It was time again for our annual run around the Lake Eder which is a water reservoir. The plan was as always to run around the lake with 2 food stops. We were 6 people this time and slighty varied our track to include some new trails we haven't run before.

The weather was perfect, a lot of sun, and hot enough to include two swim sessions during halftime and at the end.

I was feeling well until the end, my new running shoes did a perfect job. And thanks to Urs who kept some cold bootles of beer in the car to celebrate the finish. :)

All-in all we accumulated 54 km this year with an approx. running time of 6:20 h plus 2 longer food stops in Herzhausen and Rehbach.

Looking eagerly forward to next year's edition!

Busy working month

July was a very busy month at work with a lot of interesting experiences. We had a lot of people from all over the world in Switzerland for the final testing of the system we implement. But the old saying goes: Work hard, party hard.

Therefore we also did a team event with all the the people from around the world in Basel going around in an old tram. See the team below:



Some other team events this month were the Company running event on the Formula1 race track Hockenheimring, the yearly Summer Party and a sailing trip on the Lake Constance. See below some photos:


Our Camelot team at the Firmencup


Me during the final meters of my personal record braking race :)



Our Camelot team on the sailing event on Lake Constance


One of the four boats

Horse & Run

This weekend was full of sportive events. Saturday Astrid had a dressage tournament in Michelstadt and because Ray was ill we put Andor in the trailer and he had to run his first tournament.

What to say, Astrid and Andor did a great job and became second. It couldn´t have been better.



Sunday I went to Frankfurt for the skyrun on top of the Messeturm. 61 storeys, 1344 stairs in 8:29 min. I was satisfied, 52 seconds faster than in 2007. I´m looking forward to more stair running.

Elbtunnel marathon

Thanks to my friend J.R. it was a very nice marathon. He paced me during the first half of the race with lap times differing by a few seconds. Thanks a lot.



In the end I finished in 3:37 h, very good for a January marathon.

On Indian tracks

Do you know the book "A walk in the woods" by Bill Bryson? After passing by it at the Delaware Water Gap two times in the last year I couldn't leave it there again this time.

So I used the chance and convinced my colleague to run a small part of the 2600 mile long Appalachian trail after arriving in New Jersey on Monday afternoon.



We went up a most of the way up to Mount Nimsi from Delaware Water Gap, having wonderfull views on the Delaware River from time to time.



We will stay until Friday doing workshops on a production site in Belvidere, an hour and a half west of New York City. It's quite rural here and our hotel is in a very small town called Hope, founded by German pilgrims.

See typical Belvidere below...



...and the crossing over the Delaware.

Kassel Marathon

My 21st marathon, but an important one. After last year with very few training, a bad marathon in over 4 hours and an unfinished ironman I started a regular training in January and had some very first signs of better performance at the Strongman and the Lichtenwald half marathon. So my goal was to finish a marathon in under 3:30 h for the first time since the end of 2005. And I did it. 3 hours and 27 minutes and I saw the finish line under this extremely hot and sunny conditions. It's a nice track with nice people cheering during the race. The photo below has been shot by Astrid just minutes before the start.

Berchtesgaden Alps

We are on a week long holiday to the Alps near Berchtesgarden. We went hiking, but its very rainy and cold and the snow still covers most of the higher trails.





But independent of the weather I love the mountains and especially running in the mountains. Below you can see a face shot of myself right after climbing one of my running hills.



On one of the last days we went to Salzburg to the zoo and met our new favorite animals, the cute Alpakas (see here).

Home in Mecklenburg & Run to the sky!

A weekend at home in Mecklenburg, a seldom experience these days. It was nice to see the family again and have a nice bbq in the garden.



On the way back to Mannheim I stopped over in Berlin and met my cousin at the Alexander place for participation in the second big stair run in Germany (after the one I ran in Frankfurt last year). The race went up the 39 floors to the Park Inn Hotel, quite exhausting. I succeeded as 26th overall from 500 participants and was 2nd in my age group.



Below you can see my cousin in his sandals on the 20th something floor.

Lichtenwald half marathon

Only 7 days after the successful mud run I went to a small village in the Swabian Alb to take part in a mountain half marathon organized by a friend. It's one of my favorite runs where I have been the last three years already.

Besides meeting friends of my marathon circle I was really fast and became 19th overall and second in my age group. The continuous training since January finally pays off.

