Tobias Sauter Wins German Marathon...

[nerual]

Former Huntington University All-American runner Tobias Sauter beat a very competitive marathon field to win the 46th annual Rund um den Baldeneysee (“Around the Lake Baldeney”). Sauter finished in a new PR of 2:18:24, well ahead of second place finisher Manuel Mayer (2:21:12). Sauter's time makes him the third fastest German marathoner in 2008. In a race where temperatures rose to the lower 80's, Sauter negative split his race running half-marathon times of 1:09:20 and 1:09:04. Sauter was told with just over 5km remaining in the race that he was very close to World Marathon Championship qualifying time, as a result Sauter found another gear and finished his last three miles in an astonishing 15 minutes and four seconds. Unfortunately Sauter still missed qualifying despite the gallant finishing effort. Sauter said that the thing he was most proud of with regards to his race was beating Zelalem Martel (2:29:32) who was with Sauter until the last 10km of the race. Martel is the German national champion in the 10km with PR's of
28:34-10km and 13:38-5km. Sauter now plans on taking a few weeks off before returning to the United States to resume training.