Maybe i just don't do Mondays ?

Another Monday and for 57k's a shocker. Was asked to start at 7 but convinced Ingo that the nervous energy i would waste in that hour would cost me at least 1/2 an hour so started with the majority at 6. Didn't have a great deal of fun leading us out as the minimal lighting made the arrows hard to spot. Was happy to settle into 2nd then 3rd place out of town. Was 17 degrees by the first checkpoint so took the green jacket off. Seemed a bit flat (possibly just the thought of almost 80ks was enough after 2 shorter days). Progressively warmer as i worked my way through many ups and downs. After 45k's 7AM starter Hiroko caught up with me, that finally spurred me on as we ran together to the 48K checkpoint. After that she disappeared into the distance and i was back to struggling. Was passed easily by Trond (another 7 starter) and by the 57km checkpoint was joined by race leader Jorg and my regular sparring partner Frank. They all left well before as i spent at least 10 minutes there changing into Striders singlet and lighter camelbak in an attempt to salvage a vaguely decent run. Typically race mongrel me was spurred on by seeing Frank struggle in front of me and i finally found that extra gear i'd been lacking all day. Hit the massive town of Ilmenau and was rapt to see the aid station celebrating our half way point (603K's). From then on a run through the forest (with picture postcard views of our destination town of Manebach), as well as beating the rain in (lots of black clouds the last hour). A little over 10 hours, should be enough to entrench me in 7th overall. A few back niggles so will have a massage after dinner, hopefully a much better nights sleep (last night struggled to sleep for the first time - now i know we have lots of snorers!). Tomorrow is relatively short but apparently lots of real mountains!.