The last few months have been different from others in terms of training. The reason for this was that after several marathons and half marathons I wanted to concentrate on the 5,000-metre distance. Getting faster over short distances usually means getting faster over long distances in the long run. Added to this was the fact that the 2019 German Athletics Championships were taking place in the Berlin Olympic Stadium as part of the FINALS taking place on the first weekend in August.

I did a lot of short intervals, among other things. I then wanted to qualify at home in the Gengenbach stadium, where we have been accelerating week after week for years. As it had rained during the night, the 12.5 laps, which of course took place in an official competition setting, became a race where the temperatures were good for the month of July, but the track was a bit slippery.

Lap after lap we completed at the brisk pace that was necessary to qualify for the German Athletics Championships. At the end we had a new best time of 17:10.89 minutes. Fast, but unfortunately not fast enough. I would have needed 17:10.00 minutes to be sure of making it to Berlin. So it was only a blink of an eye. Too bad!