I entered this race back in May after completing my first marathon in
London. I had visited Munich on three occasions prior to this weekend;
each time really liking the city. Around 6000 people completed the
race on Sunday, so although the marathon is not on the scale of
Berlin, it is still fairly popular.

We arrived on Saturday morning and registered quickly. The weather was
really overcast and in the region of 18 Degrees. After looking at the
local newspaper for the forecast, I was surprised to see that they
were predicting 23 degrees and sunshine for the morning.

On Sunday morning I woke to a clear sky and made my way to the start
area and managed to get at the front of the start area.

The first few kilometres were through the English Garden which is a
large area of park land in the centre of the city. The route was
covered with trees and it was a really pleasant start to the race.

I went through half way at 1:25:54, which was a little faster than
planned but I still felt good.

I continued to run at my target pace and went through the 30km point
at 2:03:54. I was starting to get hot now as it was now midday and I
could feel the sun beating down on me.

As I went through 32km, I was conscious that I'd started to slow. I
was running through the main square of Munich, the Marienplatz, which
was lined with lots of German spectators shouting encouragements such
as 'Yah Super!'.

The final 10km were really difficult. I felt uncomfortable with the
heat but also felt tired, I had slowed up and was not enjoying my run.

The last kilometre was around the perimeter of the Olympic stadium,
before entering the arena for a part circuit around the running track
to the finish.  I went through the finish line at 3:04:02 and just lay
in the centre of the stadium, exhausted.

The time meant that I had taken around 9 minutes off my time from
April, which I was really pleased with. With about 7 km to go, I had
been thinking 'never again – just stick to your half marathons in the
future!' but as I lay on the grass I decided that perhaps with a
little more training it could be possible to break the 3hr mark. I
think the more experience that you have in latter stages of a
marathon, the better prepared you will be for future races. I'm
definitely going to have another attempt at the distance but I think
that can wait until at least next spring!

Mark Hobbs

Hobbs, Mark (GBR)

Bournville Harriers

Startnummer/startnumber: 2405

Platz/ranking: 212

Platz AK/age-Place: 29 (30)

Netto/chiptotal: 03:04:02

Brutto/clocktotal: 03:04:05

10 km: 00:40:17

Halbmarathon: 01:25:54

30 km: 02:03:54

Race website here