Duesseldorf Marathon, 6th May 2007

[Rick]

Should be booked onto this one. Thanks again, Merten.

May be able to swing a bit of free accommodation from a friend of my mum for some but I think it's a little way out. I was in a campsite this year which was nice

Again if I can get a car load I am planning on driving here too. City is directly adjacent to Duisberg so a similar travelling time. However, there is more to do here so may go in a little earlier if everyone is up for it. It's Mayday holiday on the Monday so plan on coming back then at a leisurely pace.

[Rick]

Well that was fun.

Hans raced in his new colours for the first time and appears to have come 25th according to the preliminary results. I suspect his teams mate were the ones with the club name TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen as that is Daniel's club. He should move up at least three places once they get the results in to Netto order. I, on the other hand, look like I'll drop a couple of places from my preliminary 61st though I would dispute that my time was quite that slow. Still under 1:28 though so I'm very happy       Don't tell Hans but he thinks he did a 1:12 when it was 1:15:34

Best ever result for Gavs team. Well he wasn't there   1st, 2nd, 4th for Experts Race Team. Well done guys! Michael Puderbach was first, Oli Engel was second and Bergen Erwin took the fourth. I doubt they will adjust the nettos up there as all top racers should have the same start time and it's first over the line. Two skaters were net faster.

541 finishers in the mens race. 203 in my categroy and interpreting the net results I appear to be 13th (14th in the preliminary results) so a top 7% finish in category which is a personal best for me. Did I say I was happy  

Ladies race was won by Eva Duesterhaus in 1:20:37. A friend of mine the some of you may remember from the Holland Highlights tour, Antje Jung came in 4th. 198 finishers in the ladies race.

As usual I'll take about my race. Hans can post his experiences of being with new team mates.

Race conditions. Not too windy and cool, very dry. Bit of early mornign mist made warming up properly extra essential. Hans and I parked up about 2km from the start in an easy place to drive away from once the race was over. It turned out to be quite a nice warm up area with a little grass section which was good for jogging and general limbering before tooling up with out skates. Skate on 4 mins before the start we did a I nice cruise up the start then on to the finish where we dropped off our shoes and warm thing, then did some good cruising up and down the warm up area. I lined up about 5 rows back before the start as I didn't want to repeat the experience of last weekend being on the front line and dying early on. I tucked in behind someone who was skating quite well but not big enough to give me much protection from the fairly windy conditions. A line formed but I was third in it and the two in front weren't too good. There was another line a short distance in front and so I thought I would have a stab at joining it but only by using energy efficient strokes. If I sprinted that early on (2km) and couldn't stay with them I may have not been able to stick on my ealier line as they were close behind as were everyone else at that point. They picked up speed so I couldn't catch them and they were going too fast anyway so I eased off and coasted up to the 4km U turn and watched Hans' position in the front group coming back the other way. By the 4 km mark he already had about 4 to 500m on me so the front was motoring at that point.

I rounded the U-turn and then moved over and accelerated to join the pack and met Markus from Sardinia in it so I had someone to be sociable with. I stuck with them until the end. By the look of the results there were 25 of us in it at the end. about 6 of us did all the leading until near the end. After I joined them it was pretty uneventful stuff for an hour while we slogged away then we crossed the Rhein and caught up with a small line from the one I let go at the start and a whole lot of individuals who couldn't last the distance on the lines they got from the start. Some of them joined up with us others couldn't hang on and our line increased in size. A break then happened from behind with 5 km to go. Maybe it was another line passing our but from the times on my watch from the Km markings we hadn't slowed down much so more likely it was the early skaters who had bee absorbed by us getting going again after a bit of a recovery. It was a silly place to go as it was narrow and we were passing a line of handbikers and I don't think they would have been too impressed with the skaters that were messing with their race. Once we turned onto the big road to cross the bridge the other way it sorted itself out. Turns out most of those that tried to break didn't make it and tuck in again further back 4km left and we had 6 new people in the front block but no cohesion. 3 of us from the line we have been in all along moved up and filled the slots. It was downhill so I used it to get into a good finish postion, about 4th. Hans and I had walked the last 3 km of the course and looked at the key points for making moves. A couple more uncoordinated attracks from behind came up to the forward positions. I ignored them because I knew what was coming and had a plan. A tight left 1km to go and then a right over many tramlines was the place to make the first move. Stepping across early allowed me to take an empty inside line without haveing to do the points on the corner. There was not a lot of space for me to put down good power until the bend so I lost a couple of places then took about 6 through and out of the bend. Only 2 people in front now and it's about to get narrow and difficult to pass.  However, I am shattered. 3 more managed to get past me as I am getting myself in the right position to take advantage of the double with ultra smooth finish sprint area. I pull out and swing the arms and ignore the pain and little by little overtake 4 of them as they fade. 1 person from my line beat me over the line and there was one other finished who was well in front in the early stages that we nearly caught at the line. Race over now it's time to try and slow down to get my medal. Hans was there at the finish waiting for me. Thanks, dude. So we went and got our stuff had some drinks and skated back to the car. Job done!