Maasmarathon - Partner Run - #runforsteem

Our #runforsteem this week is the Maasmarathon , which we did as a partner run.

If you want to know more about this, you will find a longer report below.

But first of all here is the proof for #runforsteem:

Runforsteem is a great @jumowa project that is really worth participating in. Just join in and runforsteem.

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Report from the Maasmarathon

Lydia and I try to run a marathon together once a year, as a partner run. We copied the idea a few years ago from Couple on the run.

The Maasmarathon starts in Vise, a town in Belgium, south of Maastricht. They speak French, which unfortunately we don't.
Although we therefore had to communicate with our hands and feet, they were very friendly and helpful when handing out the start numbers.
Because we had registered so early we got an extra T-shirt for the 20th anniversary of the run.

The next morning before the start we were offered a lot of culture before we set up for the start. We started on time, with cloudy skies and announced rain. At first, however, it was dry and pleasantly cool.

After a few kilometers we were warm and not far behind one of the many pacemakers (4:30). We decided to run up to the group although we had set ourselves a goal of less than 5 hours, i.e. they were actually too fast for us.

In the pull of the group, however, things went quite well and we were able to stay on the ball. The Pacemaker did his thing really well, always running out some time to be able to drink and eat in peace at the food stations. These stations were very well equipped (bananas, oranges, raisins, gingerbread, sugar, water, energy drink).

So we let ourselves go along the Meuse to Maastricht. There we crossed a historic bridge and then head back to Vise.

Every now and then light rain started, but then stopped again. This was actually quite pleasant, as we did not really get wet but only got additional cooling.

Lydia kept up magnificently and we were able to follow the group to kilometre 30, but then she had to let them go.

Now we were on our own, but were still able to collect other runners again and again and thus motivate
ourselves over the kilometres.

On the long home stretch we saw the Pacemaker's flag far ahead, but still in sight.

We had been calculating the times for some time and knew we were well under 5 hours, even under Lydia's best time when things were going well (04:32 hours). Now it became clear that we could even make it below 04:30.

That really spurred Lydia and me on again and we used the last grains and made it to Lydia's new best time of 04:27:46 !

At the finish we thanked the Pacemaker, who arrived about 1 minute before us. Lydia exchanged some racing experiences with him in a language mix of little German, some Dutch interspersed with English.

But as a runner you also understand each other across language barriers.

Another highlight of the event was the after-catering.
First we received a bag with all kinds of contents (fruit, bars, water), then there was the finisher shirt (this time short-sleeved) and an extensive buffet of regional products.
Now we also had culinary fun with the Maasmarathon.

I don't really need to mention any more that we can recommend this event?

Harald from Team EULE
eule.eifel.com