Race report of the 9th Leipzig 100km run 1998
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From: Hermann Stamm-Wilbrandt/Germany/IBM @ IBMDE
Subject: race report from first 100k
Hi Everyone,
I finished my first 100k!
A few weeks ago my club "TB Neckarsteinach 04" officially registered
me at the German Athletic foundation and at Leipzig I ran my 1st race
for "LG Neckargemuend" and took part at the South-German championship.
I did not know of so few starters in my age group for the championship
and was really surprised of my first hardware.
Race: 9. Leipziger 100 km-Lauf am Auensee, Leipzig, Germany August 29
8. South-German championship in 100 km road racing
no qualification, cutoffs: 11h for 90k, 13h for 100k.
flat 10k out-and-back course with the last 1k replaced by a loop
around the lake "Auensee" starting in an arena.
Time: 12:26:13h (missed my target of sub 12h, but finished!)
59 starters, 52 finishers [open race]
age group male 30-34: 6(3) starters, 5(2) finishers (championship)
Place: 50th Overall (45th Male)
5th(2nd!) in age group male 30-34 (championship)
male winner finished in 7:07:34h and female winner in 8:17:52h.
I you may be staying in Germany at end of August next year, perhaps
you may like to take part at the 10th Leipzig 100k race? The course is
scenic, flat and all the organizers and aid-station people are very
nice.
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Race Report:
The course starts in the arena and follows small streets.
After crossing a river it follows small paths through the woods.
At 3.3k the wood is left to cross a river on a regional road just to
enter the wood again, following the road reaching the lake "Auensee"
after crossing another bridge at 4k. After running around the lake the
rest of the course, 6-10k, is the same as 0-4k in the opposite direction.
The course is flat with 15 meters of altitude difference per lap.
There were markers for each 1k of the lap.
The 2 aid stations were located in the arena and at the 3.3k point
which is also the 6.7k point. There is a small steam train driving
around the lake for tourists; at race day runners had priority at the
laps crossings with the railway.
I arrived at Friday evening, 28th August, at Leipzig by train and took
part at the pasta party. From 8:45pm to 9:45pm I walked the first 6k of
the course. It was well marked since there was no problem to follow it
even though it was getting dark. From the 6k point I took a shortcut
since I knew the hole lap and got sleeping at 10:20pm.
We were woken up at 5:15am with the words: "Wake up, race day, it is
raining outside". After washing and breakfast I tried to complete my
running gear with my HRM; a small plastic piece broke, it was 6:20am
and the race started at 6:30am. Therefore I did the race without my HRM
since I had to bring my bag to the arena and fill my water bottle.
We got some information by an official person at the start and he asked
an older guy: "Horst, which marathon is this for you?".
The Answer: "The 832th."!
I wore a small backpack with a 0.6 liter bottle and some place for stuff,
mainly used for the mineral tablets I put into the bottle together with
water resulting in a isotonic drink. At the aid stations I drank water,
Cola and malt liquor and ate pieces of apples and corn-bars. I avoided
bananas since I had stomach problems at my last 80k race and there I
only ate bananas.
I started the race, without rain, too quick finishing the first lap
after 56 minutes. After 50 minutes it began to rain a little again.
After leaving the arena some 100 meters it began to rain heavily and I
was still running with knee-long tights and a short racing shirt.
Luckily the rain stopped after 10 more minutes and I did the 2nd lap in
59 minutes, also too quickly.
Lap 3 was finished in 65 minutes (30k in 2:59:32h) and in the arena it
was the first time ever I heard some words about me through the
loadspeakers. Did loop 4 in 71 minutes, refilled my mineral tablets and
got little stones out of my running shoes [5 minutes].
Loops 5, 6 and 7 were done without problems in 77, 77 and 76 minutes.
After walking the second time from 71k to 72k (first walk from 35k to
36k) I had to sit down to get little rocks out of both shoes again.
After making the left shoe empty I tried to get the shoe back on
the foot and got cramps all over my left leg. Stopped this by pushing
the leg straight quickly. After 2 more tries I succeeded with the left
shoe. The same problem appeared at trying to put the right leg back into
the shoe. After 10 minutes I was able to stand up and go some steps
followed by running again. Got more than 20 bites by insects during that
time. I Needed 88 minutes for that lap and 9:27:15h for 80k in total
[surprisingly I finished my last 80k night run on a very hilly course
with shoe problems and stomach problems in 9:23:15h in August].
I pushed forward during lap 8 and for the first 6k of lap 9, but was
only able to run with roughly 7:45min/k most of the time. After reaching
86k after 10:15:10h I would have had to run 8k/h or 7:30min/k for the last
14k to reach my sub 12h goal. I reached 87k after 10:23:15h despite
"pushing" the pace and decided to take it easy since my goal was out of
reach. Walked the next 2k and ran into the arena at 10:51:07h meeting
the 90k cutoff of 11h. A male 60 French guy entered the arena 20
seconds after me and told me in English: "The last round is the best
round", drank a little and ran again so that I was not able to follow him.
At 93.3k I talked with the aid station people for more than 5 minutes (!)
and therefore had to run most of the rest to finish in my next target
time, sub 12:30h. I reached the 97k point after 11:58:31h and finished
in 12:26:13h.
I talked with many people during the race when running parts of
the course with them. Very interesting was the 63 years old male
finishing last as 52nd in 12:49:02h : he walked the complete 100k!!!
After the race I got a long hot shower and entered the massage room
where I had to wait a litte. After I left the building to put my bag
back to the place where I had slept I got shivering on the hole
body. It stopped only after putting on a sweater and a jacket!
I was told that this is a normal reaction of the body after such a
long run and the hot shower.
The evening ended with a dinner at the awards ceremony talking much
with interesting and nice people.
Some words about the surroundings of the racing course:
Leipzig is a big city in the former eastern part of Germany and it
was my first visit there. Even after 8 years of Germany's reunion
it was strange to see a complete mix of beatiful new houses and houses
looking very bad; on one house I could read "Kolonialwaren", which
indicates that it had seen no paint since the times before 2nd world war.
Another surprise is the location of such a scenic area with big woods
and rivers only 6.5k away from the center of town of a city with 457000
people.
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Bye,
Hermann.
Hermann Stamm-Wilbrandt
Neckarsteinach
Germany
stammw@de.ibm.com
01/98 Dielheim 10k 0:53:30h
03/98 Nuernberg 6h 54.165k (50k: 5:28:23h)
04/98 Heidelberg 21.1k 1:59:31h
06/98 Karlsruhe 80k 9:23:15h
07/98 [fun run] 50k 5:25:20h
08/98 Leipzig 100k 12:26:13h (50k: 5:27:18h)
10/98 Schwaebisch-Gmuend 50k
12/98 Schoenau 14.5k