Category: Race Reports

„What’s your goal for this race?“ asked our supporter one week before the race. As a team of four we had different answers but more or less we were saying: we are there to have fun. Each one of us had his seasonal goals a few weeks ago or in short reach. But I remember that Barbara was giving a different answer, let’s say something like „If there is a chance to take, we will take it.“ This sentence is a summary of what happened during the 34 hours we were out to ride the Tortour as a team of four. Continue reading Tortour 2014: Mix four – sleep less – race more – get silver

After the greatest four racing days in my life, I decided to step out of the Racing the Planet Iceland race at the end of day 4 after 176km for 2 main reasons. First, I couldn‘t recover anymore in the short night time (coming in later means also less sleep!) and under the conditions given (too cold for my painful back and neck) and second, my knees started to pain and swell on as i started to walk instead of running – which i didn’t train at all. But in the start, my physical constitution was almost perfect and my decisions taken on material and food were right. So, what happened? Here‘s my personal analysis about why this island and this racing format gave me a lot of trouble. It was some kind of a chain reaction. Continue reading Racing The Planet Iceland 2013: Walking down the line

It will take another few days or even weeks to understand what happened up there at the North Pole racing this marathon. And I feel like my body is still working on that even half a week after. Both knees looked bad and the left one reminds me more on a punching ball than anything else. Even days after i felt those tiny small muscles in my legs I didn‘t even know that they exist. You might know these stories about „that was the hardest I‘ve ever done“ and so on. The only thing I can say about this adventure is that I was running, walking, falling and standing up 334 minutes out there at -30°C or even less, on ice and snow. All of that in a place that doesn‘t exist on any map, a piece of ice looking like a white desert with an unbelievable beauty. When we were pushing along those never-ending fields of small ice mountains it was like running on an endless place. Each of us alone, fighting with his own demons trying to catch up with those running out there in front of us. Continue reading The North Pole Marathon 2013: Racing the North Pole Marathon – the Limits were in our Heads