The Aasee at night, lit up more than usual for the event
Background: Finally, at long last, an actual race taking place in person that was a 5-minute cycle from home? Yes, please! I hadn’t run a “live” race in over two years, since the Crouch End 10k in 2019 (at 11 weeks pregnant). It was fun to do the Virtual Wings for Life World Run back in May, but that was more of a personal challenge and not the same as running together with other competitors. So when a friend told me about the Advents-Aaseeslauf at the end of November in Münster, I jumped at the opportunity. I wanted to register for the 5k but it was already full, so I bit the bullet and signed up for the 10k, even though I hadn’t actually run that far in one go since June.
The race timing intrigued me, and almost put me off: a 6pm start for the 10k. But the race took place on the first Sunday of Advent (a big thing here in largely Catholic North Rhine-Westphalia), so I assume that was the idea behind the evening start and decided to give it a go.
Goal: I thought registering for a race would motivate me to get back into a rhythm of tempo runs and long runs. It did, for the few weeks that I stayed healthy in between viruses brought home by E from daycare! I never managed a run over 9.2km, but I figured with decent base fitness I would certainly finish the 10k. Unfortunately, we all got colds the week before the race, and I still felt a bit congested on the day. I almost decided not to run, but then Jochen, my co-event director for our coming-soon Münster parkrun (first official parkrun on 8th Jan 2022 – stay tuned!), suggested we run together at social pace and chat about parkrun. That sounded good, so I rallied myself and told Jochen I’d be happy if we finished the 10k in under an hour.
Race strategy: No strategy other than finishing under an hour and enjoying it. The course was 3 laps on the somewhat narrow Aasee paths, so I wasn’t sure how congested it would be at the start and wasn’t really bothered about where I started.
Weather & outfit: Classic Münster weather: 3C/37F with on and off drizzle (I love the German word: Nieselregen). And completely dark, of course, given the evening start. We had to be there not later than 15 minutes before the start, to get our “2G” status (geimpft oder genesen = vaccinated or recovered) checked, plus I was cycling there and back, so I dressed a bit warmer than I might for a run in these conditions. I wore long running leggings with side pockets (so practical!), tall merino ski socks, a warm mock-turtleneck baselayer with my parkrun 50 t-shirt on top, a snood, a hat, and gloves. I opted for my Brooks Ghost 13 shoes, since I wasn’t planning on really racing.
Jochen, me, & Theresa before the start. Photo credit: Jochen M.
The race: After hanging around in the starting area with our masks on (don’t worry – we didn’t have to run in them!), we were ushered forward for a casual but on-time start at 6pm. The first 2-3 kilometers were very congested; even if we had wanted to run faster, Jochen and I couldn’t. So we had a nice gentle warmup-style start to the race while we caught up on parkrun chat.
I finally warmed up by around 4km and started taking off layers: first my hat, then the snood, and eventually my gloves. By then, Jochen and I had reached a good cruising speed. We came through 5k in 30:40, and I said we’d better pick it up if we wanted to come in under an hour! By then the pack was finally thinning out, so we didn’t have a problem speeding up.
My right outer knee started twinging a bit around 6km, but other than that I was feeling good – much better than anticipated – and we picked up the pace even more while still maintaining conversation. Kilometers 8 and 9 were 5:15 and 5:11, respectively, and I suggested we go for it in the final kilometer. I felt strong and even had a bit of a kick, coming through the last kilometer in 4:41.
The atmosphere was beautiful, with wide candles set up around the course. It was challenging to run in the dark and took a while to get used to it; I didn’t want to trip and fall. It felt peaceful yet festive to race in the dark at the start of the holiday season. I still prefer morning running and races, but I wouldn’t rule out another evening one.
The result: My official time was 56:09 (5:37/km or 9:03/mi average) for the 10k. That’s under an hour, so I’m happy with it. In retrospect, I probably could’ve actually raced the entire thing at a decent clip, but it was nice to run with Jochen and not tax my body too much, especially with a lingering cold/sinus infection. I couldn’t figure out my overall place, but I was the 81st woman of 217 that finished.
We ended up running a perfect negative split race in the form of a progression run, without really intending to. While it wasn’t even close to my fastest 10k race, it gave me confidence in my fitness and motivated me to keep up my training and speedwork.
Stutenkerl (Münsterland) / Weckmann (Rhineland)
Post-race: I picked up my post-race goody (a Stutenkerl/Weckmann with Streusel – yum) then headed back to my bike and cycled home. F had made me fresh hot chocolate with leftover whipped cream from our Thanksgiving celebrations the day before. He’s the best!
F makes delicious hot chocolate
Next up: I’m not sure what’s next on my race calendar, but soon my energies will be focused on getting the Wienburgpark parkrun in Münster up and running!
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