Berlin Race Report & Cup Final

A little late in getting this post out but here it eventually is...

Mixed feelings about the Berlin 10k race, I finished 2nd which I was reasonably happy with in terms of position however my finishing time was far from what I was aiming at. I ran 29.57 and considering I was looking to run around 29.20 or better this was a little disappointing. The route was potentially very fast too, as the streets around Berlin are long and perfectly flat. The only factor that likely affected things was the humidity, it had been quite warm during the day and come the evening it clouded over. It wasn't just myself that ran below par either, the other England boys ran outside their aims too, Gareth Raven finished 3rd and Phil Nichols finished 4th, the winner who ran 29.07 last year won in only 29.40 this time around. The course was also apparently shorter this year after it re-measured and found to be 100m long last year - hopefully they messed up this years distance too! The three of us running for England had a close race with a battle over the last 2km, I pushed on with about 1km to go and took a few yards out of Phil and Gaz, only for Gaz to pass me with about 400 to go, I kicked again though with 200m to go and took 2nd. Whilst there was no team prize as such with 2nd, 3rd and 4th we comfortable out placed the Germans, Dutch, as well as a few athletes from Denmark and Poland. The race was won by the dutchmen Martin Lauret in 29.40.

Didnt get to see much of Berlin as it was a whistle stop trip but did get to see the other races at the event which included a rather impressive mass participation inline skating race over the same 10k course. The first skater over the line covered the route in about 15mins! Also our race was an evening start, by the time we cross the finish line it was dark and we had flashing lights lining the the final 100m with good crowd support too. The race was a pretty unique experience.

This weekend I'm off to London with the Channel Islands Athletics Club for the 10 in 100 Cup final. Its basically 10 events in 100minutes, hence the name! I'm running the 1500m this time round and we have quite a strong team and have a good chance of winning if all goes well.

Will let you how we get on.

All for now.