Chip's Place

4:36:34, and 11,454th out of around 18,000. I couldn't have gone much faster, not this Sunday anyway.

The first 25k was fine - looking at my split times, I was doing pretty much exactly 6 minutes per kilometre, as planned. Things really started to hurt about then, though! Bumped into Paddy at 28, just as I'd started my first little stretch of walking, and then no more English for me for the next 2 hours. I slowed down to about 8 minutes per k over the last 10k - I felt like (although I'm not certain I actually did!) I sped up in the last 3 or 4, so that could have been 9 or more minutes per k for 32-37ish.

I don't know how I did the 32-37k stretch.

The spectators were fantastisch, super, klasse und toll. I was glad I speak enough German to understand most of the signs and the shouts that were going on practically continuously - they all helped. Having your name on the runner number sheet on your chest helped me 3 times, at 33, 35 and 39 - you feel a bit guilty walking in a running race with 10 foreigners heckling you! (Shouted a few things back myself, though!) I was pretty pleased that in total, I did only about a kilometre of walking.

Fragments of memory in no particular order :

- "Show Me The Way To Amarillo," "Mr Vain," Haddaway's "What Is Love?" standard German Euroelectronica and an appalling cover of "Country Road, Take Me Home" at -0.1
- The Mexican wave tunnel at 15
- The bizarre sunbed sculpture house at 10
- The excellent views over the docks between 8 and 12
- The views of the Alsterdorf between 17 and 20
- "Wir haben schoen geduscht" at 36
- "Lauf, Chris, lauf - du bist ein Sieger" at 33 (I needed that one!)
- Staring at the sky as I crossed the 40 mark, and knowing I was on the home stretch
- The biscuit lady at 39
- Andre Hahn the dentist at 31
- All the people having breakfasts, lunch, barbecues, etc. along the wayside
- The dangerous curve at 11
- The rabbits at 12
- Coldplay (Rock & Run) at 35
- Chris and the British flags at 26
- The bottle I picked up for the lady that I couldn't catch up with at 34
- "Hier gibt's das bestes Trinkwasser im ganzen Marathon" - not sure where
- "Grossgeld, Kleingeld, Scheine, Muenzen" - 35 onwards
- The spectators, all the way from 0 to 42.195
- Turning the corner at about 41.9, and seeing the finish line - the crowds, the cheering, tapping hands with the young children, trying to speed up and being surprised to find that I could...

Crossing the finish line was like qualifying all over again.

Other local maxima for the weekend :

- Mit Hoenig
- Zoo Station
- Where's my 4-4-4?
- What time is it in Dublin?
- Paddy getting in and out of bed
- My complete failure to be able to order a bottle of water in an Italian restaurant
- The steak at Block House on Sunday night (and a local minimum when we realised the toilets were down some stairs)!
- Chan-Leung Danny Tan Chan Chan
- Do you mind if I have a shave?
- Hammer Time - don't touch that.
- Drew and I pressing all the call buttons on the lift on Monday morning

As barely even a cherry to sit atop the icing on this cake, Team Marathon won £6.50 at last night's OWS quiz, by a single point. Which fortunately meant Drew and I didn't have to do a Cossack dance-off for a tiebreaker.
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