Ten Years Later

Back in July, I took part in my home town's City Run. I've done this before and blogged about it; you can easily find my older posts about running (if you are interested in them) by typing "CityRun" or "Running" in the search box in the top left corner of my blog.

This year was exactly 10 years after my first run. Since my school days, I had not been running anymore until the spring of 2009, when I started again at the age of 41, after my gym had put up a notice that they were looking to get a team together for the 10K race, offering free yellow t-shirts (yay!) and a regular training group until the big day.

My gym has long stopped organising a team for the run, and my own participation was on and off over the years, what with the run being in the middle of summer and me often away that time of year, and with various health issues not allowing for enough training beforehand to make it feasible.

In 2016, O.K. ran with me (and was 7 minutes faster than I was). This year, we could not see each other that particular weekend, as he was busy with other things and we decided it would not be reasonable for me to spend large part of the weekend alone at his place while he'd be busy.
I signed up as a runner only a few days before the event, as I really wasn't sure I'd be able to do it. I am now 51 and definitely not as fit as I'd like to be, mostly due to my own laziness.

Each runner gets an A4-size sheet with their number and name to attach to their t-shirt. It contains the RFID chip that reads your time as you pass the start and finish gates.

A bit lop-sided, but who cares!

The Saturday of this year's City Run was warm (some would say hot), but as the 10K race only starts at 8:00 pm, the roads between the city's buildings were not fully exposed to the sun anymore, and the temperature was not unpleasantly hot.

Admittedly, I did feel a bit nervous. Was I going to be alright? Would the 10K prove too much for me, forcing me to give up before reaching the finish? After all, I had not run any distance over 8,5 km in three years, and more often than not, resorted to walking breaks during my twice-weekly runs (which are always at a leisurely pace anyway).

But it turned out to be a good run for me. Of course, as I usually run with only one other person (either O.K. on weekends or my friend on weeknights) or on my own, running with about 5,000 other people on streets that are lined with cheering crowds is a huge difference and also big motivator.

Here are few pictures I nicked from the official website. I am on none of them.

The starting zone has different sections according to how fast you think you'll be; under 40 minutes, under 45, under 50, and so on, in order to avoid clashes right after the start.

Ludwigsburg's townhall is the starting point.

Across the market square, it is still a bit packed, but then the running crowd gets less and less dense, as we all find our individual pace.

The first 5,5 km were easy. The long uphill bit between km 6 and 7 I cautiously (and lazily) walked. The 2 km between 7 and 9 felt exhausting, but I never thought of giving up. The last km was easier again, and the last 500 m made me think "so what" when I came past the sign at the roadside. After the finish, I felt as if I could have run some more, but was nonetheless glad to have made it - and actually proud of myself.

I had to wait a while for the free drink all runners are given and then walked home, had a shower and something to eat. Next year, I hope I'll be able to do it again, maybe with my running buddy (according to her own words) and/or with O.K.

Sometimes it really feels good to challenge oneself a bit - and win that challenge :-)