Pre-race report
Exactly one year ago there was a crisis: My first ever marathon, the Vienna marathon, was approaching fast and after 3 months of training, my right knee was hurting badly. I was forced to interrupt training 3 weeks prior to the event :-( . After 10 days of rest, the painful knee seemed ok again. I decided to give it a go, and finished with a time of 3:59 despite recurring knee trouble most of the way.
Then I found the wonderful DRS and the great people in it, and thanks to their encouragement and support I have since learned how to take smaller running strides and go easy on the knees, and have had the most wonderful year running 2 more marathons in the U.S. .... and gained new friends in the process! :-)So Vienna is here once more, and it will be great to take part once again. Racing across the beautiful blue Danube river along with 24000 other marathon, half marathon and fun run participants I will be reflecting a while on the fantastic running year gone by.
Race report
a) Intro: Last year's event was somewhat plagued by injury and mistakes, so I had been hoping that this year would prove better, thanks to the helpful advice received from the great members of the Dead list, and experience gained from the previous 2 races in the U.S.
b) Short Report: Perfect weather 54°F overcast, remaining dry in spite of overnight rain. A total of 26000 starters in the well organised marathon, relay & 16km events, all waltzing across the blue Danube river together and running past historic palaces and on through the grandiose monarchy boulevards of Vienna. Live jazz bands, some with singers, were playing along the way. PR 3:21:12, despite 2 stops for nature. (Drinking *too* much... sheesh!) Overall placing 1590 (of total 8800 marathon finishers) Age group M45 placing 179 (of total 932 age group finishers) (Official course closure was after 5 hours, although finishers with 6 hour times are appearing on the results list today)
c)
Less Short Report: (feel free to skip it ;-) Arriving at the expo the
previous day to collect the start number and noting with annoyance, that in
their infinite wisdom, the organisers have *again* seen fit to charge $20 for
the somewhat ugly official t-shirt, with the result that hardly any one bothered
to acquire one... (And they complain about not attracting enough visitors from
abroad!) The official Kaiserschmarrn-Party (Viennese pancakes... hey - at least
it's a novel idea... what the heck if it's not pasta!) was held in the historic
crystal glass ballroom of the town hall with show and music. On race day,
arrival for the 9am start using the highly efficient subway (free to all
participants on race day) took only 15 minutes from the city centre. The lines
to the few available portapotties were however very long, and it was quicker to
take the subway to the next station for the public bathrooms there. The course
of the race was very interesting, passing many major city landmarks... e.g. the
classical ring road with its palaces, opera, parliament.... Schoenbrunn
Palace.... the major shopping street Mariahilferstrasse... then through Prater,
the fun park area with its historic big wheel.... and finally back around the
ring road to the finishing line at the town hall. There was water and Gatorade
every 3 miles (every 1 1/2 miles with bananas towards the end), as well as the
usual medical and john facilities every few miles or so. The numerous jazz and
dixie bands along the way did a lot to keep my spirits up. (Last year's theme
was Caribbean music) My gel powered race proceeded satisfactorily, and for an
hour or so, I teamed up with 55 year old Herbert form Vienna on his 11th Vienna
marathon. We chatted about the great time he had had at the NYC marathon last
year, and how we may meet again for the Florence event this fall. The final 7
miles were a tough struggle, but I was grateful to Herbert for pacing me to
achieve another PR, 1 min 21 sec improvement on last time. The finishing area
was well organised except for the massage, which was in the cold open air, and a
free for all, with groups of runners standing around each table. A nice touch
were the hot showers provided after the bag retrieval in 2 large marquees (male
& female) courtesy of the Austrian military. I didn't have a change of
clothes, so I returned to my brother-in-law's apartment for a hot shower, a long
rest and dinner, before taking the 3 hour train back to my home town wearing the
tastefully designed green & blue finisher's medal.Back to Jeremy's running news.