66km Churfrankenlauf from Miltenberg to Sulzbach, Germany

Originally we planed to go during the weekend to Zeilhard to run on an IVV event. Jürgen had asked me before, if I want to run again Churfrankenlauf. But I did not decide to do it before Saturday afternoon, after I had finished my Marathon in Zeilhard and we were sitting together.

Jürgen and I planed to meet up and pick up our starting bids at the late afternoon. We joined the pre race briefing. Then we drove to Jürgen to stay the night at his house.

At the next morning we drove to the start to Miltenberg. Susi and my wife slept long and went to the aid station after 25k to cheer us up. The start for the 2-relay runners and the Ultrarunner was just in time at 7:15am. Imediatelly after starting the race Mark Scheuring leaded the race. Behind him was Tobias Hegmann and a relay runner. I was following them with another relay runner next, but soon I let him run away. Quickly I found a comfortable speed for myself and was moving on well. To break down the far distance between two aid stations I had a small bottle with me. I am not used to hold something in my hand but it was going quiet well. Still, I should have some problems with my “own support�. The race was split up in five stages with different length. For the first 54k the distance between the aid stations was about 9k. In my opinion to far, especially with the steep up hills we had to do. Depending on the steepness I had decided already before the race to walk them. The plan worked out well, because I could keep my speed very constant. After I had finish the first 30k some 2-relay runners and 5-relay runners passed me, but that was something I suspected. The 5-relay runners started only 15 minutes after us. So it was for sure that they pass us ultrarunners. After 30k it was also getting warm enough to take off the long running shirt. Unfortunately you also can feel the warm at the drinks. While the water was still cold the coke was most time warm and flat. Besides water was the only drink at the first two aid stations. Surprisingly I could handle the water and the flat coke quiet good. Before I had gotten stomach problems of it, but it seems today it was ok. Just after the last aid station it still caught me with stomach problems. Maybe the reason was that I drunk too much. It took me some minutes. But I know that I could not catch up somebody in front of me and I would reach my personal goal of sub 6h. Besides, the chance to get passed from other ultrarunners was very low, because I was running quiet stable. It is very seldom that people run must faster on the second half.

At the finish I had something to drink and went directly to shower. When I had a look on the results and the splits, it confirmed my feeling about the distance to the next runner. It took some time to the award ceremony which was scheduled for 3pm. Unfortunately the ceremony for the ultrarunners were last. So it was almost 4:30pm