Running the half-marathon in Munich was something I wanted to do last year, but doing it just one week after the marathon in Cologne was not ideal. This year I decided to do it but I got a really bad cold about 10 days before, so I didn’t train well. I ran anyway and the highlight was with my travel backpack…
Thanks for the good luck wishes !
The day before the race, I went to the exhibition to pick up my runner’s number, and as most of you have seen my story and sent good luck messages, I wanted to thank you. In my article on SAVE THE DATE: ITF RUNS MUNICH HALF-MARATHON 8TH OCTOBER 2017 WITH BACKPACK, I mentioned a Brazilian 60-year old guy I had met the year before in Cologne who had also seen my story and sent me “Good race. I miss this place. I love this town.”
Why I ran the marathon with my backpack ?
Running the half-marathon with a backpack: was it my intention ? To be honest, since I’m very passionate about traveling and really happy with the I TRAVEL FOREVER brand, I wanted to share the travel spirit during on such an occasion so many people could become aware of it. I also wanted to do it to get back to a solid fitness routine and because I wanted to raise more awareness for traveling while keeping fit.
The Challenge
For the half-marathon in Munich, I was not prepared like I was the year before for the marathon in Düsseldorf and I think this is the reason I took this a little bit more relaxed, knowing I had finished two full marathons (London and Düsseldorf) before. I guess I forgot that this was over a year ago, plus I was in my last day of overcoming a cold.
The backpack
Running the half-marathon with the backpack seemed like a good idea for the reasons I mentioned in The Y and I really felt good about it. It wouldn’t be a big challenge running the half-marathon with a backpack but I think it really affected me not being well prepared and having a cold and all.
The joy of running with my backpack
I really enjoyed running around Munich and seeing areas I hadn’t seen before. Sometime, I was happy to run in one place but it became very dull as the scenery wasn’t that good and not many people were there. It was more fun to watch the reactions of very chilled runners seeing me with my travel backpack.
It was also really nice bumping into the “boner guy” dressed as Pumuckl running barefoot, who I had met in Cologne the year before and runs to collect donations for social aspects.
The pain
After some joy, halfway through, I was still very excited to be running ha ha. However, the remaining 3-4 km were really hard and challenging. I had to really push through and the bananas and power bars I picked up along the way helped a bit. The last km seemed the longest and I was so happy when I finally ran into the Olympia stadium through the finish line.
The comments of other runners
The best quotes of the run were when people asked:
Are you heading to the airport ?”
Are you heading to the central station ?”
Why are you carrying a backpack ?”
The best support
I was really lucky I could see people supporting I TRAVEL FOREVER and so lucky that my girlfriend came to support me at a couple different locations.
First traveler running the marathon with a travel backpack ! Can I give myself that credit ?
I TRAVEL FOREVER’s VIEW & RECOMMENDATION
To summarise, I really don’t get the excitement of running a “marathon” because it didn’t seem the real deal as the “race” only started at 1:30pm: it seemed a little bit wrong. For the other marathons, I got up early and headed out to meet a lot of excited runners. I think the people who come to support are keener to cheer for the runners at a marathon – I really felt a different vibe for the half-marathon.
The track, in my opinion, was okay; but the half-marathon only started at the half-way point of a full marathon and it was a pity because the short beautiful part running through the English Garden comes earlier.
I’m very glad I ran the half-marathon with my backpack and prevailed something I thought would have been easier but ended up being just as challenging as the full marathon the year before. I was still in a lot of leg pain for a couple of days.
Whatever, pain is temporary; pride is forever and I TRAVEL FOREVER.
#TW
