Wesel marathon
Last weekend a number of Felixstowe Road Runners converged on Wesel, Germany (Felixstowe’s twin town) for the Hadi running club’s third annual winter marathon/half marathon. Being just over the Dutch border, it is accessible as self drive on the Harwich-Hook of Holland ferry or via the Channel tunnel, taking in 5 countries in one day, as we did. Some had opted to take motor homes but our van load dispersed into two self-catered apartments to enjoy luxuries such as underfloor heating and a sauna which would prove invaluable over the course of the weekend.
Having shared the driving between 3 of us, we felt fresh enough to get the van back on the road early on Saturday heading North back across the border into the Netherlands to bag a parkrun in another country, held at Van Heekpark in the city of Enschede. Not only was it a valuable V for those building their parkrun alphabet but it was also a really friendly, varied 3 lap course enjoyed by around 60 participants alongside other park users who had set up an outdoor gym which we ran through three times, as a kind of athlete’s guard of honour.
We returned to make use of our apartments before regrouping for a walk around Wesel to take in some of the history and atmosphere of what is quite a large impressive town, located close to the banks of the River Rhine.
Later we had a fun gathering of club members on the Saturday night in one of the AirBnBs for a pre-race meal and some card games.
Sunday morning, race day, greeted us with a thin blanket of snow, a beautiful reminder that the forecast for the race was wet and cold!
The race was held at the Wesel Sportplatz and involved either 3 (HM) or 6 (M) laps around the Auesee lake. Ali Ostler, Dave Solomon, Peter Woods and I started the marathon at 9.30 as part of a strong and varied field. 15 minutes later Christina Howland, Chris Howland, Jo Blyth, Steve Blyth, Nicola Stevenson and Calli Wood took on the half marathon. Given the conditions the circular, flat route of 7km (just over 4 miles) on a mixture of tarmac and cinder track offered reassurance in the form of drink stations (hot and cold), paramedics, regular contact with other runners and encouraging tannoy announcements drifting across the lake from the finish area.
To counter that, conditions got progressively worse as the rain set in and added a lot more water turning the slush to large puddles on parts of the course and causing flooding in and around some of the marquees at the start/finish area. Effective layering and fuelling became increasingly important as the combination of rain, cold and fatigue took their toll. Excellent gritty performances from the FRR contingent were capped by age group wins for Dave Solomon in the marathon and Nic Stevenson in the half. A special thanks to Calli who ran the half and then shuttled between the race venue and our accommodation to get extra layers and hot water bottles to make sure everyone in our group was ok after their run. Some of us were a bit of a mess afterwards and there were references made to the infamous Turkey Trot and the more recent Boston Marathon!
We soon recovered and made use of our laundry facilities before heading out with our Hadi hosts to a Greek restaurant for a very enjoyable meal.
Some of us even made it back to the lake on the Monday morning for a recovery “ice bath” alongside the coots and grebes before heading home to the UK.
All-in-all a brilliant weekend and highly recommended for more FRR members to have a look at in the coming years.
