Frankfurt Marathon

The morning was cool, but warmer temperatures and sunshine were expected for the marathon- otherwise a perfect day for running. We dropped Eric off wearing number 8795 at the train station for the 8:19am train to Frankfurt. He said the platform had about 100 people on it and when the train pulled into the station, it was already full. 

The marathon began at 10am and it took Eric about 5 minutes to cross the starting line. This was a quick start, since there were 20,000 runners.

At 17 miles, he was still on a 3:35 pace. Eric said the drink stations offered fizzy sport drinks along with water. Some stations also offered warm tea and Coke. There were many people along the entire route and numerous bands to cheer on the runners. At the 20 mile marker is when his steam started to run out and this is when he began to slow down.

Us gals attended church and afterwards enjoyed the international food sampling which concluded the diverse but united sermon series before we headed to the marathon. I set the navi for a parkhaus in downtown Frankfurt near the 40 km marker. This is the spot Eric said he would be good to see him around 1pm. I wanted to make sure we did not miss him, so I took full advantage of no speed limit on the open autobahn on a Sunday afternoon. The girls even commented about how fast I was driving. We made it to the city with some minutes to spare. 

Unfortunately, the parkhaus was under construction, so we had to walk down the four flights of stairs. Once at street level, the girls hopped on the stroller and I ran with the stroller to get to the course as I could see red shirts going by. I crossed the street when the light was red and then realized all of the cops were watching the race and not the cars, so I was not going to be getting a ticket. We made it to our spot at 1pm. 

We waited anxiously for Eric to come around the Turm. With every red shirt that went by, the girls thought maybe it was him. After about 20 minutes, they got bored with it, so Adeline went and sat on the sidewalk on the other side of the street. The girls were entertained by the runners dressed in banana and clown costumes, along with the few who had on business suits or balloons tied to them. We watched the race pace setters go by and still no Eric. There was a band playing at the intersection so their tunes also helped the time to go by.

Finally, the girls spotted Eric as he rounded the corner. What excitement it was! "Go Daddy, Go!" could be heard near and far from them. He stopped for a brief kiss and then continued on. Adeline tried to catch up with him, but he was too quick for her, even with a stop at the drink station.

When we got back to the parkhaus, we initially climbed to the wrong level. I remember what level the non-working eleveator said, so it was a shock to us all when we did not see our car when we entered the parking area. After a quick trip to the floor above and seeing no cars, we descended down one level to find our car in it's parking spot.

Eric completed 42km (26 miles) in 4:16 by running into the exhibition center. They had his name up on the board as he was crossing the finish. After the race, the organizers offered fruit, bread, and cans of beer along with the normal rehydrating beverages.

We returned home to tidy up the house and work on our Halloween party details. We went and picked up a slow moving Eric from the train station. We are super proud of him.

Here is the website with the race details.  Frankfurt Marathon race and details You can view the results and see portions of him running in it.