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| Stornoway running club....and guests! |
This was the annual Stornoway Running Club
trip to Europe that we had kindly been invited along to by Ross and Jim. In all
there were over 40 of us in the group and many were just making a weekend of it
however, having spent very little time in Germany, Simon and I decided to stay
on for a week after the race and make a proper holiday of it. Having taken part
in many European marathons over recent years Stornoway Running Club have
developed close ties with runners from Austria and Germany who come over to
Scotland on a regular basis to compete in races in the Hebrides. This was a
great opportunity to visit Munich, a fantastic city, catch up with old friends
and make some new ones.
We arrived in Munich early evening and went
to find the train to get us from the airport to our hotel. Most of us managed
to get off at the right stop but the doors to the trains didn’t seem to allow
for unsure hesitant tourists and so three of our party were swiftly whisked
away, an amusing look of horror on their faces as they departed…. Fortunately,
they managed to get off at the next stop and made their way back to where the
rest of us were waiting on the platform. Our hotel being a little way out of
the centre of Munich required a second train journey on the underground system so
it was all aboard the next one that came along. Until the sudden realisation
that it was going in exactly the wrong direction. Off we piled off at the next
stop before boarded the next train that went back to where we had just come
from. Happily, this game of musical trains finished right outside our hotel
which was good as it was late by then and I was weary and so looking forward to
my bed. It was not to be. The hotel had botched up our booking so it was
another 45 minutes and 300 euros before we could finally get into our room. A
quick beer and it was time to collapse into bed.
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| Trying to find the right train |
The following morning we made our way to
the Olympic Stadium where the marathon expo and race registration was. You go
in the main door and are directed past a huge variety of stalls selling all
manner of running related items and assorted tat as well as stalls advertising
exciting looking races in European mountains (not to mention your clothes bag
and race t-shirt pick up point) before you reach the number collection. Once
you reach the number collection point you are directed past all those stalls
again until you reach the clothes bag and race t-shirt pick up points which you
had already passed earlier on your way to race number collection thus
maximising your chances of making some form of purchase. Crafty work by the
organisers. It worked though, I succumbed to a new fleecy winter top.*sigh*
Obviously 40 is a big group and as moving
around Munich as a herd wasn’t practical a splinter group of Rob, Cath, Ivor,
Simon and I decided to head into Munich city centre to get some lunch of
traditional Bavarian fare of sausage and sauerkraut in the open victuals market.
This did the job before Ivor, led us all on a tour of Munich.
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| Al Fresco dining at the victuals market |
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| Tour guide Ivor |
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| Ivor leading the tour |
Dinner that night
was much of the same type of Bavarian dishes. When you are racing in another
country food can often be a challenge, different foods, less than hygienic
practices etc can cause issues but Germany isn’t a country I would theses associate
problems with food with and so I didn’t realise it at the time but I was soon
going to find the meat and heavy stodge based diet exactly that challenge. The
traditional diet as far as I could work out appeared to be all meat, and very large
portions at that usually accompanied by a big heavy stodgy potato or dumpling
concoction. Don’t get me wrong, its lovely and very tasty and high quality but
I did struggle with the sheer quantity of meat, it is not something I eat in
great quantities at home and it made me feel heavy, bloated and sluggish at
times. There was a noticeable lack of green vegetables served up too. One night
I admitted defeat and had a salad – but even that had strips of pork thrown
into it. God knows how the vegetarians and vegans fared.
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| Pre-race dinner and beers |
After a fitful nights’ sleep (the hotel air
conditioning had one setting which seemed to be about 35 deg C) it was race
day. While the marathon and 10k runners had the usual early start the half
marathoners had a far more leisurely 1.30pm start and so we made our way to our
subway stop alongside other runners with no train related navigational incidents.
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| Looking forward to the race guys...? |
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| That'll be a "no" then! |
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| Startline antics |
We started out in the suburbs somewhere and
I settled into my pace as Simon, Ross and Rob disappeared into the distance.
For the most part the course was wide, flat and the weather was cool so pretty
ideal conditions all in all. Things got a little more interesting as we ran
into the city centre with bands playing and spectators cheering and we started
to catch up with the tail enders of the marathon race that had started earlier
that morning being careful not to run into the back of any of them especially when they stopped for a wee walk. I started to feel a bit weary around
7 miles so for the first time ever in a road half marathon I took a gel. Yes, I
know, it’s not wise to do something in a race that hasn’t been tried and tested
in training however I got progressively faster towards the end of the race so I
can only conclude it might have given me the sugar boost I needed. My guts also
got progressively grumblier so I can also conclude it was a caffeine containing
gel and as such I might have been better taking it nearer the end of the race.
It didn’t seem long until I reached the
outskirts of the Olympic stadium and then had the magical experience of running
through the tunnel on to the track. I guess that’s about the only time I will
have a taster of what an Olympic athlete experiences. The tunnel was dark and
had some sort of atmospheric lighting and smoke thing going on and you only
hear the sound of your own footsteps and the those of the runners around you and
then you burst out into the light and noise of the stadium. I expect it fell a
little short of the full Olympic experience as the stadium wasn’t packed with
spectators and they weren’t all cheering me on but still, it was fun.
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| Running through the tunnel into the Olympic stadium |
As I turned out of the tunnel on to the
track I spotted Simon ahead of me, not moving particularly quickly. A dilemma.
Do I do the nice thing and say something encouraging or do I sneak past on the
outside unnoticed and steal the all important win? My conscience got the better
of me and I tapped Simon on the shoulder….and he promptly sprinted off round the
track like a scalded cat. Meh! As I turned into the back straight I found him
waiting for me his conscience having got the better of him and we ran over the
finish line together. I had assumed that we would be awarded the same finishing
time and I was assuming that Simon thought the same as he would never allow me
to finish in front of him but what we had failed to remember was that I had
started further back in the field on the start line so I was unexpectedly
awarded a time 2 seconds faster than Simon. As you might imagine I didn’t let
him forget it for the remainder of the week although I knew I would pay for it
sooner or later. My time was some 15 minutes faster than i had been running for the Heb halfs earlier that summer so at least the Iron tablets seem to be kicking in now, well I'm putting it down to that as I've certainly not been doing any additional training!
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| Crossing the finish line together...awww sweet! |
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| Post race beers |
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| Race medal |
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| Stornoway running club have their own travelling support! |
I couldn’t find the stand serving water and
Lucozade or similar but quickly located the beer stall (my excuse and I’m
sticking to it – and so were quite a few others by the looks of it). After
locating our bags Simon went to get his medal engraved and then we met up with
the other runners and then headed back to the hotel for showers, beers and the
usual post-race festivities and more traditional Bavarian food.
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| Celebrating with a post race dinner |
Ethel was celebrating her 80th
Birthday on this trip with a 10k race and a surprise special award from the
Western isles local authority for her services to her sport.
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| I hope i can still run 10k races when im 80! |
