MY HALF MARATHON SAMUEL

MY HALF MARATHON SAMUEL FITWI Actually, I wanted to run under 61 minutes, but there was no group that was running at this pace. The first group with the top favourites was too fast for me, so I ran together with Sebastian Hendel and Davor Aaron Bienefeld in the second group to work towards a time of 61:30. The temperatures were ideal for me, but the wind was a bit annoying, especially between kilometres six and nine. Therefore, we took turns in the pace work. Towards the end of the race, I was able to pick up the pace again. I am satisfied with my time of 61:44. It is great to have finished as the best German. The atmosphere in Berlin was fantastic, I‘m already looking forward to coming back in September to compete in the marathon and try to qualify for the Olympics. My goal is a time under 2:08 hours. That may sound very ambitious now, but I already ran much of my first marathon in Seville in February at a 2:07-hour pace.

There, following two six-week altitude training camps in Ethiopia, I had joined a group that wanted to hit the Olympic standard of 2:08:15 hours. I know that sounds crazy for a marathon debut, but there were some athletes in this group with whom I had trained in Addis Ababa. In terms of training performance, we were on the same level. „In Seville I hit the wall at the end“ Up to the 30th kilometre everything went perfectly in Seville, but then the group of 20 athletes broke apart and I started to have muscular problems starting at kilometre 32. That caused me to slow down a bit up to kilometre 35—but a final time of 2:09 would still have been possible at this point if the pace