Photo: Bettina Flitner
My premiere
42.195 kilometers - why am I doing this, in this humid dog weather on top of that? But give up the race at kilometer 32? No! Anyone who has managed a marathon knows: It is an exhilarating luck to arrive, to finish. The time? Secondary. The pain? To forget. Euphoria and relief come over me today, a year later, when I think of this September 9, 2011, when I came in after five and a half hours hand in hand with my running trainer Marianne in front of the city hall of Münster: me, never in their previous lives had developed sporting ambition !
He was awakened when I joined my walking girlfriends - and we were constantly overtaken by joggers at retirement age. Then running could not be so difficult? My teething problems, however, were considerable - after 100 meters I gave up, groaning. So I joined a running club, with a training group for beginners. Trot for two minutes, pause for a minute, at first we managed just one kilometer per hour. Ten weeks later, I ran 45 minutes at a time. Christmas 2010, I spontaneously decided to run the marathon . Maybe because I wanted to prove to myself in my mid-40s what I'm made of. From February, it was freezing cold, I ran an hour three times a week. I was also driven by the desire that my father, who had cancer, should experience my marathon success . He did, and he was so proud of me! My debut also carries me in everyday life: a number of self-doubt have fallen by the wayside. In lousy moments, I tell myself today: You have packed the marathon. What you are experiencing right now is a no brainer!
