Merry Christmas

Well, my last working day for 2005 is over, tomorrow moring I'll leave Mannheim to drive home to Mecklenburg and visit my family for Christmas. Luckily 2 friends from home will accompany me, so the long car drive won't get boring.

Around New Year I'll be in Utrecht (NED) visiting friends before going back to Mannheim on 2nd January. My work will start again on 9th, so I'll have some time for friends, my flat and maybe a short ski trip, I'll see.

As a Christmas present ;) I have finally finished the report about my first long distance triathlon. Get the PDF-File here. Moreover I have already registered for next year's race in August.

I wish everybody a joyfull Christmas time as well as a smooth slide into 2006. CU then! ;)

Christmas is coming near...

Christmas is approching fast, so it's time again to stroll over beautiful Christmas markets, drink a lot of mulled wine, break your head on gifts for the family and organize all the visits of friends and family between Holy Eve and New Year.

Moreover it's time to plan next year's events, especially the runs I want to take part, as many of them are booked out fast or the starting fee significantly increases at the end of the year. Right now I've considered several marathons (Weinstrasse and Leipzig in April, Mannheim in May) and ultramarathons (Rodgau in Jan, Baerenfels in July) as well as shorter distances (Schwerin in July, Lichtenwald in April etc.). Moreover I have registered again for the Ostseeman triathlon in August and will probably start in Ladenburg again as a test race. But except the big marathons and the Ostseeman nothing is fixed yet, so I may modify the plan as I feel. ;)



Above you can see my garland of evergreens with four candles for the Sundays in Advent, a German tradition. I will drive home on 23rd and stay in Schwerin until the 30th before visiting a friend in the Netherlands (Utrecht).

So, you're almost up-to-date right now. Just one more thing, I'll visit my granny in Thuringia and run a hilly marathon in a disused salt mine on Saturday morning. Temperatures of 27°C on a December day have simply been to tempting for me to resist the challenge. ;)

Golden Autumn

The weather meant it good with us this autumn. October has been unnormally warm and sunny. Perfect weather for running, which doesn't mean that I run much these days. ;) Now it's getting significantly colder and I have bought a used rollertrack for indoor cycling. I was astonished how difficult it is to stay on, but I'll get better everyday a bit.

Last Wednesday some collegues and I saw the ice-hockey match Germany vs. USA in Mannheim and luckily became eyewitness of the first victory sind 1971, Truly a historic moment. Last weekend I was in Berlin to visit my cousin. Saturday was a 10 km run and we went to a friends party on the evening. Sunday I strolled around the city to see what has changed. Moreover I went into a exhibition, sighted the new holocaust monument and found this nice piece of neon art.



Next weekend I'll visit a friend in the Saarland with whom I ran the Jungfrau marathon in Septmeber and we'll drive to Luxemburg for a trail run. I hope the weather doesn't change too much until then.

Lost in time...

Hmm, almost a month has passed since my last message. Not much happens at the moment, I'm not even running much these days. But things will change. I've still not forgotten my Ostseeman report as well as to upload some photos from Switzerland, Dublin etc. But first I need answer some letters from friends and family. Somehow I managed to do not much else than working in October.

But on Friday I'll go home for a long weekend and I'll finally bring my bed to Mannheim. 2 months on the floor is enough. :)

I wish you a very nice autumn, Jolle!

Bremen Marathon

I just came back from the Bremen Marathon in the North of Germany. I've got a new personal best of 3:03:20 h, so I'm quite happy, even if had speculated to crash the three hours barrier. ;)

CU, Jolle!

Ireland

I am back from Switzerland. The marathon went well, it took me almost 5 hours to climb the mountains. Since yesterday I'm in Ireland for 4 days enjoying the publife in Dublin. See you then, Jolle!

The last weeks & coming days...

The stress is not over yet, but a lot has been achieved yet. Finally, I have my first real flat to live in, almost 70 m² in Mannheims nicest quarter, the Oststadt (East town), one of the very few quarters with old houses.





It was good luck, that my mom visited me the weekend when I had to move, so she helped me a lot and I had completed the whole process from visiting the new flat, moving and finding a new tenant for the old room in less than a week. I even had enough time for a 10 km run in Mannheim on Saturday, where I met two collegues.

Moreover I already had some friends visiting me to explore Mannheim's nightlife. We also went to Heidelberg, which looks quite nice in the evening at the moment.



As I wrote already, my new project in Frankfurt started from September on. It consumes quite some travelling time by train. On the other that allows me to read a lot.

The coming weekend I'll be on a trip to Switzerland. On Saturday I'll enjoy the Jungfrau-Marathon in Interlaken, the rest is not yet planned.

Adding some speed to my life...

I had some exciting last days and much more are now to follow. Last weekend I did another triathlon in Biblis, a sprint distance (0.5-20-5 km) which I finished after 1:09 hours in the first 10th of the pack. Moreover I've visited a new apartment and spontaneously decided to take it. The contract was signed today. As a result I'm now a bit in a hurry to find someone who will take over my old room, so that I don't have to pay two flats for the next three month.

Moreover I'll have to move during the next 10 days and need to buy some furniture and a kitchen. The latter I'll may postpone though, as I guess I won't have time for that in the next weeks. The reason why I think so is, that it's now official that I'll work in Frankfurt during the week from September on and I've already planned my weekends in the next month (Switzerland, Ireland, Bremen Marathon), all except the first one, where some friends will visit.

So, I'm looking forward to that. Maybe it distracts me a bit from my overflowing ToDo-list.

Back to work...

I haven't found much time to finish my Ostseeman report, but I'll promise to deliver it soon, whatever that means. ;)

Chances are high that I'll be on project in Frankfurt starting in September, let's see. Moreover I'm looking for a new flat from time to time. Let's see what happens. Til later!

It's done...

...11:59:21 ;)

Now in recovering mode!