Jonas and I already have several hundred races under our belts. But so far there has not been a world championship race. That was about to change at the World Road Running Championships in Riga. In addition to the new half marathon world champions, the world champions over five kilometres and the short distance of one mile were also sought in the capital of Latvia. We had already decided on the half marathon a long time ago and were looking forward to an outstanding World Championships weekend with 16 other roadrunners.

We started the race only a few metres behind the best in the world on the banks of the Daugava River. Some (too much) wind accompanied the race from the first metre so that an attack on my personal best was hardly possible for Jonas, who was running alone almost all the time. Nevertheless, he ran a very strong race and finished after 1:11:17 hours, only 20 seconds after his personal best, as the fifth-fastest German and twelfth in the Mass Race. At the same time, he left several national team runners behind him - for example three of the four runners who started for Latvia - and thus deservedly placed himself among the fastest 100 half marathon world championship finishers, including the world elite. For me, the clock stopped after 1:22:18 hours, which meant that I was less close to my best time, but still finished as the fastest German. A cool thing!

Werbung