Preperation - Gelsenkirchen Marathon

Hi everyone,

I hope you all enjoyed a great easter holiday.

As promised, I am writing a little pre-report for my next Marathon, since I have a bit more time this time :)
The next Marathon is on 21.05.17 in Gelsenkirchen. As a "Schalke" football fan, running in Gelsenkirchen has a bit more meaning, but I don't expect the scenery to be anything special - we're in the "Ruhrpott" area after all. Who knows - maybe I'll be surprised. The course is finally a full circuit again, although a lot of it looks to be there and back. I'm expecting a fairly flat course, so hopefully I can manage a time under four hours again for a change. The run will go through a lot of industrial areas and feature stone coal factories, which the city is known for.

I used the first week post Bonn Marathon to regenerate a little. My legs hurt much more compared to after my last Marathon in New Zealand, but that went away again after a few days. I ended up doing a single 10KM run that week.
The week after I wanted to increase that a little. First up was a high intensity run, but after a few KMs I figured out that I was not quite fully regenerated yet and I needed to reduce pace a little. Friday I wanted to do a Fartlek run, but that run felt even worse and at that point I realized that I am probably less fit than I have been the last couple of years, which could also have something to do with constant strain, but I'm really not sure. Overall I have been doing less KMs than in my usual years with 4 Marathons. Sunday I went for a long run home after an easter breakfast in Solingen. I encountered hail, rain and sunshine, but the run felt incredibly good, especially surprising after the terrible run on Friday. I noticed that I really missed those long non-competitive slow runs. They are much more liberating and relaxed than a Marathon, since you always have a little bit of Stress during a Marathon. 25KMs later I felt a little sore but happy. My body probably thought it was going to be another Marathon, so I still had a little left in me at that point. Last week I had another shorter week and as of this week I am going to try and follow my usual training plan up to the next Marathon.

The donations went down a little, as expected, but thank you to everyone who has kept on donating for each Marathon. You know who you are. When I'm halfway done, I am planning another round of advertising. Below you can see a picture of all donations to date, without names, of course. We managed an amazing 456.50€ to date. Thank you everyone for contributing!