"Oops, I did it again..."

... this time after two rather eventful weeks in quite good 2:52:34.

Two weeks ago I caught a really painful cold/cough. Could not run for a week and felt really bad.

Last Saturday, I ran 25k with Christiane and I felt not fit enough for a Marathon. So, on Sunday I decided not to run Ohtawara. Well, I received a few emails saying that this is not what people thought would fit to my personality, putting it mildly ;-) Anyway, my decision at that point was based on my condition and my condition sucked...! Monday evening my right leg cramped out of the blue sky, darn! Wednesday evening I ran 5x1k with Paddy, had to skip the first k due to the still cramping leg but could finish the other 4x1k. Didn't feel too bad. Still wasn't decided what to do on race day. Anyway, I packed my racing gear and headed towards Ohtawara. Since most of the NAMBANs would ran either the 10k or the unofficial (TM) Half, I decided to go for -at least- the unofficial (TM) Half as well. Paddy suggested 1:25 and I joined in. We started together and the first k was right on the spot, 4:03min/km. We could maintain that pace over the first k and got to the 10k point in 40 min sharp. 15k went by in 1hr. It didn't feel too bad but I certainly had to work at that speed already. At the 18k point I thought about the decision to make pretty soon: go on or finish the unofficial (TM) Half. Well, I went that far so I gave it a shot. The leg was almost OK and there was no head wind like last year. We passed the HM in 1:25 and Christian showed up. He just ran a new 10k PB, blistering 34:10! He wanted to run another round with us. "Fine with me. That is as close as I can get to him in a Marathon", I thought. We continued our run, clocking sub-4 min km from there on, unfortunately not till the end, I have to admit. For the next 10k things went pretty smooth. But when we were approaching the 35k mark I felt loosing too much energy. Still the pace was around 4:05min/km but I knew I would not keep it up. I told Christian that I had to slow down and I was thinking about finishing 2:52. He continued a few more km with me and then said "Good by". Well, can't thank him enough for his help. We passed a lot of runners and it was a real inspiration having him so close to me. The last km were a real struggle. I was mentally and physically completely worm out. Had no energy to think, just continued running and kept going. My pace didn't drop that much, slowest km was 4:21 but it felt like standing still. The NAMBAN crowd was there when I needed them the most: Everybody was cheering at the course on the last 2 km. Satohi and Mary cheered from their bikes, it was just fantastic. When I reached the finish line I felt relieved. Had only a few seconds to get a drink before Paddy finished in 2:55. It was a tough race for him as well, he told me.

My finish time of 2:52:34 is my 2008 PB, 4 minutes faster than in Tokyo. So, yes it was worth running Ohtawara besides all the doubts I had in the days before.

Next two weeks will be no running, then, I will start my training again. TOKYO Marathon is calling...