Sun, Aug 25, 2019 - 10K - 01:15:33
10K Kreuzberger Viertelmarathon
Because of scheduling conflicts, we weren't able to run the Dresden 13K Night Run earlier this month, and so it was either the Steglitz SportScheck 10.5K race, which we did last year, or the Kreuzberg 10.5 race, which we had never run yet, so we chose the latter. 
 
This Kreuzberger Viertelmarathon, as they call it, seems to have been a kind of low-key, athletic-group-based race which has gained quite a bit of popularity in the last few years. It only cost 13€ for adults and 3€ for runners under 16 (as compared to 23€ for all runners in the Steglitz SportScheck run, plus 5€ for bag storage). But one was quick to notice the price cuts and growing pains in this race: even with 650+ runners, there was no possibility to pick up one's race numbers on a day before the race, and so when we arrived at 9:15 for the 10:00 race, we saw a long line to pick up our race numbers, and then a longer line to store our bags, with one worker storing the bags. We happened to make it to the start in time, but that was certainly not the case for everyone. Tip: if you run this race, definitely get there more than an hour beforehand, and then chill out somewhere on the nice athletic track and field that they have. 
 
The race has a cool start around the track, then through some shaded wooded areas and down various sidewalks of side streets until you get onto the streets of Kreuzberg proper. Hannah and I had a nice sub-7-minute pace going up to this point, but when we hit the streets of Kreuzberg, we also hit the sun and its accompanying heat. The first water station (of only two) was overtaxed with the amount of runners and so Hannah ran on and I waited in line to get some waters for us. Later in the blistering sun, she yelled out to me "Papa, hol' mir ein Wasser aus dem Laden!" and so I ran into a little Kreuzberg Dönerladen on the side of the street, grabbed a medium-carbonated bottle of water, socially engineered my way to the front of the line, paid for it, ran out of the store into the flow of runners again, and caught back up with her at 6K. 
 
Around 7K we got back into more shade again and made our way back to the track and field, Hannah finishing with her typical sprint to come in with a 01:15:33 for the 10.5K distance, which was a 7:10 pace and a 10K time of 01:11:40. Gisi had passed us at 3K and finished about 5 minutes before us with a 01:10:03, a 6:38 pace and her constant 10K time of 01:06:27. 
 
Hannah got 2nd in her U16 division, there being only two runners, but the young women who beat her, Zora Kaßbohm, came in the finish a half hour earlier (!) with a 10K time of 00:44:17 and placed 9th out of all women in a race with more than 600 runners. Be looking for that name in upcoming Olympic running competitions. 
 
We celebrated the race afterwards by taking a 10-minute walk to Bergmannstr. and enjoyed some salads, nachos, water and Apfelschorles outside in a nice restaurant near Viktoriapark. 
 
Our next race will probably be the Tierpark run, another 10K training run before the Oslo Half Marathon next month.