Strongman, Weeze

The long and hard training in the woods around Mannheim ;) finally did pay off. I went with friends to Weeze, a former army base in Northern Germany near the Dutch border, to take part in the mud race. And I became 295th from over 5000 participants.



See some videos and articles about the race on the official site.

The last days...

...of Strongman training. :)



edit: PS: When watching this post Astrid mentioned that her involvement in the washing process of this trouser is worth a notice. Yes it is! Thanks a lot! You know I love you!

Mortal Zennern

We went to Zennern this weekend to Astrid`s parents for a big family party. This morning I went out for a short run around the fish lakes of Zennern. Somehow I managed to get my face caught by a barbed wire. Luckily it had snowed last night, so I could cool my face and continue running.

I decided to quit

As already feared, training was'nt sufficient this year. The external conditions were perfect, but my fight started already at km 40 on the bike, so I decided to quit after 150 km. My muscles were sore and running a marathon in that shape was out of question. So now I will enjoy the rest of the day at the beach cheering the better trained. :) Jolle


Starting in Schwerin at Saturday


SThe bike park with the Baltic Sea in the background


Sunset at the campsite


A friend finishing

Tuesday was the annual Firmencup (Company Cup) running event on the Hockenheim race circuit. 4.8 km on the former Formula1 race track with 5-11,000 runners.

It was raining, so we have been just 5 people of our company this time. But anyway, all finished successfully.

I was a little bit faster than last year with my 17:20 min. Not bad regarding my current training, I think.

Below a picture of me just some meters before finishing.

Sorry for the long absence..

What happened in the meantime:

I finished the skyscraper run in a record time.
I finished the Mannheim Marathon in over 4 hours, very bad.
And I finished sleeping the whole last weekend in a perfect shape. :)

Next weekend will be the first triathlon for this season, the half distance in Maxdorf.

More later...

My weekend activity...

Look here. :)

This run is part of the Frankfurt skyscaper festival. It'll be fun, hopefully...

A long way to Holland...

Wow, this was quite a strenuous weekend - but a nice one. On Friday I drove to Lichtenwald near Stuttgart to meet friends, with which I ran the Lichtenwald half marathon on Saturday afternoon. It's already my third one there, and I will definitely come back. It's really a nice and mountaneous track through the woods.

Directly after the run I again hit the road and drove to Utrecht to participate in Basti's 30 year birthday party. I arrived early enough to get the best of it, I hope. :)

Anyway, it was nice to see them after such a long time. And moreover we had a splendid summer day at (and in) the Northern Sea on sunday before returning to Mannheim.

Some marathon statistics

Last weekend I ran the 25th Frankfurt Marathon. It took 4:11 h to finish.

While updating my training log I saw that it has been my 20th marathon since September 2003, when I ran the first one in Berlin.

Of the 20 marathons I ran have been
- 9 flat city courses,
- 9 mountain and/or ultramarathons and
- 2 marathons within an triathlon.

And I never needed over 4 hours for a city course, except last Sunday in Frankfurt. What is also interesting in this context is, that I continuously reduced my overall training kilometers without reducing race kilometers. In 2006 I ran already over 50% of my kilometers in official races (338 out of 641).

So, just one more statistics for the moment. Tonight I have been bowling with collegues and customers. I had an average of around 50 to 70 per game, one of the worst. This is definitely not my sport, even it is a lot of fun. ;)

Marathon Preview

I am currently in Bremen. Sunday will be the marathon. But more important is that we had a cool night out in the pubs.

11:59:21 - this time it'll be hard to do it again...

Tomorrow I'll leave to Glücksburg with my mother. I am planning to compete in the Ostseeman longdistance triathlon once again after my premiere last year.

Last year I finished in 11:59:21 hours, but this time it'll be hard to do it again regarding the reduced training intensity in 2006. Compared to last years training kilometers I did 30% swimming, 33% cycling and 55% running. So in my opinion I will really get into trouble on the 180 km bike course. This will be the crucial step to success on Sunday.

Regarding this I set my goal on Sunday to simply finish. A new personal best would be a nice brithday presence in advance, but no must to be satisfied.

Press your thumbs for me, I'll need it!



For last years race report (German) you can download here.

Below you can see me accompanying Petra on her 50 km run at the Deutschlandstaffel, a 15 days, 24 hours a day relay race around Germany. I also ran 3 legs and accompanied some on bike. Photos and report can be found in the logbook (German) at the relevant legs. I was involved from Luebeck until Alt Bukow.