MA RA TH ON Challenge 2020

Since I came up with the idea of doing the challenge and acting as team captain I also wanted to get my part done as soon as possible to motivate the rest of the team. With rain and wind in the forecast, and not being a “sprinter” but preferring the longer distances I still wanted to run fast. I decided for a net downhill course on forest trails and roads.

No starting gun, just me and my Garmin. And off I went.

The first 4k went really smooth, going down zig-zag along forest trails in my “backyard”, so I clocked some very nice splits. Ha, that will be a piece of cake. 40% done.

Once turning West for kilometers five and six things got tougher: flat course, but quite strong headwinds! My legs already decided to start screaming, but luckily I was half way through and no more trails but only roads ahead which should make things easier. With another downhill coming up I was really ready for some “rest”. 60% done.

The next section went by quickly, but the downhill was not relaxing at all. Mentaly I was preparing for the final sufferfest. 80% done.

I have to confess that my running form is quite ok-ish this year. Thanks to Covid-19 I was able to run more than I usually do, over 600k ytd. 10k should not be a problem. Hence, my plan was to take the opportunity of this MA RA TH ON event for a form check. I went to a nearby track, did one round of warm-up, and lined up like for an olympic 10’000m final.

Ready-set-go: 26 ½ rounds. Really special weather conditions: first 3k sunny, then 3k light rain, 1k heavy rain, and 3½k sunny again. As always, when I want to run fast, I go for 90s pop-punk (Green Day, Offspring, etc.). Result was good - my fastest 10k split since over 2 years, #yeah. Thanks Markus for motivating us, this pseudo-official event really helped. PS: Also as always, some solid sore muscles 2 days later, but worth it ;-) 

Running is my fallback sport: I do it if no other options are available. But even then I struggle to put my shoes on and hit the tracks. My ambitious plans to turn the Corona months into running season failed miserably. Despite my struggling relationship with running, I was immediately in when my colleagues asked to join the MA RA TH ON challenge. It has been a long time since we did something non job related together. And a group race might be a good reason to finally start my Corona running training. However, when the time came for training rounds I found many reasons to postpone them. The weather was too warm or too cold. My last bike ride was too close. Or I just had dinner. When I finally did my test run the weekend before the MA RA TH ON I got lost in the city after 3 kilometers. I did not dare to publish it on Strava. 

When the MA RA TH ON race day finally arrived I was much more excited than expected. I ate a modest breakfast, two Bananas and I tied my new shoes. The ones I bought at the beginning of Corona as a motivation to start a running career. With a delay of three months the shoes finally were put to their intended use.  I started slowly. My goal was to continuously run at a pace slightly below 06:00 minutes per kilometer. After one kilometer I noticed that I can do faster than that. I aimed for 05:30 per kilometer. It was surprisingly easy to keep that up. It was my first run in Amsterdam and running seems to be a different sport when there are no altitude meters involved. I pushed it further. I reached a 05:15 pace. Tough, but feasible. And I had already done half of the 10.50 kilometers. I pushed it more. Aiming for 05:00. My muscles started soring. Three kilometers left. I can do it. Pushing it. Running like a madman among all the sunday joggers in the park. I can finish the challenge below one hour. My mind focused on moving the legs and checking my watch. And there it was: my watch showed 10.5 kilometers. I felt like an Olympic athlete. But there was no stadium. No cheering colleagues. No speaker announcing my time. And despite being far away from each other I felt close to my colleagues. Connected in spirit and through Strava to their struggles on the way to 10.5 kilometers. I am hooked. My Corona running ambitions are back. Maybe it could be much more than a fallback sport.