CSOB Bratislava Marathon Race #1

Bratislava, Slovakia
March 29, 2015
Time:     4:25:59
Overall Place 704/778                                                         

 

 

Race number 1 is in the books and what a way to kick off the first marathon of runedrun  for Siloam Mission.  I have been overwhelmed by the support and well wishes by everyone as I begin this journey of running 20 marathons over the next fifteen months.

Our journey began on Wednesday March 25 when we left Winnipeg at 5:30 pm and flew into Frankfurt, Germany on Thursday March 26 at 11:05 am.  The flights to Europe usually leave in the evening and fly through the night so sleeping on the plane can sometimes be a little challenging. We drove to our friends place in Bamberg Germany which was about a two hour drive.  We spent one night in Bamberg at our friends before we drove to Bratislava, Slovakia the next day.  This was about a six hour drive.

 

 

We arrived at our hotel Friday evening to a very wonderful welcome and a beautiful hotel which happened to be right in front of the start/finish line.  Getting to our hotel proved to be a little challenging because our GPS, who we affectionately call Sophie, did not have any maps for Slovakia.  Fortunately Bratislava Slovakia is near the Austrian border and we were able to make it to Bratislava and kind of guessed where the hotel might be and actually found it with relative ease.  Did I mention that we didn't have any maps of Slovakia either?  The hotel also happened to be a part of a large shopping mall complex which meant we had easy access to food, and of course I love malls. What a great location for the race.  The nice thing about being so close to the start/finish line is that Heidi can finish her half marathon, shower, and come out and take pictures of me at the end of the race.

Our hotel was just on the right

On Saturday we were able to sleep in, which was really nice because we had been traveling now for three days and we were pretty messed up with time change and jet lag.  It would have been nice to have a couple of more days to recover from the travel but I only have so many days to use for vacation.  I have to plan every day efficiently if I want to get all my marathons in. 

 

We went to Expo later in the morning which was next door in the Eurovea Center Mall.  We have found that the Expo’s are not the same in Europe as they are in North America.  In Europe they might have an area you can buy some clothing but other than that you just basically pick up your number and that is it.  Picking up our number worked out well because we had not paid on line like we usually do.  Their site would not take our payment because it would not accept us as an overseas entrant.  So we paid, I picked up a running shirt from the race and away we went.

Throughout the day they had all of the shorter races right up to the 10K, so the atmosphere around the area was electric. 

They even had a baby crawling race in the mall for little babies under a year.  Apparently they start them early in Slovakia.  Heidi and I also spent part of the day touring around the old part of the town and the Bratislava Castle.  Bratislava is a little behind on the tourist must see list.  It has only been about twenty years since Slovakia and the Czech Republik separated so they have not been out of communism all that long.  They have a long way to go with a lot of potential for restoring their old buildings and making their city a real tourist attraction.

 

 

Sunday was race day and we had a 10:00 start time.  To confuse matters a little, Europe had their time change to Daylight savings time that Sunday  so we lost another hour.  We got up in plenty of time and were able to eat a little and I went for a little 10 minute run.  I know that it’s not good to go for a long warm-up run before doing a full marathon.  It was a nice cool morning to start the race with near perfect running conditions.  The most ideal conditions for me to run in is somewhere between 8 and 13 degrees Celsius.  Heidi and I always differ on the ideal weather conditions.  I am not usually affected by wind or elevation change.  For me it might be a little breeze or a small hill.  For Heidi it is always gale force winds or mountains to climb.  All in how you look at it.  Now I know where the girls get it from. 

 

I had set a couple of goals for this race.  One was to finish in a time around 4:30 and the other was to not get lapped by the Kenyans.  This race was a two lapper so I wanted to get past the half way point before they finished, and I did.  Heidi on the other hand was not so lucky and they finished the full marathon about  10 minutes before she finished her half marathon.  This is not meant to be a slam against Heidi, this is just how fast these guys run.  I can’t sprint going down hill with the wind at my back for 10 seconds as fast as these guys run a full marathon.  It is really quite amazing.  I in these races joke that by the time I finish my marathon, they are half way back to Kenya.  These guys are fast.

I finished the first half in about 2:10 and the overall was 4:25:59.  I was quite pleased with the time and how I felt as the last mile was one of my fastest.  I felt strong to the end.  This race was a fast race given the fact that they had a five hour time limit, which is unusual.  I usually finish a marathon about half way in the pack so about 50%.  This race I finished in the bottom 10%.  The other interesting statistic is that there was the field was made up of on about 10% women.  This is really unusual.  The split is about 55% male and 45% female.  It just means you don‘t get a lot of the slower runners out to a race like this.  So the pressure is always on to finish ahead of the sweeper and not get pulled from the course, and they will do it.

 

 

The course support was really good and what I mean by that, is that the water stations always had plenty of fluids ready.  In this race instead of having half filled cups of water, they actually had full small bottles of water.  I have never experienced that before.  The course was a real nice mix of the old part of the city with the new.  It was an overall real nice track to run.    It’s amazing you can run a full marathon and not recognize a soul on the course, not even one.  I guess that goes with running a race 8000 kilometers from home!

 

This is some of the surface that we had to run on

After the race we picked up our post race food and drink which amounted to a bottle of water, a banana, an apple and a croissant.  Very different than in North American races.  Good thing I don’t like eating after a race for about the first two to three hours.

At most of the marathons I run, I wear arm warmers .  On one of the arm warmers I have a saying.  It goes: THERE WILL COME A DAY WHEN I CANNOT DO THIS. TODAY IS NOT THAT DAY.

I have an opportunity to run a large number of marathons and to use this challenge as a vehicle to raise money and awareness for Siloam Mission.  I won’t always have this opportunity so I want to make the most of it while I can. 
Looking forward as always to the next race.  Two  more weeks until Vienna, Austria.