Sat, Oct 3, 2020 - 10K - 00:57:37
10K Cottbus Race with Hannah (00:57:37)
Three months ago Hannah had the idea for both of us to start a 100-day-power push, as she called it, originally to coincide with my Rotterdam Marathon in October where I was supposed to run a sub-4 marathon and she run a sub-1 10K.  
 
Although the Rotterdam marathon got postponed again to April 2021 (the mayor of Rotterdam just got infected with Covid-19 [!]), I did bring my weight down from a constant 80 kg to a constant 75 kg, very nice. I feel much lighter and ran a 24:01 last week in a timed 5K, so I'm definitely faster. Hannah is also noticeably thinner and in this race on October 4, 2020 in Cottbus, ran a very strong 00:57:37, completely dominating her times from when she was nine years old on her nimble and childhood legs (00:58:34 and 00:59:15).  
 
It was a very casual race, particularly in the metric of wearing masks: while last month in the Berlin Müggelsee race literally everyone had a mask on, in Cottbus the 200+ people were all walking around without a mask (!). But it was the 46th time they have run this race so they apparently knew what they were doing in terms of organizing it, and I have to say it was quite an well-managed event.  
 
Since we had no transponder, it was essential that we started as close to the front as possible, so we positioned right behind the first row of runners. Thirty seconds before the race, Hannah turned to me and said, "Papa, ich laufe heute unter einer Stunde." I half-believed her and within seconds, the race had started.  
 
Since we were running with the local Cottbus elite runners, the first kilometer around the track was practically a sprint, Hannah's Garmin clocking the 1K split at 4:49 (!). Having run with Hannah every month for the past two years, I know Hannah's speed distribution throughout the race, and I honestly didn't think she would be able to keep up this pace, but then her 5K split was 27:56 and she showed little signs of slowing down. She held the next four kilometers right around 6:00 and then killed the last kilometer with a 5:41 to end up with her very impressive 00:57:37 today. It was one of those races that just come together.  
 
On our walk to the Italian restaurant in downtown Cottbus to enjoy our victory meal, Hannah and I agreed that while her 9-year-old sub-1 10K race times were a kind of gift of physiology (you either have it or you don't), today's sub-1 10K accomplishment was a result of over five years of discipline, training, determination and perseverance, very nice.  
 
The rest of the day was as pleasant as it was uneventful: a nice ride back on the train to Berlin, my legs themselves quite worked out as Hannah is now gradually approaching my fastest 10K time. Both of us fell asleep in the train and woke up Berlin.  
 
Now that Hannah has achieved that goal, it looks like her next goal is to beat her mother's best half-marathon time: 02:18:51.