2 hours cracked - just!!

At long last, an 'official' time of under two hours for the half-marathon was finally achieved in Dresden this weekend. However, unlike TMM who smashed the two hour mark by over three minutes, my wait for an official time was more agonising, as during the race my Garmin stopped at 21km precisely with me having run 1 hr 59 mins and 3 secs, but not having crossed the finishing line! Not until we arrived back in Offen on Monday afternoon did I finally find out that I'd got under the two hour barrier by a massive three seconds!! The final 200m sprint and the (still) sore legs were worth it!! A cracking weekend all told, which included a sell-out footy game (29,000 for Dynamo Dresden v Hansa Rostock - not bad for a 3rd division game!), but if you ever decide to run in Dresden ... beware the cobbles!! Good luck to TMM in Athens. My next run on the '222 Challenge' is a 10km in a field somewhere in Northern Germany ina couple of weeks time. Keep on running!!

It's there!!!!

Finally the OOBs have done it!!

The 2 hour barrier has gone and in some style to.

TRSG broke 2 hours in Dresden on Sunday morning with a nail biting wait for his official time - 1hour 59 minutes and 57 seconds!!!

TMM smashed his previous best of 2hrs and 39 seconds by running under 2hours finally with a time of 1 hour 56 minutes and 28 seconds.

TMM is now the OOBs half marathon record holder and 10km record holder so the gauntlet is laid down.

TMM is now off to Athens to run the 10km race as part of the 2500year celebrations of the original Marathon. The race runs on part of the original course and ends in the original Olympic stadium.

Check out the details online at athensclassicmarathon [pop it into Google]

Keep running

TMM

This time its 5 and freezing!!!!

Seemed like a good idea - Do a few weights and then an easy 5km

Then it was dark windy and around 2degrees

Still the weights were warm inside and the 5k was not too bad - 25mins 18seconds

Less than a week to Dresden

The TMM is back!!!

After no running for four weeks since the Hannover night run and the magical sub 50minute 10k the TMM is back out.

A gentle 10k before the Dresden half 52minutes 30 which is my third fastest ever.

Maybe a longer run at the weekend now that TRSG has set the benchmark that bit higher

Welcome back Garmin!

Finally got round to getting a new Garmin which meant two things this morning. Firstly, I found out that the German road sign mileage isn't quite as accurate as it should be (didn't run quite as far as I thought last week!), but secondly, it does now mean my runs are accurately measured in time and distance again. With two weeks to go to Dresden, decided to run a full half-marathon this morning and ran a personal best of 1:53:25. Was a bit of a struggle (not quite sure what effect the chilli-based muscle rub stuff I bought in the chemist for 20 euros yesterday had - none methinks and I could be looking at a pair of those long socks worn with such great success by TMM), but hopefully it means that things are looking good for a first sub-2hour race in Dresden. Training will now taper down before Dresden, which shouldn't be too difficult as midweek runs have been virtually non-existent the past couple of weeks. Keep on running!!!

A new way to train!

Watch one of your favourite football teams lose at home, have a few beers, get to bed after midnight and then you'll be set up to run a scorcher - that's what happened to me this weekend. Had a real struggle to force myself out for a long run yesterday, but then ran 17km in 1 hour 25 mins! Really don't know how this running lark works - one day you struggle to run 5km without keeling over, the next you can run 17km effortlessly and feel as though you could have carried on for another 10km! Oh well, I'm not complaining as a similar effort in 3 weeks time in Dresden will surely see TRSG finally complete a half-marathon in under 2 hours. In fact, if I run anything like I did yesterday in Dresden I'll be unhappy with 1 hour 50 mins!!! Mind ou three weeks is a long time in this game - especially for an 'old boy' - so I'm not getting carried away. I WILL be very happy with any time under the two hour mark, with a long-term view to getting a good time in Prague in April. Keep on running all and well done Arsenal for producing yet another 'good possession, but we'll still lose' game against Chelski. Perhaps I should go out for a run???!!!!