OCR... more than running

It was hard and it was cold! But it was good! Winterhell 2019: A good start for the OCR-Session 2019. For the Russian runners, it maybe feels like summer vacations. We had around +4 degree (yes, positive!) but the wind was blowing and it was wet. Every rope, every steel rod, every obstacle, everything was wet. And so it was hard enough for most of the European runners. We started early in the morning. The Nürburgring isn’t so far. But we had to be there at 10 o'clock, and we had to calculate with some delay because of the snow and the fog. Once there, we had to decide a very important and tricky question: What to wear? Don’t wear too many clothes. You will get warm during the run. But you should wear enough because you will have to wait at some obstacles. And you will have to go to and wait at the start line. Even for the last point, I have learned and copied something from another runner: Take the oldest pullover and oldest gym suit and wear it over all other clothes. ...

Straßenläufe sind ja so eine Sache: Man kommt im Training nicht drum herum, aber so wirklich Spaß machen sie keinen. Das wiederum ist natürlich Geschmacks- bzw. Ansichtssache und stark von persönlichen Vorlieben abhängig. Mir aber machen sie kaum Spaß. OCR’s sind aber kein günstiger Spaß. Hier werden schnell mal 80-110€ Startgebühr pro Lauf fällig. Von An- und Abreise- und ggf Übernachtungskosten ganz zu schweigen. Eine günstige Mischung sind Trail-Läufe. Und von diesen gab es am 19.01.2019 wieder einen in meiner Heimatregion. Es war also fast schon eine Pflichtveranstaltung, auf die ich von einem Laufkameraden aufmerksam gemacht wurde. Es galt eine Trail-Strecke von 21km (also ein Halbmarathon)  zu „überwinden“. Überwinden klingt mir zu negativ. Sagen wir lieber mit Freunde und Spaß zu laufen. Mittlerweile habe ich einige Freunde auch eben in der Läuferszene. Im Gespräch mit diesen und allen anderen betone ich immer wieder, dass für mich Freude und Spaß an der Bewegun...

A runner year of the extra class comes to an end. But not without topping all again! On 31.12.2018, the last day of the year and thus the last chance to change the annual statistics, six top athletes which Aachen has rarely seen met at the DLC New Year’s Eve 2018. Fortunately for the other participants, some top runners and members of the “ Lustlauf - Mein Verein e.V. ” fell injury unfortunately out. We met at the headquarter of the “ Lustlauf - Mein Verein e.V. ” where we prepared for the race together. After a short refreshment with home-baked carbohydrate-dripping cakes and a personal purchase consultation first our sprinters started: Ralf and Gabriele started in the 4.8km challenge. Of course, thanks to perfect training in the club’s weekly sessions, this was hardly a challenge for both. Of course, top times and placements were achieved here: Ralf ran faster than ever, leaving far more than 75% of the total field behind. With a time of 24:17 min (5:03min/km) he rea...

As I have already told, and you certainly know, most events are yearly events. So, in 2018 it becomes the third time I ran the “ ATG Winterlauf ”. It’s a big event with over 2000 starters in the running scene in my hometown. Even if it’s (in my opinion) not the most beautiful run, it is more or less part of the compulsory program. If you think you are a dedicated runner, you are taking part! So I did! Many friends from “ Lustlauf - Mein Verein ” took part. It was cold because especially at this event you have to wait up to an hour outside in the winter weather for the start. But sure it was again fun pure!

  Holy Hill…. Sounds after many meters of altitude. We were curious, but prepared! We were (I like to say) as usual a little group. It’s good to do things with friends, and more than I could wish, we are good friends! Meanwhile, we know things about each other which are very private. I love you all and want not loss one of you!  They made advertising with a unique obstacle: they called it “zip line”. First we had to climb up on a skyscraper. Okay, only five floors. From the top of it there was only one way down: A harness, a rope and a brake roller. It was good and unique, but it sounds like more adrenaline than it was. The Race was good, like it was advertised. And one more time the Netherlands showed us some extreme positive things: The starting fee was (as usual in the Netherlands) cheep and the organization was very good! Parking? Normally you have to pay extra for it. Not in the Netherlands. They told us to park at the stadium, from where we were picked up ...

It was a long time discussed in my club and at the end I just did. My club has its own website and there is an internal forum. But that is not state of the art. It’s not real-time communication and takes way too long. Spontaneity is something else and not possible. So I opened a whats-app-group with all phone numbers I knew. It worked! Within two days we were a little group of 10 who want to start at the Rursee-Marathon. This will be a great day - that was sure! Alone, the journey to the event was pure fun. We shared two cars and our mood got better with each kilometer we got closer to the start line. In the end we were almost euphoric. There are different distances to choose. I took (as usual) a distance around a half-marathon. I had to say it was a very natural track. Very nice landscape around the dam with some hard and high surprises. Some elevations were hard but possible to run, and so we all were happy to reach the finish! I sadly had to handle with a drop of bitte...

Again…. Most events are yearly events. That doesn’t mean they are boring or less interesting. That means there is a fix date in your Calendar on which you can be happy. This time we were again at the “Hambacher Herbstlauf” like in 2017. That’s an event which is sponsored by my club. Many friends take part every year and the “Lustlauf - Mein Verein” is strongly represented. I took the 21km distance - a half-marathon. More or less, this is my favorite distance. Much more and I get bored. And much less, I don’t feel challenged. So, this is my distance and I’m good in it. I became the winner of my age group. I don’t need to say it, but it was a very great day with friends! Love you all!