09.03.08 Frank Zimmer 12th in this year's Grizzly

After winning the Grizzly last year, Frank Zimmer came 12th in this year's Grizzly, a 19-mile-something cross country race in Seaton on Great Britain's Jurassic Coast. After suffering from a heavy cold three weeks earlier, Frank was a little bit worried about his current shape. That's why he started the race with care although the initial lap across the shingle beach didn't go easy for him. So he passed the starting line for the second time being 9th. On the way into Beer, he could overtake two opponents with the next group of four in sight, but on the steep muddy meadow, he might have taken too much care losing those two places again.




Due to the rain before the race, the course was a lot muddier than last year. The first bog made Frank lose another two positions when he was stuck in the mud with only half of his thigh above of the mud. He needed three attemps to get out of the bog realizing that the race was already lost. Lucky Frank tied up his shoes tightly what avoided him losing his right shoe.

When he reached the second beach with 14 miles down, Frank was ranked 15th. Feeling relatively strong at this stage (at least compared to the other runners), he could overtake five runners on the beach and the Stairway to heaven, that needed to be climbed to reach Beer again. Two other runners past him later in Beer and on the third and final beach. Frank needed 2:36:11 hours, 8:40 min. more than last year for this race of 19.x miles, that cannot be compared to any other race.

Results see Axe Valley Runners

28.10.07 Frankfurt-Marathon: Johannes Moschof and Karl-Heinz Liedtke clock personal bests

Kenyan Wilfred Kigen wins the Frankfurt Marathon for the third time in a row, setting a new course record with 2:07:58. German Melanie Kraus from Leverkusen near Cologne wins the women's race in 2:28:56 after taking the lead beyond the 40k mark from Russian Svetlana Zakharova.

Johannes Moschof finished the Frankfurt marathon after 2:43:16 improving his personal best by half a minute. Two almost identical halves (1:21:49 - 1:21:27) prove his clever tactics. Johannes came 14th within his age group M40.

Karl-Heinz Liedtke improved his personal best by remarkable six minutes setting his new record to 3:06:17. His race strategy with a strong 13.1-mile-split of 1:30:16 shows that he wanted even more. Anyway, Karl-Heinz can be really satisfied with his performance, that gave him rank 38 in his age group M50.

The fastest Skills runner was Frank Zimmer, who reached the Gudd Stubb (local dialect for Frankfurt's living room called Festhalle, the main fair pavillion where the finish is located) after 2:34:12 hours. He needed 5 kilometres and 17:42 minutes to realize that his pace was obviously a little bit too fast. After slowing down, he needed roughly 18:10 for each 5k section up to the 35k mark, before his fight began, but 19:16 wasn't that bad for the next five kilometres, although former Olympic Champion Dieter Baumann (5000m 1992) passed Frank in the end. Frank came forth in the M40 ranking.

With a time of 3:29:18 Marimar Martinez was the fastest Skills woman in Frankfurt. Being 29th in her W35 age group, she failed by just one minute in improving her seasonal best, that she set in Mainz in early May. Skills member Birgitt Bohn clocked an incredible fast new personaL best of 2:42:55, but she wore the dress of her other club.

Ranking 23rd in the M55, Klaus-Dieter Klatt needed 3:21:16 this time. As always, he managed to run a constant pace all the way, although he could go faster usually. After being injured for most of the year, he already decided not to take part in Frankfurt, but in the end he took the opportunity to start free of charge (due to his third M55 rank last year) in order to have a better training. Klaus-Dieter already looks forward to a better season in 2008.

Klaus Langelüddeke also took part in this year's Frankfurt Marathon. He set a constant pace up to the 30k mark. Unfortunately there was no 35k split being registered for him, which means he must have quit the somewhere in the west of Frankfurt.

The results of Frank Zimmer, Johannes Moschof and Karl-Heinz Liedtke add up to 8:23:45 hours, which gives the Skills team a good 11th position out of 494 male teams.

Results see Frankfurt Marathon homepage

09.09.2007 Seaton/Devon/GBR: Frank Zimmer wins the Grizzly

The Grizzly is a famous, at least it is in the U.K., all-terrain-race in South West England with start and finish in the East Devon town of Seaton near the mouth of the river Axe. It is number three on the ranking of Britain's most popular running events just behind the London Marathon and the Great North Run, but it is different, because it really goes cross country by the truest sense of the meaning making up a distance of 19 to 20 miles, or round about 31 kilometres. Taking part for the first time, you never know what surprise comes up behind the next corner.

The race's start on the coast Esplanade was on real good tarmac just like the London Marathon, but after a few hundred yards we were directed onto the beach made of pebbles, which made it difficult to keep the pace. After the initial loop we were back on the good road passing the start line for the second time with the first climb coming up very soon. Later on, I realized that this climb was everything else than steep. Heading west, we left the town of Seaton running on a dark road into the village of Beer. On this first steep climb, I took the lead after only two miles down. The running surface after leaving Beer varied between open fields, sometimes with loose stones, pebbles, water and mud going either uphill or downhill with a fence to cross and two jumps in between. The run is famous for its bog, which is the mud, where everybody sinks in up to her or his knees, which makes it impossible to keep on running for a moment. But the toughest part came just after the bog, with a climb on a field that goes up almost vertical. I had to use feet and hands to reach the top there.

It is really impossible to keep a certain pace. Before the race, I thought of running an average of 6:30 to 7:00 min per mile, but I realized early, that this was not realistic. The course was well marked with marshals at nearly every corner. People were very friendly pushing me up to keep my pace almost everywhere and even Nordic Walker letting me pass easily. After reaching Branscombe mouth again, - that is the place, where the container ship MS Napoli stranded in January, what made the run postponed to now - I went into a lack of energy. The race became extremely tough now with another really long section on pebbles beach leading into the so-called stairway to heaven, another steep climb just after coming down another stairway from heaven. Afterwards I had to fight another pebbles beach section finally reaching the Esplanade and crossing the finish line as probably the first winner from overseas in 20 years of Grizzly history. My time of 2:27:31 hours is not really fast, but as long as nobody else could do better on that Septembre 9th, 2007, this year's trophy goes to me.

If anybody wants to take part next year, do not hesitate to contact me pretty soon, because next year's Grizzly is going to take place on March 9th with signing up starting this Friday and ending probably one week later.

!!! Sorry that this report is in English, but that is due to a promise I gave Garry from the Axe Valley Runners, who is the key person in organizing this remarkable event. Thanks to the world wide web, he and his fellow runners will (hopefully) have a look onto our homepage. Anyway, you may use this article to improve your English - or mine, if you tell me what I made wrong!!! BTW: The German word for pebbles is Kieselsteine. - FZ -

Results see Axe Valley Runners

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