Berlin Silvesterlauf 10km

I was in Berlin anyway for New ears Eve with some friends and they had found this race and so wanted to do it in fancy dress. This gave me ideas about running it instead of my tempo run and also join in the fun by seeing what costume I could wear and still be able to run reasonably properly. The only fancy dress costume I already owned was a stormtrooper outfit, from a stag do in 2010. It's basically a thin material suit with foam armour and so is reasonably easy to run in. The helmet is the tricky bit and in the end I had to abandon the helmet as I couldn't see out of it!

My friends all did the 6.6km run, and I started 30 minutes later. I managed to pin my number to the foam armour and felt pretty silly doing a 20 minute warm up in a stormtrooper outfit but got on with it anyway! The race was around a park near the Olympic Stadium and someone told me before the race there were a couple of hills, which wasn't too much of a worry. As I got onto the start line and pushed towards the front, I relaised that a lot of people were taking this seriously and were 'proper' runners. Sure, there were a few costumes near the back but no doubt they thought I was a bit of a twat for getting towards the front in my outfit! Anyway, the race started and I found I could run ok in the suit and abut 8 guys went off quite quickly and I just started off comfortably trying to see how easy it was to run. After about a mile and a half there were about 3 guys at the front and I moved towards the front. As I drew on the leader's shoulder he had a glance to his left to see who was coming up on him and then did a double take as he saw I was in costume. It was hilarious but I actually felt a bit embarassed to be in costume amongst these guys who were taking it seriously! The truth is I was also taking it seriously, but just happened to be n costume too! We passed 2 miles in 10.15 and 2 guys were sat behind me. I had made no push to lose them yet as I knew there was a lot of running to go and wasn't sure how this suit was going t affect me later on! Just after the 2 mile mark we started to go uphill, and man what a hill! It went on for about 3/4 of a mile and was very steep indeed. A guy went past me up the hill and I was working hard but he got a gap on me and I couldn't do much about it. Uphills are never my strength and so I just decided to get this out of the way and gather msyelf once it was over. As we swept downhill again, I gained on the leader and went past him again, getting a small lead myself, before the 'Devil hill'hit at 3.5 miles or so. Now I didn't know about this 'devil hill' until after the race but it spiralled up and up and I was just expecting that guy to come past me again as he seemed so strong the first time we had gone uphill. He never did and eventually we reached the top and then were sent down a very steep offroad narrow path that I couldn't even run down properly as it was so steep and bumpy. I wasn't going to risk a twisted ankle in this race and the suit restricted me being able to stretch out so I didn't expect to be in the lead for much longer.

As it turned out, the guy who led up the first hill must have pushed too soon, as I seemed to have quite a gap once we reached level ground again and I followed a lead bike through a wooded path. There were about 2 miles to go now and the suit was starting to feel quite hot and my legs were tired from the hills. I looked back on a couple of corners on the course and couldn't see anyone so just worked hard, following the lead bike. As we turned a corner a little German kid shouted 'Star Wars!' and pointed excitedly so I gave him a wave and then about 400m later a guy started running next to me singing the Imperial March at me! I also scared a few walkers on the course who turned round to see a stormtrooper running at them and yelped in surprise! I was getting more and more irritated with the suit as the race went on and I have respect for the marathoners who can cope with the suits for so long! Eventually, we turned back into the stadium and all my friends were ecstatic that I had managed to win it. A few were unsure as I had been to bed a bit late the night before and probably hadn't prepared in the orthodox fashion, with a few martinis at some point in the night....

I crossed the line in 32.59, and was 30 seconds clear of 2nd. None of the finishing athletes shook my hand and I don't blame them! I won a giant Dougnut and some champagne - which was useful on New Years Eve! I donned the helmet for the podium and the organiser at least was quite amused and lots of children and random Germans asked for their photo with me. I actually ran quite hard and was surprised I managed a 4.59 first mile! The guy in 2nd who looks like Ali G was taking it very seriously and asked if my suit had special powers. Maybe it did....