46:09, 175th place for the Berlin Half Marathon 2009

OK, so the first race of the season is behind me – the Berlin Inline Half Marathon took place this morning. My result is here. I managed the 21km in 46 mins 9 seconds, giving an average speed for the race of 27.82km/h. Overall I finished in 175th place of the race as a whole, and 24th in ‘Altersklasse: MH’ (although I’m not sure exactly what that means!) Essentially this is a very respectable result – there were 1800 skaters taking to the roads, so I finished in the top 10% – quite something for only my second ever race!

I had set the target of 45 minutes, yet it was clear this was not going to be reached right from the start – more than 5km due west from Unter den Linden through Tiergarten into a strongish headwind. The south section, particularly towards Potsdamer Platz was the highlight – excellent quality of the tarmac and plenty of skaters of a similar level.

I must however admit that I don’t yet have the tactics right for these races. Unlike the marathon last September this time I did manage to join some groups of skaters, but there was no real communication within the groups about speed and strategy. As I recall from cycle training as a 14 year old you are supposed to split the responsibility at the front of a group so you take turns against the wind; I tried this a couple of times, but the others failed to follow.

Anyway, here’s the map of the race and I’m heading to bed for an early night after a successful start to the season!

http://jonworth.eu/trailrunner/4YRELJN.gpx