Frankfurt Marathon, a short report

We stayed at a friends place the night before. Start is at 10am and we arrived at the start area around 8:45am. Plenty of time to check the situation and see how everything works. Was in the starting block around 9:40am and met with Bernhard. We both planned on sub3h but had no specific plan on wether running together or not. The gun went off and we could find a good pace within a couple of minutes. First km was 4:18min, perfect. Bernhard stayed always a few meters in front of me for the first half. 10km went by in 42:37 and at the Half the clock showed 1:29:40. It was not a smooth ride but clearly everything under control. Temperature was ca. 16C, cloudy sky. A very good day for a Marathon race. Around the 25km it seemed that the pace dropped to 4:20min/km pace. A quick calculation showed that it would not be possible to clear 3h even if I would try to run a very fast all out last 10k stretch. So, I decided to push the pace from the 28k mark on. 4:12-4:15min/km pace was the result. Again, not easy but well within the plan. At the 35k mark I was still on target for 2:59. But around 38,5k something happened to my left leg (the one with the problems I had a few weeks ago) very quickly. The leg started to cramp and then I could hear a sound like a "snap" or "kling" in the leg. Immediately, the pain became unbearable and I had to stop. I waited a while, saw Bernhard approaching and cheered him on: " Go, Berhard. For me, it will take much longer today." He nodded and finished in a strong 3:03. I started walked for some time and finally could manage to slowly jog. The support from the spectators was really great: They cheered me on a lot. But, running was out of question. I saw Robert Jäkel at the 40k mark and had a short talk with him. He paced Doro in Essen to finish in a great 2:46. On I went and finally I finished the run in 3:12. The organization is really good, only small comments: 1. Aid stations are mostly on the left. Not easy for right handed people. 2. The water for the sponges is too close to the water stations. No time to drink and wet the sponge.
I am not so happy about the injury but I am very happy with the race given the preparation. The sub3 was clearly within reach and I feel very fit after the race. Lets rest for a few days and get back to training (hopefully).