Race Date: Sunday 29th April 2018

Race Report by Jo Carnie

Richard, Naomi and I arrived in Hamburg on Friday 27th April. The weather was nicely overcast. It warmed up over the course of Saturday, and by Sunday morning it was mid 20s and wall to wall sunshine (*Editor’s note; It was absolutely boiling, but noone seemed to be mentioning it like quite they did in London! Massive Kudos to anyone who can do any sort of marathon time in the heat, I was struggling by KM14). Apparently, the year before it had been 2 degrees on race day. I guess that’s part of the excitement of a spring marathon. The three of us set off together but with 14000 runners (Germany’s biggest spring marathon), we lost Naomi at the first drink station. We all had planned to take it steady. This was a training run for Naomi, I’d had injury and illness, and Peggy, due to an extended work trip to Australia, which he only mentioned 93 times over the course of the weekend, hadn’t got the long runs in. Taking it steady meant we had plenty of time to admire the stunning route, the fabulous drumming groups, a bit of Bavarian Oompa, and the support from the locals at every step of the way. The route was pretty flat, just 918 feet of ascent according to Strava and there were very welcome drink stations every 2.5km. Later on there were gels, electrolyte drinks, cola, red bull, beer, and plenty of portaloos. There was a half marathon which started an hour before along part of the same route, so they were well out of the way by the time we got going, and before the sun reached it’s glittering zenith. There was a marathon relay too, so perhaps because I was running around that 4 hour pace, the race felt busy all of the time. All in all though, an amazing marathon. Organised with precision with a great expo and perfect pre and post race facilities. We would all recommend it. The first man home was Solomon Deksisa of Ethiopia in a time of 2:06:34, and the first woman was Shitaye Eshete of Bahrain in 2:24:51.

Three striders ran the route, well done!