How I Fucked up Cape Town Marathon 2018

After being able to finish the Tahura trail run in Bandung on Java in Indonesia, I was pretty confident that I was ready to run the Cape Town Marathon 2018 with 56 km in South Africa.

Tahura trail was my first trail competition. And I completely underestimated the challenge! Either it went uphill or downhill, with hardly any flat sections along the way. Parts of it were so muddy that one had to slip down on 4 legs. My last marathon in Karlsruhe, Germany in 2016 took me 4:04 hours.

Cape Town Marathon 2018 Qualification

So I expected to finish the trail in less than 5 hours to qualify for the Cape Town Marathon 2018. But it took me 2/3 of the distance to make me believe that I can make it at all. I reached km 28 after 5:30 hours and finished after 9:18 hours as the 112th male finisher. Only 12 minutes before the cut-off time.

Training Interruption for Cape Town Marathon 2018

Due to a problem with my bank, I had to go to Germany during the preparation phase. A trip, that I didn’t do by heart. So it did cost me quite a bit of my energy. Visiting my parents, I got spoiled with delicious German food, which actually did not apply to my food plan.

But there was so delicious German food to choose from. Food I grew up with, and which I did not enjoy for a long time. So I got pretty undisciplined and enjoyed the sausages, cake, beef, pork, Döner 🥙 Bread, and of course some of the great German beers 🍻

My Excuses Not to Train for Cape Town Marathon 2018

The outside temperatures were about 7 degrees below the freezing point. Within the 3 weeks in Germany, gained about 3 kg because I did very little training for Cape Town Marathon 2018. My excuse to get out of bed was: It is too cold.

My problem was: I did not have a coach who kicked my ass. I was not able to motivate myself, to get out of bed and go running. Especially when the temperature was below the freezing point. And I had no one who was able to read what was written on my forehead, which I wasn’t able to see.

Being on the Cape Town Marathon 2018, I only managed 42 km.

So get out of bed and get your coach today, who makes you accountable, and who pushes you over the last part of the distance, that makes the difference. Everybody got his weak spot, where the discipline gets interrupted and what stops you from moving forward. That's why:

Be smart, and learn from my mistake, before you fuck up your next project,