LakeRun, Kalkar 2017

It was cold …

We registered a few weeks ago. At that time it was still warm. It was already autumn, but the sun was shining and we felt strong.
On 19.11.2017 it was cold! At temperatures just above freezing, we met in Kalkar. We knew it would be hard, wet and dirty. But we did not know how hard, wet and dirty it really would be.

At half past nine in the morning we were at the registration for the LakeRun in the “Kernwasser Wunderland Kalkar”: Ramona, Frank, Benjamin, Simon, Thomas and me.
According to registration a 6km circuit awaited us with 40 exciting and demanding obstacles on varied terrain. I was the only one who wanted to run 3 laps, thus 18km and therefore had to start 30 minutes earlier. Everyone else wanted to run a respectable 2 laps.

Soon it was time: I was at the start line and after a short warm-up program, I saw myself on the track. With harmless bales of straw as the first obstacle, it started quite loose. But at the second obstacle it should be wet and cold. It went into a waist-high stream, which you had to cross for about 100m long. Out of the water again and - oh, what’s that? - Where are my legs? I do not felt them anymore. It was so cold!

Defying the clinking cold in the legs, it continued on the track: followed by nets that were to be climbed over, mud pits that should through crawled and containers to climbed over.

After about 3 kilometers he again in front of us: the stream. Although we were now a few hundred meters further upstream, but now we had to go contrary to the flow again about 100m into the cold water. Luckly this time the water was not waist high - No, this time it was chest high. The ground did the rest and with the already muddy shoes, a walk was hardly possible. Swim? Head under water? Well, what else should you do. Everything was better than staying here. With applause from the spectators who certainly had no idea how cold this water was, I swam upstream up to the saving shore and obstacle finish. Finally, I was back on the shore. But relaxation or even a heater was out of the question. It went on.

Again there were some climbing obstacles and a slack line, a container that this time could only be climbed with a rope. And then - oh God - the Rhine. They said it would get wet, but the Rhine? Luckily it did not go in the Rhine. People on the passing ships paid homage to us. Maybe they knew how cold the wind can be when you are completely soaked.

We had been promised a varied terrain? So far, there were muddy meadows and roads / parking lots. Now sand and rocks should be added. About the beach lounge and the children’s playground of the amusement park it went into the middle of the rides. Sure, the park was closed and the attractions out of service. Nevertheless, an exciting and funny route, in which one felt reminded of “Parkour”. An acoustic highlight was certainly the cooling tower, in the interior of which a chain carousel had to be climbed. Grandiose, impressive acoustic phenomena which played out here!
Shortly before the finish, there was a beer barrel monkey swing and a rung ladder, both of which wanted to be overcome in a shaky way.

Finish? Oh, no, that was only the first round. Visitors in the start / finish area continued to cheer us on and so it was with new energy in the second and third round. At the end of my second lap, I saw them: Ramona, Frank, Benjamin, Simon and Thomas struggled forward and were also close to the end of their first lapse.

But somehow it felt too hard for “only” 6km. It turned out that every single lap was not 6km but 8km long and the organizer could not torment us 18km but rather 24km.
Fought off, tired and completely soaked , we met again in the finish area of the LakeRun - Kalkar.