Fiducia & GAD Baden-Marathon in Karlsruhe, Germany

On Friday my wife and I drove to Zeilhard to an IVV walking event. After I ran the marathon and my wife ran the 20k on Saturday, we drove towards Karlsruhe. On Sunday there was the Fiducia & GAD Baden-Marathon on Sunday which I will do with the NEWLINE-Team. To go to Karlsruhe with the car we needed a green natural environment sticker. In Germany many big cities have them to prevent cars with high emissions. We only had the yellow sticker and were not allowed to go there. I had no way to check for the passable roads. Therefore we decided to park in Bruchsal and take the train. We had booked a hotel just next to the train station. It was about 2k away from the start of the marathon. So these are additional arguments to use the train.

After, we had checked in we had a relaxed walk to the Europagym to pick up my start number. Then, we went to the marathon fair. In the evening we enjoyed dinner and enjoyed the shows of the Folkloria-Festival, which also took place that weekend. The marathon started at 9am. So we could sleep longer and had a relaxed breakfast. After we had arrived at the start we made some photos. Then I went into the starting block. was not long when an old friend, Dietmar Mücke, showed up. He was well known as the Pumuckl, which is a figure in a kid’s series. He got his nick name from the fact that he is always dressed up as a Pumukl when he runs the races. He is doing that to collect donations for charity purpose. Finally it started – first the countdown, then the start for the marathon and the half marathon. Because of the big amount of half marathon runners a huge leading group went away. I tried not to get soaked by that speed and run my own speed. After I ran a few kilometers Marcell Dahringer caught up. We talked a little bit and it turned out that he also was mainly running Ultramarathons. We ran together for the first half of the marathon. After that he slowed down. It was also the point, when we passed the starting area again. The marathon was designed like an eight but the second half was more beautiful. Only the marathon runners could enjoy the run through the garden of the castle in Karlsruhe. After Marcel had slowed down I continued by myself. It did not take a long time until I caught up with the next runner. He tried to add on and we ran a while together. It was going very well and it seemed that I would have a final time of about 2:45h instead of my intended time of 2:50h. But I celebrated too early. At kilometer 33 I had to go to the toilet. Not long after that I got some stomach problems and had to throw up. That meant the good finishing time was gone. Even I could run quite well after that it was only a time just less than 3 h. I was especially pissed after I saw the results. With my previous speed I could have done a top 10 placement. So I just placed 15th. It was still good for a city marathon because I am more specialized on ultra running, especially stage races. But it was still annoying.

After the finish line there was an area with snacks and drinks placed in the stadium. I relaxed a bit so my stomach could calm down. Then I had some drink. Unfortunately during the race they only supported water, iso and apple juice. I do not drink iso at all and take water only if I need to. So there was not much left to choose. After I had strengthened myself I went to the showers. They were placed in shower trucks at the exit of the stadium. The water was comfortably warm. Afterwards we went home.