggy, and many long hikes during summer vacation in California) a new target was in demand.
I propelled my training from just ~100k in July to 400k in August and another 400k in September. Coming out of the 20k-pacer training (pacing a 1h20 for Brussels 20k) in April and May it seems the month-long pause was good for my body and it had no problems to quickly adapt to the high milage; a raise I would not suggest anyone without some training experience as those numbers practically call for injury :-/. Happy it went so fine (many of those August kilometer were slow paces together with my girlfriend and son’s racing-buggy).

Race day were unexpected 20°C with no clouds at the sky, possibly impacting a bit my finishing time but nevertheless, personal best :-)! I set off for the first 15k with a conservative 4:09 pace, feeling great, and going basically as planned. From 15k to 25k I (we) sped up close to a 4:00 pace (see anecdote below), which was the best part of the race. Unfortunately, this took its toll past 35km were pace dropped to 4:20 for a couple of ks (I had hoped being able to slow back down to around 4:10, but had to slow down more than that). Nevertheless, propelled toward the finish line by my family spectators, I had a great finish and new PB.

Summary:
Nice race through the english garden and the city of Munich with a great finish in the Olympic stadium. Unfortunately, not many spectators except for the HM crossing and city-parts. Water and food stations are ample and the post-run buffet is awesome (including free-tap alcohol free Erdinger Hefeweizen). With 100 EUR the price is a little excessive, especially considering that a race T-shirt would be another 40EUR!

Race anecdote
Passing the 16k mark, a guy ran up on me, started talking “Dude, I felt like shit until 15k, now it’s getting better, let’s go”. We kept pulling and pushing each other for the next 10k, setting a 4min pace and collecting runner after runner. Passing with him the HM mark with many spectators and animator was amazing (unfortunately, no race video of that). Unfortunately, it seems the poor guy over-paced a bit and had to let go around 25k. I did not see him after at the finish, nor could I find him in the rankings (no idea about his bib#), but those 8-10k made my day, hope he finished well!

FunRun song
The Editors – Sugar