German championship 50 km at Arnsberg, Germany
Dinner together on Saturday, the day before the race. So arrival the evening before. We slept like many other nights at the gymnasium. At Saturday morning 7am there was the start for the 100 km. The 50 km started with a time difference of three hours, at 10 am. The 100 km was starting with a small loop of 2,8 km. This loop had a point of change and was the missing kilometers, because the big loop was slightly under 7 km. Against the 14 loops of the 100 km, the 50 km have to run 7 big loops. The runners of the 50 km was first running 3 loops at the sport area, before they started the 7 km loop. Around 40% of the loop was protected from the sun. At the rest of the loop the sun was burning down extremely. The course started at the gymnasium parallel to the little river till it arrived the first bridge. After it passed the bridge the runners were running between the railroad and the river. At the next bridge they crossed the river again. Now the course was running trough the hobby gardens at a reverse part. After the 90° right turn into a little path the course runs through the next bridge. After this bridge the runners followed the biking track till the next bridge. Shortly after they crossed the river there was the first checkpoint. Now a small gravel path back to the gardens. Arrived at the 90° right turn the runners ran together with till the second bridge. There they made a left turn into another gravel path. On this gravel path they ran till the gymnasium. A few hundred meters before they arrived the gymnasium, they ran on another reverse part. There was the next checkpoint immediately after the time check. The runners started the next loop with running around the gymnasium. There was XXX runners. XXX at the 50 km and XXX at the 100 km.
The weather was the main reason for the huge rate of DNF at this easy course. With 86 F it was quiet warm, Although there was a little breeze, but no clouds. Around 2pm there was coming up some clouds. To late for the most runners of the 50 km. On the other hand the 100 km runners was quiet happy.