Taulov ½ marathon - RunHalf Marathon

What a race!

The weather forecast was not good! Sunday: heavy wind, with rain and hail, from west and it would peak around the afternoon, with gale warning. The race was scheduled to start at 11 am, so I would be home before 1 pm. The police did recommend people to stay indoor in the afternoon, but I hoped for the best and drove away to the other end of the country. Only 2 hour drive, Denmark is not that big. It was raining and the wind was very strong.
Arrived in good time and got my start number: 3137, and met with my colleagues. We were 4 from our company. 30 min before start the rain stopped and the sun broke through the skies. Beside the wind it was a lovely weather to race in.
The race started on time, and with the wind in the back for the first 4 km I recorded an average pace of 4:18 / Km (6:55 / mile). The first picture are taken at app. 1 km. But when you have the wind in your back, you know that later on you will have it head on. At 5 km the route took a turn and we got the wind from the side. It was very strong, and you almost had to run a little sideways to compensate. The route turned more and it started to rain slightly, but the sun was still out, typically Danish weather! Now we had the wind head on and we were coming to a steep hill, and if that wasn’t enough the rain went over to hail. I had to bent down and run in an “aero” position, just to move forward. The hail hit me in on top of my head, because I was only wearing a headband. It actually did hurt a bit. The hail was over in a couple of kilometres, and the sun did warm a lot when it was out. I recorded an average pace during the hail at 7:30 / km (12:05 / mile). At 9 km the route turned and for the next 2 km we had the wind in the back again. Second picture are taken at 9 km. I was doing 4:25 / km average and recorded below 4:00 several times. The rest of the race was with the wind in the front or from the side. I was in a small group, and we tried to draft on each other. The average pace for the last 8 km was 5:33 / km (8:56 / mile)
I crossed the finish line, and was satisfied with my performance. Two of my colleagues had already finished and we waited for the last one. A warm shower and dish full of pasta and we were smiling again.
The race was very well organised and the volunteers were smiling and helpful. Spectators? Not many, due to the bad weather.
I can't say that I haven't trained in this type of weather. And I must say that it paid of. Several contenders did not finish, due to bad weather. And a lot did not show up, even though they had registered and paid in advance.

I guess that this race will be a “must do” next year. The weather can’t be any worse – or can it?

Regards
Hans

Photo's: http://www.taulovmotion.dk/TM2007/Billeder/TM2007/album/slides/CIMG...
http://www.sportsgalleri.dk/modules/xcgal/displayimage.php?pid=6488...


Nothing - except to train more

Warm-down? Not needed, the wind took care of that.


The weather and lack of training