Hamburg Marathon 23 April 2017

1 maj 2017 3 kommentarer

Karima makrof

Long race = long update... Second marathon of the year which turned into a Sunday long run but also being my 20^th marathon…deserves a bit longer than usual J

Hamburg marathon took place on Sunday 23 April 2017. Second marathon of the year, not feeling fully strong in the mind despite good prep, rain and hailstones right from start, stop before halfway, wind all the way and then objective changed into “long-run in Hamburg will do fine”. What to say? A marathon is a marathon :-)

3:12:21, far from the expectations for the race (no kidding!), but if looking at the weeks prior to the race and the weather forecast on race day… That can explain a bit. But not justifies it all… Training was good enough to set a sub3 in the plan, but mental preparations were not fully to the top in the weeks before the race. But still… You can always set the autopilot and go for it, right? The body felt fine from start, the head felt strong, it took 1km and the first hailstones rain to froze the body and really kill the spirit of racing. Stop at km17 made me revised fully the objective, set the music in my ears and continue to run to the end…at a usual distance pace. Acceleration at the end for not finishing within 3:15… A bit of stupid pride in this, but but but… There will be more races.

Completed the race 86^th among all women, 16^th in my age category, and 1121 out of 15,000 marathon runners… An OK “real long run” for starting the year…

Rewinding a bit? Weeks since Tokyo went smoothly, but the final weeks included stupid crazy winds, cold temperature and a bit lot of other stuff filling the head with not always positive thoughts. Tapering went fine. Started carboloading one day earlier. Trip to Hamburg went smoothly. Counted with cold and wind for Sunday. Felt fit enough to go through it all. But the wind?...

Short version? Good training, even though the head said otherwise, the results were there to set that the objectives was not crazy. OK-start, dreadful freezy 2km, too slow-already by km5, stop at km17 (!), easy pace until km30 and then acceleration for the final 12K. It always surprises me how the mind can find strength to push the body, despite all happening around… I do smile when reaching the red carpet at the end :-)

Kommentarer

Björn Suneson 1 maj 2017

Grattis Carina! Bra att du inte bröt när haglet satte in. Ser att du sprang i svensk tävlingsdräkt- har du bara Majorna-linnet på dig när du tävlar i Sverige? Var blir nästa mara? Och vad tyckte du om banan i Hamburg (själv gillar jag den och i Hamburg har jag gjort mitt bästa lopp)?

Karima Makrof 1 maj 2017

Tack Björn.
Brukar springa med SWE-tävlingsdräkt. Syns bättre samt får mer hejandet tycker jag. MIK-dräkt används för tävlingar i Sverige (har användt den några gånger under Franska lopp dock :-))

Hamburgs bana var rätt skön. Vädret var dock besvärligt med hagel, regnskurar och det mest störande var vinden som blåst mot oss nästan hela tiden...

Ingen mara på kalender just nu. Den jag hade under hösten har nu flyttats och det nya datumet funkar inte längre. Får se om det blir nån Veteran tävling kanske.

Karima

Björn Suneson 3 maj 2017

Veteran EM i maraton går 10 september i Wroclaw, Polen. Anmälde mig idag. Får nu köpa en svensk tävlingsdräkt.