My wife and I at Stuttgart Half Expo
It’s been at least my 7th Stuttgart Half Marathon. And I trust it’s going to be my last one.
The 21st edition of this city half once again showed weaknesses of the organizers, starting with an uncoordinated start in uncoordinated waves, and ending with only a very small group of people (I counted 6) serving beverages in the finish area to some 7000 runners.
In the beginning the weather was almost ok, not too warm, but quite humid after a very wet night. After 15 km the heaven opened its gates and it was raining heavily. And it got really cold. According to the weather forecast, this was what we (and the organizers) had to expect. But do you thing the organizers got any sort of coverage for the runners in the finish area? Or these rescue blankets (gold/silver foil) which I got at the Frankfurt Marathon for instance? No way. All of this and all of the bad experiences in the past races in Stuttgart I now decided not to run here again.
Looking at my race: After running Comrades on June 1st I had not trained at all for running a fast half marathon. I just ran my fast training pace and was very happy when I finished in 1h 44 min. My average heart rate was 170 (my max heart rate is around 197).
Medal Stuttgart Lauf 2014
As I wrote this post a few hours after the race, and I do not feel any soreness in my legs or any sort of exhaustion after his run. The Two Oceans and Comrades races and their preparation provide a great foundation for short 🙂 races.
| Distance | 21.1 km / 13.1 m |
| Time | 1h 44 min |
| Monthly distance (June) | 182.6 km / 113.5 mi |
| Annual distance | 1,386.3 km / 861.4 mi |
