MelanieLH and I had help before the start, my sister lives in Vienna and we went to the house of one of her friends which was 50 yards from the starting pens
We could relax, use their toilets and then just pop out fifteen minutes before the start and go into our allocated pen. It was clear that our pen contained people from other pens and it was fairly crowded. It is a while since I have done a large event and it did remind me of the VLM and GNR or rather what I don't like about those events, there are too many people ! Our pen was starting about 9 minutes after the main start. This was going to make it tricky to catch Haile Gebrselassie (who easily won the half marathon) so I decided not to attempt that ... Everything seemed to start on time and we took a bit longer to cross the line. The field was spread across both lanes of a dual carriageway and we crossed the Danube
http://www.vienna-marathon.com/?menu=0&url=starter&lang=en
and headed towards to the famous wheel of the Third Man fame where we turned left and into the Prata, a large park.
Before the start of the race I struggled with working out the route. The best way I can describe it as a letter 'X'. We started at the top right arm and ran towards the centre, then the bottom right arm, bottom left, top left and finally the bottom right again. The centre wasn't a single point but the Ring (the inner ring road which used to be the city walls, but the walls were all demolished about two hundred years ago and replaced by many of Vienna's iconic buildings), so when we got close to the centre we started to go round the Ring before going out on another arm. That is a simplified description, if you want more detail, go to http://www.fetcheveryone.com/routes-view.php?id=1295947
As we went into the Prata the course narrowed a bit which made the crowding a bit worse. We had been told it would be crowded in the first 10k, but it didn't really thin out until the half marathoners turned into the fantastic finish that we would be visiting 13.1m later. The first two drinks stations (every 5K or so) were chaos, they didn't have enough staff to cope with the demand from runners. It was a hot day, relatively speaking, with little wind. Three weeks earlier we had completed a marathon route completely covered in about four inches of snow, this felt so different ! We managed to stay together after these chaotic drinks stations and they were better staffed after this and some of these drink stations had bananas which I hadn't seen before (there was a downside to this, you expect to be trampling over plastic glasses in these sorts of events, but banana skins were more challenging !).
What made the race even more crowded is that it is popular with locals who participate in the relay event. Last year there were 6000 finishers in the marathon and 2700 relay teams, a staggering number. These teams were often a mixture of fast and slow runners, so we had fast runners flying by throughout the race or weaving round us the first half. I can see the attraction of the relay, there were two long stages and two short stages so lots of people whatever their ability could participate. The change over points were slightly chaotic, with incoming runners desperately trying to spot their outgoing team members. The relay also helped to bring out the crowds although they weren't as noisy as they are in many large UK events.
At the bottom of the bottom left arm was Schönbrunn Palace which we struggled to get a good view of because we were avoiding a change over point for the relay and looking out for my sister who was running the second stage (we never saw her, she finished the second stage before we reached the next change over point). We went back to the Palace the next day, it was stunning, a must see if you go to Vienna.
After the Palace there was an incline upwards back to the Ring, but it didn't feel very much. Then finally the half marathoners turned off through the arches and into the arms of the Hofburg Palace. And there was space
At this stage I lost Melanie. Normally we run together, but the plan this time was to see how it goes. She was after a good pb, a pb wouldn't be hard as her previous eight marathons/ultras had all been HORN events, but I wasn't in shape for what she was after. So at this stage she drifted away into the distance. I lost sight of her and the 4.30 pacer who was carrying a big flag. I was a bit disappointed that I seemed to be losing energy again, but I knew my training hadn't been adequate and I set out to just enjoy what I could see round the route. I also had to make a toilet stop as I had been taking on lots of water to cope with the heat so I knew there was no chance of catching M again.
I did see her again in the bottom right arm which we did for a second time. This contained a couple of out and back sections, one of them quite long. This was in the Prata where the spectators were thin on the ground. However, they had lots of music booming out of speakers, some of it classical (Vienna has style
) and we also had Robbie Williams asking to entertain us This made it a bit easier, but at the 34K I got hit by the dreaded cramp in my left calf. It was so painful I had to pull off and stretch, but it didn't seem to help very much. I had been very strict with myself in this event, regular shot bloks, s-caps and water, so I can only put it down to the heat and not being used to long runs on tarmac. I slowed down even further, but then it happened again, so I moved into a walk/run strategy. As I ran through the arches into the grounds of the Hofburg Palace at the finish there was more music and what greeted me was Call Me Maybe which made me cross the finish with a big smile http://www.youtube.com/v/6kDcTDD6ye0
I knew I would be under 5hr and came in with 4h 47min which I was happy with
I will let MelanieLH tell the story of her event.We had a great six days in Vienna, we shall be back
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