Finally the review of my race from three weeks ago – better late than never, right?

On December 3rd, I ran my first 10k, the Nikolauslauf in Munich. It wasn’t just my first 10k race, it was also the first time I ran a whole 10k distance. My longest run until then had been about 7k a little over a week earlier, and it was actually during that run that I decided to participate in the 10k. I had found out about the race a couple of days before and while part of me really wanted to do it, the other part said, ‘you’re not ready,’ and ‘you’re not going to be in Munich that weekend anyway.’

All that changed during my training run on November 23rd. It was a great run and I realized after 7 km that I could have kept running for a while longer. I decided that I was ready to run a 10k, and that I would spend the weekend in Munich just to do the race. I realized that if I wasn’t going to do a 10k race now, it might be months until I do one, because I knew I would have waited till spring. So that night I signed up for the race. I finished my running program by Jane Wake just in time and it all worked out perfectly.

The Olympic Tower in Munich

The race took place in the Olympic Park in Munich, where I had run my very first 5k race in 2009. I got there a few hours early to pick up my race bib and chip at the Olympic Swimming Pool.

Handing out bibs, chips & Santa hats

Afterward, I just stayed at the pool, watching the swimmers. At some point a girl came up to me and asked if we knew each other because I seemed so familiar to her. I couldn’t place her but I’m really bad with faces so it wasn’t surprising. Turns out we both studied in Heidelberg. I spent the rest of the time chatting with her and her boyfriend who were also doing the race.

Me before the race started

The race itself started at 3pm and it went really well. I started out a bit fast (a 7:09 pace on km 1) but quickly noticed (my Runkeeper app tells me my time, distance and pace every 5 minutes – so useful!) and slowed down to a pace I was more likely to keep up throughout the race.

The race was St. Nicholas themed, so everyone got a Santa hat to wear during the race

I ran the entire 10k with just one short walking break to drink something after 5k. The weather was really nice for running, 7C and overcast, though it was a bit windy. Really lucky considering it’s December. I was so pleased with my result. I had hoped to finish in under 1:20 but after my last two runs – which weren’t that great – had ‘re-adjusted’ my expectations to finish between 1:20 and 1:30. I managed to make my goal after all.

Ready to start running

There were two short inclines on the course, but as it was a 5k course and we did two laps, there were 4 inclines, one halfway between km 4 and 5 (and km 9 and 10) and that last incline just about killed me on the second lap. I didn’t give up though, I knew I was not even 5 minutes from the finish line, I wasn’t going to start walking now, no way!

A weird experience was to be overlapped by the fastest runners between km 3 and 4. The winner finished in 32:13, I cannot even imagine running that fast.

I was glad once I started the second 5k lap because it meant no more runners overlapping me – I liked being able to run by myself. I also felt fantastic after I finished the first half, because I knew I would finish the 10k – I had struggled a little bit on the first 2-3km, then after the first 5k I felt this energy boost, I almost cried I was so happy (and promptly felt really silly for getting so emotional), felt really strong for km 6-8, and then struggled a bit on km 9 and 10. Well, until today my longest run had been 7km so it’s no surprise.

I am so very pleased with my result, even though I was the next-to-last to finish. This is a huge achievement for me and I’m so proud I did so well. I honestly cannot think of a single thing that went wrong during this race.

Just two months earlier, I had run a 5k in 42:52 (pace: 8:34) – on December 3rd, I ran a 10k in 1:18:08 (pace: 7:48) – I doubled my distance and improved my pace by almost a minute.

The mug I got for finishing

Unfortunately, I didn’t find any official pictures of me running, probably because I was much slower than most of the runners, and the photographers didn’t wait around for the last few runners, but I did get a video of me crossing the finish line!