On Sunday, I’ll have my first race of this year, “Lümmellauf” (literally “Oaf Run”), a cross country run of 19.3 km.
Photo by cran304
First, about the picture .. yes, it’s a sausage and it’s related to the race: Somebody makes a special batch of sausages (for the US people: hot dogs) also called “Lümmel” which is given out to all participants after the race. A pretty good test for your stomach, but it feels pretty good to get something warm ..
This is usually the first race of the year. The course itself is really pretty, mostly off-road (except for the immediate start/finish area) but wide enough to be able to run with a large group – but usually after the first few ks everyone runs on his/her own … They offer a lot of different distances – 1k and 2k for the younger ones, then a 5k (5300m – one short loop), a 10k (9700m – a longer loop) and 20k (19300m – two longer loops).
In the past, this has been a pretty good gauge of where I was after the Christmas-“diet” and some initial build-up. When running the 9.7k you got a time you could shoot for in an 10k later in the season, and the average pace in the 19.3k was something you could hold for a 1/2 marathon a bit later on. Last year I managed to run a 1:23:42, a 4:20 per k average speed. This would correspond to a 1:31:25 half marathon – pretty close to my PR.
This year, things are a bit different. First, I’ve been injured and didn’t train much in November and December. Second, it’s been really cold and we have a ton of snow on the ground. So I absolutely don’t have any idea of what is possible, especially not having had a look at the conditions on the course.
So I’m being really conservative and assume a 5:15/k pace – which would be a 1h41. Anything faster would be nice, I’m hoping for a pace under 5min/k which would be under 1:36:30. But this is just guessing.
What I’m really looking forward is to meet a couple of running and triathlon buddies. Hopefully I’ll not be too spent to link up with a few people …
No comments:
Post a Comment