On 17 May, 15 Roadrunners Südbaden made their way to Manchester, England. As part of our annual team event, we took part in the Great Manchester Run with around 30,000 other runners and spent four eventful days in the city of 540,000 inhabitants.

While I had been working my way back up to my best form over the last few months, things were going better for Natalie. She was able to prove her good form at the SRH Dämmer Marathon Mannheim, where she won the 10-kilometre race for the second time in a row in a new course record time eight days before our start in Manchester. Only seven men, including our teammates Bachir, Patrick, Florian and myself were able to beat her time of 36:23 minutes. After we had both run the ten kilometres in Mannheim, I wanted to run the half marathon distance again after a long time, while Natalie was again aiming for a fast 10-kilometre time.

The race past the stadiums of the two famous Manchester football clubs, the Etihad Stadium and the world famous Old Trafford, which we had visited the day before, was tough but successful in my case. I finished seventh overall in 1:15:55 on a course that was surprisingly undulating for a city course and was only the second fastest runner in our team behind Bachir, who finished fourth in an outstanding 1:13:32.

About three hours after my finish Natalie's start was waiting. Together with the world champions and Olympic champions Helen Obiri, Ruti Aga, Edna Kiplagat etc. she started as an elite runner 15 minutes before all other participants. The first kilometres went well, then her stomach went on strike, so that another top time was no longer possible. With several breaks, Natalie finished the race sad that much more would have been possible on this day.