by Brett Larner Click here for Dr. Helmut Winter's German-language article on this year's Muenster Marathon including a large number of high-quality photos. The day dawning with heavy rain, wind, thunder and lightning, the 12th edition of the Volksbank Muenster Marathon saw the worst conditions in the race's history, but with radically opposing results in the men's and women's races the weather's impact on the race was hard to determine. In the men's race things went out very slow on the twisting roads in the course's first 10 km, understandable given the slick cobblestone surface. The designated Kenyan pacer was more than 10 seconds per km off the target pace of 3:06/km, but still the almost entirely Kenyan lead pack lagged behind. Japanese runners Yuko Matsumiya (Team Hitachi Butsuryu) and Yuya Shiokawa (Team Subaru), in Muenster with support from JRN, gestured for the pacer to run the designated splits but he repeatedly looked over his sh...
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