Free Man and Animals

Stats of the week: run 42km, 2 gyms

Regards from Cape Town where I look forward to running my longest ever distance on Easter Saturday. The race is modestly called the Two Oceans Marathon and we met a couple who entered without knowing that the distance is longer than usual 42km of a marathon...

Imagine a prison where a former prisoner gets his own statue at the entrance of his jailhouse!
That is what happened to Nelson Mandela at Cape Town:

My main reason to do a bus tour around Cape of Good Hope was to meet the penguins at Simon's Town. Notice my disappointment when our guide let us only have 10 minutes to see them and take some photos:

Walking around the cliffs we came across the little dassies which are really tame and show a cool behaviour:

Long Island Run

stats of the week: run 68km, indoors cycled 1:26 hrs, 1 gym

Most of the work is done now, what my knee is likely to be happy about. To avoid any boredom at the final long run I did it by taking part at the popular Syltlauf - a 33km run along Germany's longest North Sea island. It was supposed to be a training run but as it happens often when part of a runners' crowd it ended up to be slightly too fast. Accompanied by fellow K I was tempted to keep the pace and finished after 2:55 hrs, what made an average of 5:17 min/km (8:30 min/mile). I hope my body won't take it amiss.

Now it's time to taper off for my longest run ever.

Runaway to be shot

stats of the week: run 42km, 1 hr indoor cycled, 3 gyms


I skipped one of the week's running workouts due to a small foot problem that luckily seems to be solved now. Today's medium long run of 22km (14 miles) was slow and rather relaxed. I take this as a promising sign for next Sunday's long run of 33km on the North Sea island of Sylt. It's a famous event taking the runners from the Southern tip of the narrow island to its very Northern end. I'll try to calm down and do it as a training run for the Two Oceans Marathon that'll take place a fortnight later.

Regularly I read two daily newspapers but I reckon more than 90% of their content has left my memory once I close the final page. This week there was one local notice that I still keep in mind. On the streets of my home town a cattle was shot dead by a policeman. The brave and panic creature had escaped just before it could be forced to enter the slaughterhouse. It's a very short notice but reminds us that thousands and millions of animals are violently killed every day.

Half the challenge only

stats of the week: run 67 km, 3 gyms


I'm still slightly ahead of my schedule what lets me feel good. Alas - even after today's long run I can't imagine to be running for 6 hours... Today it was 30km and 3 hours, with a feeling far better than a fortnight ago but including a hurting knee for the final 30 mins. This might be credited to snow and ice which is not sort of the best terrain for one's joints. Anyway I am glad to have ticked off my 2nd proper long run and look forward to having a relaxed week now.

Admire NYC Marathon - Love London

Just mentioned my entry to the 2010 NYC Marathon I received the 2009 certificate.
Being the biggest lover of the London Marathon I feel really ashamed that the benefit you get from the NYRR Club is so much better compared to London!

First and most important point is that with NYRR you can easily get in contact and receive capable, friendly and reliable response immediately. With London-Marathon there is no email contact provided. There is only a phone hotline which is not really qualified to help you.

NYC has a very transparent and fair entry system with a lottery and reliably qualified entries. London doesn't tell you anything about the way their lottery system works. London always sells itself as the best marathon of the world and a highly international event. But compare: NYC has 50% overseas runners, London has 7% overseas runners. Runners from abroad are just not welcomed by the organisers because they don't contribute to the charity system.

Anyway - every runner is welcomed by the crowd in London's city on race day! And that is what still makes me a fan of London Marathon. I look forward to running my 11th edition.

By the way NYC is one of the very few events that show your age graded time on the certificate. For a senior runner this makes a welcome confirmation of his personal performance.

Needless to say that in London you don't get posted a certificate nor a magazine showing the complete result list ... and it is full of photos and reports making a perfect remembrance of the big day. Big thanks to NY Road Runners Club and all their volunteers!

For more information on age grading look up Howard Grubb's website.