German chapmionship 100km in Hanau Rodenbach, Germany

At 5am Walter Zimmermann and I met at Marktheidenfeld. We went to Hanau/Rodenbach. There was no regular organized 100km race since years. But for the anniversaries of the 100km champion ship Harry Arndt organized one. At 6am we arrived there to pick up our race numbers. Matthias Schmidt already had arrived. He was the third of our Team – LG Würzburg. Our supporter Florian Reus also had arrived. There was nothing special, that we met friends, just after get out of the car. It was still kind of a small family and everybody knows each other.

Before we went to the start line at the stadium we had a breakfast. It was included for the runner. The start was at 7am. At the stadium we had first some talks and words of welcome. Finally we started. The course was on the traditional 10km lap. There where three aid stations located outside of the stadium and one inside. There was nothing missing at the aid stations. No drinks and no snacks. Also the course was marked well. Actually nothing unusual, if you was used to Harry`s races from the past.

After the start a small leading group went away. With them was Michael Sommer. After a few loops we could see at the retour part how the Jan-Albert Lantink from the Netherlands went away. Jörg Hooß followed him. It seemed that Michael Sommers watched the spectacle relaxed. After half of the race he started to catch up and placed himself behind the runner from the Netherlands. It remained till the end. So Michael was again German Champion, but the overall winner was Jan-Albert. Much more interesting was the women race. Tanja Hooß and Branka Hajek fought till the last second. Both passed me at the beginning of the last loop. So I could watch the fight for a while. They changed the position very often. In the end Tanja won.

After the race we where sitting together. Because the big gym was already used by another event, we met at the stadium. Luckly it was not too cold. At the afternoon some light rain started. The award ceremony was at 6:30pm placed at the city center at a hall. As I heard some people searched for it unsuccessfully. We decided to wait at the finish line for the last runner of our team – Walter. The time limit was risen up to 13 hours. But before the last finished, the cleaning up work was almost done. As well they sold nothing to eat anymore. It is definitely not a nice feeling, when people finish and the finish line is almost built down. But that is very often reality.