I was just taking part in Bennie's “running test” on the canal in Schwanstetten in the heaviest snowstorms.
When I looked out the window after waking up today, I was amazed at first. During the night there was at least 10cm of fresh snow ... slowly enough, I thought to myself and was in good spirits that Bennie would cancel the test because of this. Puff cake ... just before noon, 20 brave triathletes gathered and started running.
The route, consisting of one kilometer straight ahead and back again, promised to be a bit boring 😉 In addition, it went downhill and with a tailwind on fast legs over the asphalt, back then there was a headwind with a slightly constant gradient. When it started to snow heavily, we runners were given everything in the end, while Bennie stood at the warm car, cheered on and passed drinks and gels around 🙂
The plan was to increase the pace every 10km. Up to km 20 I was in a small and funny group until half of them told me that they would only run 25km, the other half wanted to "just" keep the pace, and there I was. Bennie was yelling from afar I should increase the pace again! So I tried to reduce the lead of Ali, who, as the fittest, ran almost 500m in front of me, again. At 28 km I caught up with him and we agreed on a truce and walked home together for the last two kilometers.
That was a good thing, as it was my first long run since the Challenge Roth in July 2009, and accordingly my muscles were already badly damaged 😉
After 2:11 hours we were able to finish the test together and arm ourselves with knoppers and pretzels before we quickly escaped in our warm cars. My left hand was so frozen that I couldn't even get my car open and get help 🙂
If I remember correctly, the 10km splits were 47min, 44min and 40min.
Most of the participants went swimming afterwards, but I quickly drove home and only "swam" in my bathtub !!
hopefully spring is coming soon!
krelli