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Race Report: Frankfurt Half-Marathon [crossposted left, right & centre :]
Yes, you read that right. The Tem has run a half-marathon. And finished it. And not come last. Which means I've accomplished both my goals!
As you can tell from the above, this was my first one, and I've deliberately kept quiet about it to eliminate the stress of having to live up to others' expectations - not a thing a first-timer needs IMHO. Especially not one who's getting married in 12 days, heh.
That's me in my bathroom, still looking somewhat doubtful before boarding a series of buses clutching a banana, a water bottle and a couple of energy gels. The facepaint is my small nod to the Run for Christchurch virtual fundraiser race that I participated in with this. Between the lot of us, we've raised over 10,000 Kiwi dollars for Christchurch's earthquake relief effort! Since I didn't have any black-and-red running gear to signify Christchurch, I opted for my favourite green and a fake moko. Note to all tangata whenua reading this: please be assured I meant this as a gesture of respect and because I find it beautiful, not as some white girl's appropriation of Maori culture. *bow*
Oh, and the scribble on my right hand is my fiancée's initials, since this whole half-marathon business is her fault and all. This was, however, effortlessly topped by two young ladies I met in the slow peoples' starter corral (which for this HM meant anyone with an expected finish time over 2 hours) who were wearing matching purple T-shirts with "Frank ist schuld" (it's all Frank's fault) printed on them.
This actually got a laugh out of me when around mile 6 I saw a somewhat sheepish-looking spectator with a black T-shirt and "Ich bin schuld" (it's all my fault) on it in the same font. Clearly, this was Frank, and clearly, several runners got the joke and yelled "Frank!!" at him as they passed. Several other Franks in the race also got their name yelled at them, and I overheard one runner high-fiving an acquaintance at the 10-mile turning point and shouting "we saw Frank!!" and everyone knew what they meant. Frank was clearly the hero of this Frank-furt Half-Marathon, and he wasn't even running.
Actually, noticing Frank at mile 6 was pretty much the first notable thing that happened during the race - the first 6 miles were very smooth, the crowd slowly thinning and spreading out as we ran along forest by-roads and then later along the river road. I'd started way at the back of the corral with the two purple-shirted girls, which gave me the additional boost of being able to pass people for the first couple of miles. I found my stride pretty much immediately and just chugged along at a pretty swift pace, enjoying the scenery and grinning at the many males taking bathroom breaks in the forest.
At mile 6 (10K) I took a brief walking break at the water stop (I don't know how people can eat energy gels while running - I can't), then powered up again, away from the river and into the southern part of the city. Spectators were scarce there, and sometimes we wouldn't see anyone for a whole mile. Except perhaps the odd bewildered pedestrian trying to look the other way. Most of the cheering came from the race volunteers posted along the route, and was very, very welcome.
I hit something wall-like around 7-8 miles, my legs getting really heavy, but at that point it had actually become easier to keep running than to slow to a walk so I kept going until the second water stop where another gel and two cups of water helped revive my spirits. After that, it got easier again, and what had looked like an uphill bit after the 10-mile hairpin bend turned out to be not uphill at all. At this point, the realisation had kicked in that I was going to finish this one, and not only would I not be last, I would actually beat my projected target time of 2:22 (or 2:22:22 if you like).
I ran the last couple of miles through the forest on auto-pilot, wishing dearly for my little radio because by this point everyone had fallen pretty much silent. I got a couple of great grins back from volunteers though, probably because an "OMG-I'm-going-to-finish-a-half-marathon" smile combined with facepaint is irresistible or something.
Anyway, for the final mile they made us run all the way around the big football stadium on the outside of the fence and then halfway around it on the inside again before finally letting us in. Now, I've lived in this town for over 10 years but I'd never been inside the stadium, so this was extra special for me. And they had people cheering in there! Actually, at this point I was so gleeful at finishing this race (wait for the goofiest finisher photo ever... I bet I'm unrecognisable!) that I didn't even bother to look at my watch and didn't hit 'stop' until I was already at the beverage stall guzzling apple juice spritzers.
The official site tells me my finishing time is just over 2:13. I'm amazed.
After finishing, I felt so bubbly that I kept walking around the place, laughing randomly and yelling encouragement at various other runners coming in after me (hey, even if my legs aren't particularly trained, my voice definitely is!) and even banditing a couple of stragglers along the final stretch, jogging in front of them and cheerfully yelling at walkers and spectators to get out of the way because here's another runner, dammit, and he also wants his finish!
That's also when I saw the two purple-shirted girls again, bravely jogging in two minutes after cut-off time, bandited along by the 1:59 pace runner who was keeping up an encouraging monologue throughout. They did pretty much come last in the race, but they were probably the most popular runners in the whole thing.
