Women's Run Cologne, Germany (Read 335 times)

Race was August 2, 2008 The skies looked a bit scary yesterday afternoon, but luckily for us, the rain held out until about 9pm. The race started at 5pm. It was a pretty cool route. We ran along the Rhine river which goes through Cologne. At one point, the route was really narrow due to the fact they are building along the river. There we were nearly walking as it was so cramped. Then we had to climb some stairs and cross a large bridge. That was cool. We ran along the other side of the river in an older part of the city with cobblestone streets. Those streets were a little harder to run on...More stairs, and across another bridge back towards the start. One round, 5km was done. I ran with a friend of mine from South Africa. She registered for the 5km, so she was done and I had 3 more to go. This round didn't cross anymore bridges, but ran though the city a little and more stairs. At the finish I ran it in about 57:12 which is slow, even for me, considering I ran it last year in 52 mins. I ran side by side the entire time with my friend who had never run outside before; only on a treadmill. I thought it was best to run with her and pace her a bit. I had tons of fun, the run went by really fast thanks to lots of chatting and lots of people along the way cheering us on, and I think that is more important in a race like this than beating my old record. waiting at the start...each woman got a balloon an at the gun we let them go...the sky was pink just got our race shirts just as I arrived at the finish, DH was there...this is the smile is the symbol of being done after having tins of fun....notice, not sweaty, not looking tired...