Marathon Hamburg 2010

Well, I'm lucky that I get to fly to Germany again this year for business. I was there same time last year and did Zurich Marathon in one of my weekends there. This time, I ran Marathon Hamburg. As usual, I've not been training much for all my marathons and this time around I did not run at all after SCSM last December, except for some short runs on the treadmills. And the best thing is I had a cold 2 days after I arrived Germany and after that I was coughing non stop (even now!) Therefore, I had doubts if I should do the marathon or just waste the money.

Friday, 23rd April 2010

Well, after my training on Friday afternoon, I quickly took a cab to the Mannheim Main Train Station and hopped on a train to Hamburg about 5.15pm. Well, it was rush hour and it was Friday, somehow the train was full of people returning to their hometown or something. I just couldn't get a seat as most of them were taken or reserved. So, I had no choice but to stand and sit near the train exit door for the first 2 hours. Well, the journey took almost 5 hours and when I reached Hamburg, it was already dark but the train station still so crowded! I took the subway to Reeperbahn, and I had a shock of my life. Reeperbahn is also known as the red light district in Germany.

Well, my hotel that I have booked is located in that town and not because I did it on purpose but it was because it is very near to the race venue. Well, back to the time I have reached Reeperbahn, even though it was past 10pm, the street was crowded with men and women..most of them are clubs and discos and porn stores. After about 20 mins of searching I finally found my hotel. Well it was a very normal hotel, more like a hotel for people to make out and I was kinda regret staying there especially for the amount of money I paid, I can easily settle in a better hotel near the train station. I didn't had a good sleep as my hotel was next to the main street, the noises of people talking and laughing were continuously heard until 6am in the morning, not to mention the noisy police car siren every 10 minutes or so.

Saturday, 24th April 2010

Well, I was up early, thanks to all the noises. I went down to the hotel to enquire for the late checkout but they refused to let me check out late for free. So I have to pay another half of the room rate if I wanna do a late checkout. The breakfast offered was very simple. I took a quick bite and headed off to the main station to catch the shuttle bus to the Marathon Expo. Well, the shuttle bus was easy to find, I got in and was transported to the Marathon Expo. Well, the Marathon Expo was located at a very old, deserted warehouse. I went in and got my racepack around 9am, walked around the huge expo and made my way back to the main station. Hang around the Hamburg city area for the whole day before call it a day and went back to hotel and rest. Had my earplug on this time and was sleeping well throughout the night.

Sunday, 25th April 2010

I was up early and I have decided to checkout early. I have worked out a plan to store my luggage at the paid storage area in the train station and took a subway to the marathon site.It was very cold and chilly that morning even though it was sunny. I had to walk around to warm up and everyone was looking at me one kind. Maybe I dressed funny for the run or they are not used to see a young Asian guy alone in Germany marathons. Well the race started sharp at 9am. It was a crowded and packed race. But what I like about racing in Europe are there are no stampede during the start. The runners there are well behaved and then they all run pretty fast, I have no hard time dodging super slow runners like what I had to do in every race in Asia. The route is nice, and the supporters were everywhere!

I was doing sub 4 hr pace for the first 25km and had to slow down when I started to feel my leg muscles cramping up. Well, I had no choice but to jog and walk slowly. It was kinda embarrassing when the crowd kept shouting your name not to walk but run. But that's the shame I had to swallow since I didn't train for the marathon at all. Finally I managed to complete the whole marathon journey in 4hrs 25mins. Again, it was a painful experience but I think overall this marathon is one of the best organized race I've run so far. However, due to some considerations, I have decided that Marathon Hamburg is my last and final marathon until further notice. I think it would be useless to run another marathon since I can never have enough time to prepare for the 42.195km run, ended up suffering in all my marathon races. Until then, I will concentrate more on shorter distances such as 10km and half marathons.