Suddenly a food supplier stands in the way of the German marathon record holder

Marathon ace Amanal Petros had just attacked again in the slowly fading rain of the Frankfurt Marathon and put at least a few meters between himself and his closest pursuer when he steered into a left-hand bend. And there he stood, in the middle of the marathon route, on the inner edge of the curve: the driver of a food delivery service on his bike. The race was 1:55 hours old and the finish was not far away.

Petros, running up quickly, shouted something angrily to him, made a hand gesture - and rushed past. The fact that the European champions were unable to counter a counter-attack from Ethiopian Jirata Dinki a little later probably had nothing to do with this - but still: a bizarre situation at best, definitely an annoying one.

A little later, that was forgotten: When the 31-year-old ran onto the red carpet and into the festival hall after 42.195 kilometers through the Main metropolis as second in an exciting race, he cheered as if he had won. 2:05:46 hours did not mean the German record he was aiming for - Petros holds it himself with 2:04:03 hours - but with constant rain and temperatures of just over 10 degrees, he put the plan aside early in the race. However, 2:05:46 hours is still the third best German marathon time in history.

Dinki won in a personal best time of 2:05:26 hours, with Kenyan Benard Biwott in third place. Fifth place went to former European champion Richard Ringer, Samuel Fitwi came seventh. “I gave it my all until the end, I ran out of strength a bit,” said a broken but happy Petros to hr television. "Even though it was raining so much, people stood on the street and supported us. That was incredible, motivated me and pushed me forward."

Blanka Dörfel ran outstandingly that day. The 24-year-old from Berlin delivered an outstanding marathon debut and took second place behind the big favorite Zeineba Yimer from Ethiopia. With her time of 2:20:46 hours, she immediately achieved the second fastest time of a German marathon runner. Irina Mikitenko still holds the record of 2:19:19 hours, set in Berlin in 2008.

At the finish, Dörfel first looked for her coach: Dieter Hogen. The 73-year-old is no stranger to the running scene; after all, he was the one who formed Germany's marathon legend Uta Pippig. The now 61-year-old won the Berlin and Boston Marathons three times in the 1990s and once in New York. Now he helped Dörfel make this impressive debut.

“To be honest,” said the 24-year-old, “the last five kilometers were very hard and I had to fight a lot, but it was also a cool feeling to know that you still managed to do it.” Remarkable: Dörfel runs without a sports watch, even during training. “I only ran based on feeling,” she said – Dörfel only found out how fast she was going at the finish; she had no information about it during the race.

The 24-year-old's performance at her marathon premiere in cold, wet Frankfurt gives us a lot to hope for in the future. "I think," she says herself, "that I can do it better and faster next time because my whole body was just cold today. When my body is warm, I can get going."