Cologne Marathon

Before the Marathon: 
I finished my 2nd Marathon ever. 
Cologne was a real good one, since such a crowd is really helpful, when they scream your name.
Me and Jasmin met at her parents place and went by car and tram to the Marathon start. I registered my bag and went to the start... had to go to the toilet for 3 more times... haha. Better now then during the race!

The first few kilometeres went slowly, due to the high number of runners. I have estimated 3:10-3:13h. I knew I could do the 3:10h, but would have had to do more 30Km + runs in training. I did the halfmarathon in 1:32h (pic above taken by Britta at 21,5km), so I thought I should make it in 3:10h, but after Km 30 my body slowly rejected the pace.
In the end I finished in 3:12:51 h, which is cool considering my lack of long joggs in training and the short specialized marathon training period of 2.5 weeks.

But this was the first run without blisters. My muscles weren't too sore in the end. Only the upper leg muscles. I wore compression calf guards by "Zoot" and my socks "Speed Metal" by X-Socks kept my feet fresh and vital. The shoes I ran my fastest 10km race with also proved to be the best marathon shoes I got. These are a sneakers version of the Nike Lunar Racer, but cheaper. Nike Lunar Rejuvenate Presto is the name and I have never seen those at usual running shops, but sneaker shops sometimes got these. They are truely amazing! I can only write this again... they proved to be fast at 10km, but they also proved to endure a marathon.

Food: I put a few Aptonia fruit jellys from Decathlon in my mouth behind my cheeks and didn't eat them but let them slowly disappear. That way the body gets the sugar constantly through the saliva that gets resorbed easier than through food in the stomach. I chewed a salt tablet, took two sachets of "High5 Energy Gel", ate some slices of banana and half an "Oat Energy banana bread" supplied by my sponsor "Alles-Vegetarisch.de" http://www.alles-vegetarisch.de/Suesswaren-Riegel-Davina-ENERGY-OAT-SNACK-Banana-Bread--70g-,art-1326.Oh I also had a maca tablet during and right before the race.
After the race I ate as much vegan stuff as provided. They had loads of raisin and nut mixes, apple water, laugengebäck, bread, bananas and apples. I think I stayed there for like half an hour to eat and drink.

After the run: 
Jasmins mother was kind enough to provide us with some proteins and carbohydrates through delicious potatoes and vegetables after the run. I was invited to my friend Kouider for dinner in Dortmund. So I drove there, got some north african starter (mixed vegetables with bread), a very nice salad, canneloni with spinach and more vegetables as second and prickly pears and figs as dessert. Thanks to people who are not even vegetarian themselves but are open minded enough to make dinner comfortable for vegans and even eat vegetarian on that day! I love you!
Didn't want to drive back home due to feeling worn out, so I slept at my friends place.
Got up in the morning around ten and we ate the remains of the dinner from the evening before. Then I went back home, picked up my daughter and we went waterskiing. No other sports to be done today!
I will see what tomorrow brings... either cycling or swimming. Good night!

I will post a pic of all my gear within the next few days!