d(run)k in golden autumn

15° celsius. sunny. 17:15 (2:30:32)

i was late (as usual) cos i misjudged the distance (and the time) to cycle to the sport center in the city nord. i was greeted by rainer and received a sauerkraut mit wein (i don't know how to translate this in english). anyway, i changed as fast as possible into my running gear and all i heard about today's run was something to do with cycling route. we were lucky to have such a perfect weather for running today.

we ran through the stadpark for the first kilometer and then i realised that the following route was exactly the same way as i cycled towards the sport center. hmmm... it was zigzagging with lots of right and left turns and soon we came very near towards my place. as we reached klaus-groth-strasse, rainer proudly told me that we've reached the highest point during our run (he thought it was all new to me), and i simply told him that i live somewhere near and this was my usual route when i ran towards alster.

after that it was all new to me. the route towards city süd (south) was something different as we ran along the canal and office buildings and trying our best crossing the road during the busy peak-hour traffic. finally we came to the speicherstadt (old warehouse district), a very nice view with sun shining on the red bricks. carpets, coffees and lots of other stuffs are stored here. there's also tourist attractions like the dungeon and miniature wonderland (railway model). we ran through the port and the view of the river elbe with ships and shipyard was fascinating, especially when the sun setting down. surprisingly, our route took us to the old elbe tunnel. we took a short break (drinking water) while travelling down 24 meters below the surface with the lift. this is where the elbtunnel marathon took place - a crazy event in january where the participants ran almost 49 times round and round the tunnel. the tunnel is about 850 meters long and there are only two lanes - one way in and another way out. only cars are allowed to drive through here and of course, pedestrians. we ran one round to and fro and in the end, instead of taking the passenger's lift, we took the vehicle's lift, thanks to the sweet talking of the ladies in our group.

the run continued towards reeperbahn and planten un blomen. as we finally reached aussenalster, me and peter sprinted all the way towards the water cooler. i drank and drank cos i was soooo thirsty. we continued on after this short break before i realised that our next break is not that far away. guido has everything ready, vodka with fig, lemon water and bread with cheese. it was really hard to continue running after all these but we had to. it was very dark in the stadtpark and i couldn't see a thing, just the slight reflection from the jackets of the runners in front of me. i was happy when we ran along road and lighted stadtpark areas.

we finally reached the center and again someone brought out a champagne to celebrate our run for today. the question in mind was, are we running or drinking?

alsteration (week 41) : 43.172 km
alstering : 0.000 km
non-alstering : 43.172 km

total running (october) : 51.736 km
davon
alstering : 7.33 km
14.17% gehört zu alsteration

running in rain

15° celsius. cloudy and rainy. 19:05 (0:51:32)

i've decided today to run with another group of runners. we met at the school's courtyard, where i played badminton in the hall. in fact, i stopped my badminton play just for the sake of running. i would continue to play after the run.

after the formalities of getting to know each other, we ran down towards the alster and ran clockwise. the leader of the pack told me that i was a bit overdressed - long tight pants with jacket and a cap. i told him that i relied entirely from weather. it was already dark due to the dark clouds hovering in the sky. we stopped at the krugköppel bridge to do some warm-up stretching (i didn't know why, but i hate doing warm-ups between runs). after the short interval, we continued our run. it started to drizzle and then rained heavily. the normally heavily frequented alster by joggers was suddenly 'empty' apart from the few hardcore runners. lucky for me that i wasn't being entirely wet and cold, thanks to my jacket and cap.

it rained all the way till we reached back to the school courtyard and i was happy that i've brought extra clothes for my badminton and running. i was indeed not overdressed for the run!

alsteration (week 40) : 8.564 km
alstering : 7.33 km
non-alstering : 1.234 km

total running (october) : 8.564 km
davon
alstering : 7.33 km
85.59% gehört zu alsteration