On Saturday 23rd June, I was fortunate enough to form part of a 4 man Strathclyde Fire and Rescue team to race in, what the organisers (google translated) website describes as the ‘36th slaughtering of the volunteer fire department Michelbach’. Although this was a tough race, held on a hilly Bavarian forest trail, I think the word ‘Schlachtfest’ is perhaps a little too brutal a word to utilise when describing this event. And that’s coming from someone who thinks that – apart some of the winter Xcountry events we have in Scotland – this was one of the toughest 10k’s I’ve ever done.
On the morning of the race, I helped the organisers mark the course – this gave me a chance to have a look at the climbs I’d heard so much about. It was these climbs, and the afternoon sunshine, that were to later knock the stuffing out of me during the race.
Within 200m of the start of the race, the first climb began and continued for the next 2km. Instantly finding myself in a group of 3 leaders I decided that my tactic would be to tuck in behind the other 2 German runners, and see how they would deal with the climbs. It turned out that they coped much better than I did, and coming off the first climb established a decent enough lead that I tried to reduce, but to no avail. I don’t know if it was the hotter temperatures than my Glaswegian frame is used too, or the touch of nerves prior to the race, but I had yet another reoccurrence of my dreaded ‘mooth like an Arab’s sannie’. It’s at times like this when I absolutely adore our rainy weather. Even just the tiniest lick of rain from my top lip would’ve made this a completely different race for me. The following 2km downhill section to the 4k marker was unpleasant as I gasped for a drink, and prayed for the water station to appear. This did show up on the gradual elevation between the 4-5k markers, during what wasn’t initially detailed to me as a climb, but felt like a mountain as the water got slowly closer.
Having looked behind me, and seeing that there was no other runners catching up, I did what I hadn’t done since last years roasting Dumbarton 10k, and stopped to have my drink – taking the time to gargle and clean my lips and face. The comfort from this lasted little longer than 500m as I turned a corner at 6k to begin another 2km of climbing. Again, with the increase in breathing, I struggled, and had to stop another couple of times as my dry lips stuck to my even drier teeth. Unbelievable. I’m seriously gonna double my fluid intake before races in the future to see if it makes any difference.
At 8k I looked at my watch and seen that if I kept at my current pace I would struggle to get under 40mins. Thankfully the last 2km of the race were completely downhill, and as I came out of the forest I could see the 2 Dortmund fire service runners about 400m ahead. With one final burst for the finish I managed a couple of decent kilometres and claimed my 3rd position in a time of 38:36.
I’m hoping they Dortmund runners make the journey over to Glasgow for next years Dick Wedlock 10k, so I can get a rematch. I’m also hoping that it’s raining that day.
