Marathon at Kevelaer, Germany

Saturday morning 9am. The train stops at the train station in Dettelbach. Our destination? Of course, the marathon at Kevelaer. To make the travelling feel shortly, also of the long time, more relaxative and cheaper we travel with five persons with the week end ticket. Jürgen Teichert and Martin Linek entered at Nürnberg. There the train started at 8:02am with destination Frankfurt. But are not these only three persons? Right! The next one was Walther Zimmermann. He entered the train two stations after me. To complete our group, we had to pick up Karlheinz Kobus, the last person, we at Wiesbaden. Now there was nothing which could stop us. Nothing, instead of delay time of the train. But we were lucky. There was now delay and now failure. At 5pm we arrived the train station at Kevelaer. Now we had a 20Min. walk to the youth hostel. There we slept the night, to be right at the start on Sunday.

            We had not entered the youth hostel, when we met the next friends. After some small talk we went to our rooms. We took preparation for the next day. So we had no the stress at the morning. Also it minimize the risk to forget something. This should not happen, because of the routine of many races. But there is no assertion.  After we finished our preparations we took a walk back to the city. There we met other runners at the Italian restaurant. There was no thought, that we dominated the restaurant. We put some tables together. Around 30 persons were sitting around the tables.

The start fort he marathon was at the next morning at 10am. It was just 200m away of the youth hostel. So there was plenty of time to have breakfast. Without a good meal, there is no chance to finish the marathon. After we finished our breakfast we went to get our start numbers. More and more runners arrived. We had some more small talks before we went back to our rooms. Now we took our last preparations for the race. We put lotion on, we masked for protection and of course we went again to the toilets. Because it would cost to much time doing it during the race. Before 10am we all waited at the starting line. We all waited for the big shot. The weather god was lovely to us! The temperature had 41-47F (5-8°C) without clouds. Best weather of all three events. The head of the city welcome all the runners to the 3.Honey-cake-man-marathon. She had a small speech. And than – the start! After the first mile (1,5km) we passed the first aid station. Then we took a right turn to a loop. The complete loop was at street and without some turns straight. Half the way of the loop there was a second aid station. There were also some spectators. After 2.8 miles (4,5km) we came back to the first aid station. Starting at this point we ran on the reverse part back to the starting line. It was also the turn around point. There was also the only “hill” at this part. Ten feet (three meter) of altitude, quiet a lot. Shortly after the hill we passed a second group of spectators. They had build up a music box and played some nice rhythm. Also there was some nice cheering. The last grouping of person was at the turn around point. There was also a speaker, which talked about every runner. At the beginning of the race Thorsten Domeyer, the winner of last year, took the head. I and another runner were some feet behind him. Behind, another group runner. After we finished our second loop my companion slow down. What to do now? Slow down to the following group? Speed up to the first runner? Or just stay in speed and wait? I took the third opportunity. At the beginning of the fourth loop some friends told that my speed is high enough. I should not risk anything. And it would not be a problem to catch up. At this time of the race I could not imagine such things. Because he ran marathon faster than I did. This is no assurance, but people orientate. At the end of the fourth loop I was getting confident. I saw, that I was catching up some feet. But I tried not to get to enthusiastic, because I did not run a lot of training miles during the last month. At the beginning of the sixth loop there was just a few feet left. On the brink of the first aid station I sport him. He gave a small sign to pass. He did not attempt to stick with me. At the end I won the third honey-cake-man-marathon. The winner of last year was just a few seconds faster. At the finishing line I received my medal, a honey-cake. So also this race ended. After a hot shower we drank and ate up till the award ceremony. After the ceremony we embarked direction home.

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