Did you see “The Miracle of Bern”? It is a great movie, about the World Cup final from 1954, when West Germany beat 3-2 Hungary, “The mighty Magyars”, who led 2-0 in 10 minute and, most importantly, won 8-3 in the group stage. There are several theories of what happened there and the most interesting is related to some kind of drugs, but for the time being I will concentrate myself on the “Fritz Walter Wetter”, the type of weather with heavy rain and a lot of mud. Allegedly, that was the main reason because of which the Germans turn the odds to win their first ever World Cup. Now, who knows me well, knows also that I am a big fan of rain in some aspects and I prefer by far to have rain on my runs than extreme heat.

Rainy day in Brașov

On 2nd of April 2022 I am heading to Brașov, a very beautiful town in Romania, for a half-marathon – “Intersport” – and since last time when I’ve attended this event happened in 2018 and my finishing time was 2h:16′:30″ I felt obliged to go better and to improve it, because the terrain, even though has a total climb of around 700 meters, is surprisingly runnable. Still, the problem remains stuck in mud and snow, as the trail has all around this kind of “assets” so my thought of getting lower than two hours doesn’t seem too reliable. I am surprised, though, that the rain, which started to pour exactly when the gun announced the start, gives me a boost.

From 77 to 105, but 19 minutes down

I am running below 5:00 minutes / kilometer even though it is a soft climb. Actually Until 8.5 kilometers from the total 19.7, I managed a steady pace and ended at the first check point with 50 minutes, a time that was keeping me around 77 place out of 518. Not bad at all! I thought the descent will be far easier and, at least, will give me the needed comfort to achieve the unimaginable, under 2 hours. In fact, even though downhill I am rather slow, which proved when I actually finish in 105th place, the timing is great. In fact I have the gut to think even at something below 1h:50′, but the climb before the end of kilometer 19 pisses me off highly. The mud is very slippery, the rain starts to pour harder and I am swearing heavily as I am afraid I’ll not only lose my 1h:50′ dream, but also my 1h:59′ one. I manage to keep my equilibrium, see the concrete, jump on it and full speed ahead: 3:56 minutes / last 700 meters.

So I do cross the line in 1h:57′:30″ which becomes a perfect running story for a guy that usually doesn’t run too fast on these kind of races. Mission accomplished, but the problem now switches to my left leg and it is something that concerns me a lot. I didn’t notice while walking, but do feel a quite strong pain when running, two days after, in a metatarsal. I am not used to it, the running is not as I am used to, comfortable, maximum with muscle pain… After 5 kilometers I stop. Hopefully I’ll be fine. Paris and Prague are waiting for me and I really cannot underperform. So, fingers crossed! 😀