Frankfurt Marathon - 4:17:05 [Certificate] [Results]
km 1: 5:12
km 2: 5:25
km 3: 5:23
km 4: 5:23
km 5: 5:24 - 26:48
km 6: 5:27
km 7: 5:18
km 8: 5:30
km 9: 5:30
km 10: 5:23 - 27:10 - 53:58
km 11: 5:14
km 12: 5:20
km 13: 5:23
km 14: 5:22
km 15: 5:22 - 26:43 -1:21:41
km 16: 5:24
km 17: 5:17
km 18: 5:22
km 19: 5:23
km 20: 5:19 - 26:50 - 1:47:31
Half - 1:53:47
km 21: 5:43 (pee stop)
km 22: 5:20
km 23: 5:22
km 24: 5:28
km 25: 5:21 -27:16 - 2:14:47
km 26: 5:12
km 27: 5:19
km 27: 5:19
km 28: 5:29
km 30: 5:28 - 26:50 - 2:41:37
km 31: 5:42
km 32: 6:02
km 33: 6:03
km 34: 7:35
km 35: 6:37 - 31:59 - 3:13:36
km 36: 7:04
km 37: 9:14
km 38: 9:00
km 39: 8:37
km 40: 9:36 - 43:37 - 3:57:13
km 41: 9:09
km 42: 9:12
M40: 1406 (1729)
Men: 5981 (7858)
Total: 6912 (9555)
What a total and utter disaster. Conditions were perfect. 12 degrees, sunshine, no wind. First 25km were like clockwork and bang on time. I then tried to speed up a bit as planned to see how the legs were and I realised quickly that they didn't want to speed up, so I adjusted back to 'normal' pace which was ok until 30km when I started getting cramps in both(!) calves. Things started to get unpleased very quickly and I stopped every so often to stretch which didn't help much. The last 5km must have been the most painful ever as I simply couldn't run. Every time I started in a slow jog the cramps and spasms got so bad that I had to walk again. I guess the km splits say it all. I considered pulling out 35km, but decided not to after last year's exit.
The red-cross people grabbed me as soon as I crossed the finish line, but let me go after a short while. I hobbled into the athlete's area and took a drink of something fizzy after which I got quite sick and back out it went again... The weird thing is that I don't really know what went wrong as I started at a slower pace than usual. I have never had cramps like these before and I can only put it down to 3 things: lack of salt / isotonics (which I didn't take), not enough training (two 25km runs are probably not sufficient) and the realisation that a body can only take so much in one season. It shows again that the full marathon is not a distance you should run unless you are 100%. Marathon #14 was a personal worst - time for a well needed rest period.
Here are a couple of videos of the misery: [
Video]
