Sat, May 16, 2020 - 10K - 01:01:37
Hannah's and My Third Official Corona-Era Do-It-Yourself Proactive Solo-Race: 10K Tempelhofer Feld (01:01:37)
After our March 10K in Grunewald and our Jüterbog 16K, and the Corona-Era still upon us, Hannah and I had to find a stretch of land in the greater Berlin area where we could run an uninterrupted 10K or better. Since she has been working out lately and doing speed-5K trainings with me, we decided to find a flat 10K where she could see how she compared to her peak training last year in December, Britzer Garten 01:01:31. Tempelhofer Feld, a former airport, is pretty much as flat as it gets, so we traced out a 10K route on Google Earth there which start and finish were in the same place. 
 
Hannah wanted to leave at 8:00 in the morning to avoid the heat which turned out to be a good idea. We took a ShareNow Smart car to Tempelhofer Feld, arriving about 10:00, getting out to chilly temperatures, but with promising sun. We walked to our designated starting line at the end of the pathway when you walk in the west entrance, and then went out about 20 meters to mentally mark out the finishing line. These Corona-Era runs are so empty of starting flair: no announcer, no music, no fans, no starting gun. To guard against that a bit, when we got back to our imagined starting line, I got out my smartphone and played the 2012 Berlin Marathon start video on my smartphone, which is always motivating. In fact, they play the same music at the Frauenlauf that was going to be held on the same day, but, like every other race since March 2020, it got canceled, which made this starting music extra poignant. After the announcer in the video said, "15 seconds!" we counted down to zero and then took off.  
 
As far as I could tell on my watch, Hannah was keeping near a six-minute kilometer pace for the four or five kilometers. I was following our route along in Google Earth to make sure we took the right pathways, which turned out to be quite easy even though the transitions from one runway to another on the ground look different from the satellite. We learned at 3K that running west meant running into a strong head wind, which we met again beginning at 8K on the final stretch. But Hannah seemed to have constant power, even at 9K and beyond, and we ran through the head-wind all the way back to where we started, Hannah coming in the 10K distance at 01:01:37, for which she was visibly happy, a confirmation that she is back near her form from earlier this year. It will be interesting to see if she can bring her 10K time down under one hour this year.  
 
In any case, we need to find a new route for next month. I might try to find another one in Grunewald, or perhaps one involving Schlachtensee and Krumme Lanke where we run early in the morning to avoid the crowds there. We'll see.