Cologne and another PB (1h29m15s)

I must admit that this morning I was not expecting to be announcing a new PB after my injury last week and a lack of real training. However, it all seemed to come together during the run to make for almost a perfect race and a certain reality that sub 1.29 is really possible sometime soon.

The day began early with breakfast at 5.30 and a drive into Cologne to park near the Messe where the bag drop was. We were quite early and so had plenty of time to relax and prepare and, of course, to wait in the ubiquitous toilet queues. I was in the red starting box which was the first to start and I made my way into the middle of the box to avoid starting too quickly. I just wish that others would stay further back if they only want to start off at a jog! My friend was in the green box and took an unbelievable 38 minutes to cross the start line.

Most of the race was through the suburbs of Cologne with very few supporters, but in several places, there were huge crowds including the city Centre at Rudolf Platz and the cathedral (Cologne Dom). The final kilometre was across the Rhine bridge back to the Messe and finishing downhill.

So, how did I actually manage a PB only 2 weeks after Bristol. I certainly had not really intended to beat my previous time, although I was keen to beat 1.30 for the fourth time. Since it was a European half marathon, of course the course was marked with kilometres as opposed to miles and that meant I had to work out another strategy for keeping tabs on my pace apart from my watch. I now know very well that my Garmin watch (despite being excellent for training) can give dubious information in a race especially when running in a built up area. Cologne is pretty built up! So, I switched my watch over to metric units and worked out that keeping a pace of between 4.15-4.20 per km would keep me on schedule. I also decided that I would press my lap button as I reached each km marker and this proved invaluable in working out my real pace.

Here are my lap times:

(1) 4.15.6
(2) 4.15.6
(3) 4.15.6
(4) 4.15.6 (average over 4km as I did not press lap during this time)
(5) 4.12.5
(6) 4.12.6
(7) 4.09.8
(8) 4.15.9
(9) 4.08.7
(10) 4.15.2
(11) 4.15.2
(12) 4.16.9
(13) 4.12.9
(14) 4.12.9
(15) 4.16.6
(16) 4.14.7
(17) 4.16.7
(18) 4.16.0
(19) 4.12.6
(20) 4.15.7
(Finish) 1.29.15

I arrived in with a gun time of 1.29.59, which was a fantastic feeling as I finished the race.

After the race and meeting up with Katrin, we went back into the city to watch the leaders in the marathon finishing. It is amaxzing to see how fast the front runnbers can be running after a full 26 miles!

After leaving the finishing area, we went to a local pool/spa and I recovered with a swim and a sit in a hot tub which made for a relaxing and pleasant end to the day.