After a break of several weeks, the ZüriLaufCup series continued with the first of its four autumns races, Rütilauf, last Sunday. I decided to participate; it was my 8th ZLC race of this year, and because only the top six results count for the overall ranking, I would have to perform (relatively) better than in two other races to earn some points.

It was a very hot day, the hottest since decades for that exact date (or so I heard, but it seems credible). I had never done this race before, but public transportation was available until very close to the starting area so I didn’t plan a lot of extra time to get there.

After arriving, I put my bag in the changing rooms and headed for the start to “warm up” (even more) with about ten minutes to go. I was immediately soaking wet and started thinking about getting a sleeveless shirt for running. For next Summer, you know. (And only for races.)

With about five minutes to go, I joined the crowd before the starting line. I did have a look at the elevation profile before, but it was kind of hard to memorise:

I could keep in mind that after 4.5 km it’s “easy” for a bit and that there are some mean hills before the end. I could have also remembered “it’s just never flat”.

And off we were!

If you look closely, you spot fast Julie (with the red hair) and triathlete Filippo Neri (blue shirt, black short, no compression socks).

And if you look very closely, I’m there as well!

The course did a little loop back through the starting area before going out on a bigger loop. The path got very narrow early on and I was a bit annoyed that I hadn’t started further to the front because it was very hard to pass people, but being held back in the beginning of a race is usually a good thing as people tend to overpace after the start anyway.

For quite some time I kept passing people, but the course made sure I never found any kind of rhythm. It was blistering hot, and on the sections not covered by trees it was as if somebody was pushing me towards the ground. I took every drink and sponge I could get, but the two gulps of water were like the figurative (German) “drops on a hot stone”.

Quite soon I reached the position in the field where I was surrounded by people with my pace, so not much passing was going on any more. At one point I passed Jens, a guy I know from seeing him at ASVZ, the academic sports association, but I never could put much distance between him and myself.

After the turning point in the South with about three kilometres to go, I hit an all time low. Kilometre splits were skyrocketing, lots of people passed (among them Jens again), and I just couldn’t muster up any strength to go faster.

I’m not sure where this was taken, but probably around then:

This was either after just being passed by Jens or passing him for the first time.

The “pièce de resistance”, a mean climb just before the final stretch, was still waiting, and it was mean. The good thing was that I could pass Jens again as he resorted to power walking (which probably wasn’t much slower than my run shuffle). The last kilometre was not a prime example of a strong finish, but at least nobody else passed me. Very happy to get to stand in the shade I gulped down lots of water and drinks and tried to stop looking as if somebody had thrown me into a swimming pool.

I chatted with Julie who placed 3rd woman overall (which makes me 3rd in my virtual “me vs. the women” race) and met Oliver who recognised me from this blog (and I recognised him from his). Oli had blasted past me somewhere in the final ascent and placed 9th in our age group; I placed 10th, which sounds pretty cool, but I never felt like doing a strong race.

Even though the relative placing was better than my ZLC average, I didn’t get any points for the overall cup because compared to the time of the age group winner, it was my second worst performance of the year. Fine, the age group winner (last year’s dominator Christian Kreienbühl) was about 10% faster than the second place and likely ruined points for everybody, but still.

In the overall cup standing I lost one place because Adrian Brennwald (world champion in Double and Triple Ironman) finally did his 6th race. One guy improved by five points, but that doesn’t change the overall standing, so now I’m placed 7th. 

The main question until the end of the season will be whether the people with less than six races who are faster than me (e.g., Dani) will race enough to get to six races or not, because I will only improve marginally (if at all).

This weekend I’ll probably do the next ZLC race, Türlerseelauf, on Saturday; on Sunday I’ll to Tägi Tri sprint triathlon where I did my first triathlon ever one year ago. And then it’s all about preparing for NYC marathon!