Mittelrhein Marathon 2014

What caught my attention with the Mittelrhein Marathon were the scenic views of the river Rhine which ran parallel to most of the course. Another thing that appealed to me with the course was that it’s a one way skate, so the start and finish point are at completely different points!
          I enjoy skating so it’s nice that it can take me places which I would otherwise have not considered venturing to. The Mittelrhein Marathon starts at Bad Salzig and ends in the town of Koblenz, situated between Cologne and Frankfurt. Koblenz itself is a very quiet town. Even for a Friday night the trendy bars weren’t that busy. Look elsewhere if you’re looking for a party, but Koblenz is a very pleasant small town to walk around, especially along the riverside promenade.
          For the three nights we were there two of us stayed in a little bed and breakfast Hotel Jan van Werth which was basic, but a comfortable place to stay. The staff were very welcoming.


Goals.
On my last skate marathon was in the wet with a time of 1:39:39. Mitterlrhein is known to be a fast race because of the track so getting a sub 1:30 would be awesome.


Signing Up.
For a change this was not so straight forward to do as the website was mainly in German. (Probably fine if you can read German). The English section of the website is really cut down with a lot less information than the main German section. You need to make the actual booking in German, which I did with the help of Google Translate. Everything seemed to go through except my payment, I ended up settling this in person on the day of the event.


Expo.
This was held at the Intersport store just outside Koblenz town. We had a rental car so it wasn’t too difficult to get to. Our main purpose for attending was to pick up our race number and timer chip so we weren’t so rushed on the day. However when we got there my race pack was not available as apparently I selected the option to pick it up at the event starting point. (Obviously Google Translate didn’t do a perfect job).  
          The expo itself was probably the most disappointing I’ve been to. Only three stalls were there. My old primary school’s summer fair had more to offer!

Event day.
In order to reach the start point we needed to catch a train to Bad Salzig. (The station name is Boppard – Bad Salzig). If we had received our race number this would have also acted as our train ticket. We probably could have talked our way without the race number if we spoke German. Rather than chance it those of us without race numbers just paid the €5 for peace of mind.

Once we arrived at the station a polite volunteer directed us to the start point where we collected our race packs (if we hadn’t done so already at the expo).
          We got there really early so had time to relax. One of the happy staff members came around with water while we were waiting. There were plenty of portaloos available at the start. Not a lot to do before the race but enjoy the vibes under a tree.

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The event.
Skating wasn’t the only thing happening, there were also running marathons at various distances as well as team relays much earlier during the day. The exact course was slightly different for the events. For the skate our course included two laps of a loop at the beginning. Skaters were also separated into Speed and Fitness categories. (We were fitness).

Twelve of us skaters were from London including three of us from the recreational ESS (Easy Saturday Skate), group, plus others from the somewhat more focussed LSST (London Skaters Speed Team). I wasn’t convinced I could keep up with the LSST guys but a few of them persuaded me to join them from the start of the race.

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Twelve of us skaters were from London including three of us from the recreational ESS (Easy Saturday Skate), group, plus others from the somewhat more focussed LSST (London Skaters Speed Team). I wasn’t convinced I could keep up with the LSST guys but a few of them persuaded me to join them from the start of the race.

Three hundred and forty two of us were packed into the fitness starting grid. I pushed my way near the front close to the other LSST members. The start is always frantic at these races as everyone fights to establish their positions.  I managed to catch up with Richard and Fred from LSST. The paceline we were with was pretty pacey. Quickly changing and reforming on the sharp corners and steep up hills.

After only ten minutes my back started aching. It’s not uncommon for this to happen but the exact reasons for this no one has ever put this in black and white. Richard had suggested doing situps to help build muscles to support the back. I have been doing a lot of situps but did not seem to help for this race.
         Another possible reason was that I did not warm up enough before the start.  In the past I’ve started slowly at the back of the race, slowly building myself up. Going full on from the start may be part of the reason for my back aching early on.

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The scenery was beautiful but only from the short glances I remember. With so much happening with the race there was little time to take in the green hills and the River Rhine. It’s nice to have captured everything with the camera though.

Not long after half way the person in front was feeling fatigued and moved aside to let me through. Fred called out for me to close the gap created. I was in a lot of pain, I was here to enjoy myself not kill myself. Therefore I too pulled aside slowing right down. I felt relieved to just stand upright, stretch out and relieve the pressure on my back. The good thing about skates is that while I wasn’t moving my muscles I was still rolling down the hill with my momentum.

Over the last twenty minutes I had noticed my left foot had begun pronating, which normally isn’t a problem for me. My skate seemed to have become loose. I decided to take the bullet and come to a complete stop to adjust my footwear. The laces were a lot looser on the left boot which I had weaved my timer chip with. I have a feeling the timer chip moved about during the skate which slowly loosened my skate. (Perhaps..). I sacrificed a minute on the roadside but I think it was worth doing so.
          Richard later showed me an ankle strap he had for his timer chip. I’ll look into getting one too.

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I wish I could speak more languages. Twice during the skate someone said something to me. First time it sounded like he mentioned ‘pretzels,’ so I just smiled and said okay. The second time I only realised later that the person was talking to me as I heard him say ‘JC,’ as he skated past. I take it was words of encouragement, or perhaps gloating as he was passing. (We’ll go with the first option!).

As we whizzed down the little towns there were a lot of families outside cheering us on. I thanked everyone who did so as I really appreciated it. “Danke.”

The surface was okay, not quite as smooth as I hoped but the others were quite happy with it. However everyone was in agreement with the short stretch of cobbles, it was awful. I slowed right down and over twenty people somehow managed to keep speed and overtake me.

Having taken the train to the start point I remember some landmarks such as the Koblenzer beer shop. This gave me some comfort that I was getting close to the finish.

On the last stretch I could see the finish line. I love a sprint finish but today I could move no faster. Passing the final timer mats was such a relief. My time was 1:34:08. 

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Post event.
They ushered you to carry on skating another few hundred metres where you got your medal, fruits, energy drink and non-alcoholic beer. I must say I could have easily have been fooled that it was alcoholic, very tasty. However anything is delicious after a marathon, even those electrolyte drinks.


Summary.
I missed my target by four minutes, but still had a respectable time of 1:34:08. While this is still a personal best I was just a bit disappointed I didn’t enjoy the race as much a previous events, mainly because of the back ache. Speed skates are quite unforgiving at times, so it probably didn’t help that apart from a brief session a few days before; I hadn’t worn my speed skates for over six months. (Been focusing on Tough Mudder). Next time I must get in more practice before using the speeds skates for a race.

Koblenz town was nice and I would like to have another attack on the Mittlerhein course. However I don’t have an immediate urge to go back soon while there are still many other races in Europe to try first..