And I really hope Frank was waiting for them at the finish line.
As you can tell from the above, this was my first one, and I've deliberately kept quiet about it to eliminate the stress of having to live up to others' expectations - not a thing a first-timer needs IMHO. Especially not one who's getting married in 12 days, heh.
That's me in my bathroom, still looking somewhat doubtful before boarding a series of buses clutching a banana, a water bottle and a couple of energy gels. The facepaint is my small nod to the Run for Christchurch virtual fundraiser race that I participated in with this. Between the lot of us, we've raised over 10,000 Kiwi dollars for Christchurch's earthquake relief effort! Since I didn't have any black-and-red running gear to signify Christchurch, I opted for my favourite green and a fake moko. Note to all tangata whenua reading this: please be assured I meant this as a gesture of respect and because I find it beautiful, not as some white girl's appropriation of Maori culture. *bow*
Oh, and the scribble on my right hand is my fiancée's initials, since this whole half-marathon business is her fault and all. This was, however, effortlessly topped by two young ladies I met in the slow peoples' starter corral (which for this HM meant anyone with an expected finish time over 2 hours) who were wearing matching purple T-shirts with "Frank ist schuld" (it's all Frank's fault) printed on them.
This actually got a laugh out of me when around mile 6 I saw a somewhat sheepish-looking spectator with a black T-shirt and "Ich bin schuld" (it's all my fault) on it in the same font. Clearly, this was Frank, and clearly, several runners got the joke and yelled "Frank!!" at him as they passed. Several other Franks in the race also got their name yelled at them, and I overheard one runner high-fiving an acquaintance at the 10-mile turning point and shouting "we saw Frank!!" and everyone knew what they meant. Frank was clearly the hero of this Frank-furt Half-Marathon, and he wasn't even running.
Actually, noticing Frank at mile 6 was pretty much the first notable thing that happened during the race - the first 6 miles were very smooth, the crowd slowly thinning and spreading out as we ran along forest by-roads and then later along the river road. I'd started way at the back of the corral with the two purple-shirted girls, which gave me the additional boost of being able to pass people for the first couple of miles. I found my stride pretty much immediately and just chugged along at a pretty swift pace, enjoying the scenery and grinning at the many males taking bathroom breaks in the forest.
At mile 6 (10K) I took a brief walking break at the water stop (I don't know how people can eat energy gels while running - I can't), then powered up again, away from the river and into the southern part of the city. Spectators were scarce there, and sometimes we wouldn't see anyone for a whole mile. Except perhaps the odd bewildered pedestrian trying to look the other way. Most of the cheering came from the race volunteers posted along the route, and was very, very welcome.
I hit something wall-like around 7-8 miles, my legs getting really heavy, but at that point it had actually become easier to keep running than to slow to a walk so I kept going until the second water stop where another gel and two cups of water helped revive my spirits. After that, it got easier again, and what had looked like an uphill bit after the 10-mile hairpin bend turned out to be not uphill at all. At this point, the realisation had kicked in that I was going to finish this one, and not only would I not be last, I would actually beat my projected target time of 2:22 (or 2:22:22 if you like).
I ran the last couple of miles through the forest on auto-pilot, wishing dearly for my little radio because by this point everyone had fallen pretty much silent. I got a couple of great grins back from volunteers though, probably because an "OMG-I'm-going-to-finish-a-half-marathon" smile combined with facepaint is irresistible or something.
Anyway, for the final mile they made us run all the way around the big football stadium on the outside of the fence and then halfway around it on the inside again before finally letting us in. Now, I've lived in this town for over 10 years but I'd never been inside the stadium, so this was extra special for me. And they had people cheering in there! Actually, at this point I was so gleeful at finishing this race (wait for the goofiest finisher photo ever... I bet I'm unrecognisable!) that I didn't even bother to look at my watch and didn't hit 'stop' until I was already at the beverage stall guzzling apple juice spritzers.
The official site tells me my finishing time is just over 2:13. I'm amazed.
After finishing, I felt so bubbly that I kept walking around the place, laughing randomly and yelling encouragement at various other runners coming in after me (hey, even if my legs aren't particularly trained, my voice definitely is!) and even banditing a couple of stragglers along the final stretch, jogging in front of them and cheerfully yelling at walkers and spectators to get out of the way because here's another runner, dammit, and he also wants his finish!
That's also when I saw the two purple-shirted girls again, bravely jogging in two minutes after cut-off time, bandited along by the 1:59 pace runner who was keeping up an encouraging monologue throughout. They did pretty much come last in the race, but they were probably the most popular runners in the whole thing.
And I really hope Frank was waiting for them at the finish line.