What a better way to finish the season than with a new PB!
Ironman Mallorca was the last triathlon race of the season, but last Sunday it was time to attach a number tag to the chest just one more time. I ran a marathon without the usual 6-hour "warmup" in Frankfurt. My time of 2:41 fell a minute short of my goal but I'm happy with that.
If you brake it down, the pace was 3:49 min/km on average (which in turn would result 3140 meters in a Cooper's test). It was only a few weeks earlier when I could barely hold 4 minutes per km for 20 min intervals because the Ironman at the end of September left its mark to my body. I still decided to try this little excursion to being just a runner and I was able to put in two weeks of about 80 km of running which is about a double of my normal running volume. Slowly my speed came back and I finally dared to toe the start line in the shadows of the skyscrapers in the German financial centre. First 29 km went easily, the 13 rest not so much. My mileage just isn't enough to run at these speeds this long.
While running, especially off the bike, is definitely one of my strengths, running a good fresh marathon is really a sport of its own. The speed the elite runners can hold is nothing short of spectacular! If I would put my bike and speedos aside for a season or maybe two and concentrate only in running, I could probably just barely brake my self-set threshold for being a real runner, 2:30 for a marathon. Then, I'd be still losing about 30 seconds every km to the fastest guys! Unbelievable!
In the future I will surely stick to the swim-bike-run format apart from the occasional "fun run", not because I would have any more chances being at the sharpest end of the sport in triathlon, but because I find it just so much more enjoyable and versatile sport.
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