A few weeks ago, some of my friends and one of my flatmates signed up to run in a race in Dillingen. They told me it was a half marathon and asked if I wanted to join. I respectfully declined.
But then one guy dropped out. And I found out it was only a 5k run. (I had run, and won a 5k, once before in my life). And that if they didn’t find a fourth person, they wouldn’t be qualified as a team and would have to resort to cheating.
So at 4 o’clock, when it was clear that no one else would run with them, I showed up and agreed to do it, if they didn’t mind. The shirt fit, I ran off to grab my shoes, and we were on the train by 5.
Nine thousand racers, a torrential downpour just before the gun went off, town citizens cheering from their windows. It was amazing. I could not but revel in it: the exhilaration of feeling your body perform, the evident happiness in the faces of those around you who have the same stretch to cross, the giant mud-puddles that some would holler about and avoid and others would splash right through knowing that those behind would follow..
In the end, I managed to finish the race in under 40 minutes, which I was quite happy with, considering I haven’t run longer than twenty minutes in the past year, and not at all in the past few weeks. It was also stiff competition for us seeing as they entered the all-male category and I was supposed to be a young man named Mohammad Abdel. On the other hand, one of the guys on the team never got a scoring for some reason, so we don’t actually have a team placement. Oh well, twas all worth it to me.
Still, for anyone who needs proof, you can find our scores under ‘Computer Geeks 1’ at http://results.davengo.com/index.php. Remember to look for Mohammad..
UPDATE: I just posted all the pictures here.
So what are the things I remember most about running a race in Germany?
1. At some point in the race, a woman shouted “noch zwei kilometers!” and for some reason I thought that meant I had only ran 1 kilometer and started feeling scared..
2. Later I saw lights flashing in the distance and thought I was almost to the end. I started speeding up, until I realized it was an ambulance and they were taking a young girl away on a gurney. This type of false alarm actually happened three times.
3. When I crossed the finish line, I was dying for water and begged a woman to give me one of the cups she had somehow found for herself. Then I choked and sputtered when it turned out to be salty, sparkling water. Bleh! Thank goodness I did not take a cup while running.
I think Mohammad Abde suits you 🙂 Well done – 5km is close to a marathon as far as I’m concerned.
Well, it doesn’t surprise me that you’ve been bitten by the marathon bug because it “runs in your toes!” How do I know this? As I was strolling through your pictures, I noticed the picture of “view from your bed” and recognized that you have your father’s toes! We both know that your father has been a runner all his life, and your mother doesn’t run and the one thing that stands out is the square shaped toe just like your father. Therefore, my conclusion is marathon runners must have square shaped toes!
MOM