Leonie and I drove to the Black Forest on Friday and camped in Simonswald. We were here a few years ago on a cycle touring to trip we did through the Black Forest in 2012. There’s also a nice descent I used to do here on my road bike when we were living in Freiburg.
Anyway.
On Saturday we lined up at the start line for the 57km/2400m ultra marathon trail run.
Sadly it’s now March 2020 and I haven’t finished writing this. Who knows? Maybe I did. Due to the ups and downs of life I have a huge backlog of blog posts that haven’t been posted and it’s got very chaotic. So let’s see what I can remember.
So we lined up at the start of the race. I remember Leonie pulled ahead at the start on the first hilly bits and I dropped back to the back of the field but then I sped up and caught her up and we ran together for a large portion of the race. The course was quite nice. Not alpine or anything but quite pleasant black forest trails, and unsealed roads.
I got a bit carried away around the 35km mark and run off in front and then waited for Leonie for a couple of minutes at the drinks station. This was very silly as my legs didn’t last much longer after this but to be honest they probably wouldn’t have lasted the full course that well anyway.
Leonie trotted off in front of me. I began to struggle quite a lot by the 40km mark and the last 17 km were pretty painful. I remember struggling along the last few km but then putting in a good hobble to the finish line where Leonie was waiting.
Leonie did very well as has become the norm taking 2nd place for the women and finishing 8th overall. I finished about 9 minutes after her taking 9th overall and 7th in the men. I was pretty happy with that. There were only 24 finishers, however, as the other runners placed on a two day cup score board.
On the Sunday we drove to Kandel and went for a walk in the forest bringing back memories of our Freiburg days so many years ago.
Above left: I still seem to be standing. That’s a good thing. Above right: Leonie happy at the finish line.
Above left: Leonie took 2nd place. A great effort. Above right: We went for a walk in the Black Forest on Sunday to stretch our legs. It brought back memories of our days living in Freiburg.
Above: Strava
Schwarzwald Zweitäler Ultra Marathon Time: 6:44:48 Dst: 57km Ascent: 2400m Cat place (men): 7th Overall place: 9th