The race that wasn’t meant to be: I head planned to make the Tegernseelauf my second A-race for the year, capping off the year with one of the nicest (as I’m told) half-marathons in my vicinity.

I registered for this run on April 02, 2013, even before I completed my first half-marathon. Talk about being confident for this distance. I knew it would sell out eventually and didn’t want to test my chances. Upon receiving the confirmation email I put the date into the calendar and didn’t worry about it until much later. During summer, the weekends around the planned race date filled up quickly and I was happy to see that September 22nd was still good to go.

Packet pickup

When I registered I didn’t know for sure if I would make it in time for a personal pick up of the race packet, so I opted to have it sent to me. Last week of summer holidays comes around and I receive a rather fat envelope, in it all the important stuff: Bib number with timing chips, finisher t-shirt(!), promotional stuff and important information for the race day.

Planning ahead

As the start of the race would be at 10am and the drive to Tegernsee can be pretty crowded I had the brilliant idea to head out on Saturday, do a short run to scout a particular part of the course and then camp in the van, making it for a relaxed start into the race day. I even contacted the organizers by email to check for available parking lots. Got an “all clear” back.

One week to go for Tegernseelauf

Ah, it was all lined up so perfectly: Kid’s birthday the week before the race, celebrating in a small mountain hut, far away from civilization, having a good time. Come back on Sunday evening, glancing over the Facebook timeline …

Ah, a friend of mine did her long run on the HM course in Tegernsee, nice indeed.

Wait, what? You’re supposed to run Tegernsee next week, what are you talking about? Hmmm. There is a link to race results … for the Tegernsee half-marathon … as of today? Runs upstairs, grabs athlete information from the race packet, reads details “… September 15, 2013 …” FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU…Turns out I put the race on the wrong weekend. Tegernseelauf took place on September 15, 2013 while I had a good time in the mountains. The one thing that makes the missed race easier to cope with is the fact that it was pouring rain as far as I can tell from the pictures.

DNS

So, that was my first did-not-start, and one with one of the stupidest reasons ever. Right now I’m looking at alternatives to race a half-marathon next weekend, luckily I have three options. I’ll let you know what I decided for and hopefully write a real race report next week!