Flora London Marathons: 1:36:35

Su 01/04: Half Marathon Race, 1:36:35 hrs

Benita Johnson of Australia seems to be ready to run London. She won the Berlin Half Marathon in 1:08:28 hrs. She announced she would be able to run the marathon inside 2:20 what she thinks would be necessary to win London.

The male race was won by Patrick Makau Musyoki (KEN) clocking a new course record of 58:56 min. (photos taken by my son Daniel)

And what about me? I already received a couple of emails asking how I could manage to run such a fast time with that kind of emergency training I started 4 weeks ago after 2 months of rest. Honestly I don't know. It is still a miracle to me.

I guess it was just a perfect day with perfect conditions. I started slightly too fast with a speed of 4:32 min/K (7:16 min/m) and sticked to this pace. I was expecting to face problems after around 12-13 K but the K-markers went by and by and I was still able to hold the pace. My fastest one was K 13 with 4:27 and the slowest was K 20 with 4:41 when we faced strong winds from the front. The astonishing result was a time which age graded is my second best half marathon ever!

I was that happy to be back on the roads - after half the distance I felt like dancing and thought running was the most enjoyable activity one could imagine. - Okay, there is hill walking, too ...