Don't mind the judgement

stats of the week: run 62km, 1 gym

(With 2 runs in the hills of Garmisch this week's mileage increased to a level I didn't plan. I will have to taper off now to get fit for next Saturday's St Claus race. )

Witnessing at the Zugspitzlauf court case did not really help to overcome the memories. In fact it made things worse as I once more had to face how several people made fatal mistakes resulting in the death of two runners.

Initially I was shocked that the organiser resolutely affirmed that he didn't make any fault concerning race day. I'd be relieved if I could state this myself. Alas - imagine you are accused of involuntary manslaughter - won't you also try anything to get away not guilty? On the other hand if you have the feeling that you could have avoided the fatalities by doing better - shouldn't you have the standing to confess your part?

Whatever the court will judge on Tuesday it won't help anybody to come to terms with what happened. And it won't change the public opinion - what still is hurting most.

Photo: The place where U. passed away is just a ten-minute-walk to the top.

Memorial

stats of the week: run 37km, cycled 52km, 2 gyms

With the financial help of the Triathlon-TEAM Witten and a large group of individual runners last summer a memorial bronze plaque for Uwe Moldenhauer could be installed on the Zugspitze. We all hope Uwe will be remembered forever by everybody who passes the place he finished his very last run.

On Monday the trial clearing the liability of the Zugspitzlauf tragedy will take place at the local court of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and is scheduled for 5 days. I will have to appear as a witness on Thursday. As you might imagine I don't look forward calling back this disaster, otherwise it could be helpful to overcome dark memories.

The usual treadmill

stats of the week: run 43km, 3 gyms

It's just the 2nd week following the marathon, so I am fairly happy with the mileage done. I even managed to do a moderate interval workout on the treadmill.

I used to do this in recent years with good results. The session consists of a number of fast 1km-intervals interrupted by slow 0.5km-intervals. Last Thursday I started with 4 single kms and once per week will build up to 6 kms with increasing speed - I hope. This should lead to a satisfactory new years eve race.

One advantage to do it on the treadmill is that you can stick to a lower speed indoors as your heart rate is 10 bpm higher than it would be outdoors at the same speed.

Meanwhile you are invited to have a look at my extended New York City Photo Gallery.

Happily alive

stats of the week: run 22km, 2 gyms

Wiki-photo: van Veen 2009



Saw Herman van Veen on concert yesterday. One of his jokes I remember went like this: "You are really lucky. 53% of my audience has already passed away."

I have been visiting his tours for about 35 years - he is still able to lift my spirits for a number of following days. Indeed it's rather funny to notice: In the 70s his typical fan was around twenty, nowadays all the visitors are around sixty - still the same people coming to his concerts. And it's good to see that most people are still behaving like being twenty.

Herman van Veen

Day of Surprise

stats of the week: Run 62km (including NYC Marathon 3:43:29)

Sometimes there are days when you are able to surprise yourself. New York City Marathon was such a day. Honestly. It was really sort of optimism when I wrote I'd be happy to run a time around 4 hours.

I looked up my weekly mileage for the 11 weeks since Helsinki Marathon in August. My average week added up to just 23 km! Could I expect to finish the race after 3:43? I reckon this performance is possible only with a background of 20 years of running. I won't recommend to copy my schedule nor would I try to do it again myself.

This year's NYC marathon was my 5th and I planned to let it become the last one. But once in Brooklyn and enjoying the crowd I already changed my mind. How about running my 50th marathon at the 50th New York City Marathon in 2019?

photo: German runners at a final workout in Central Park on Thursday afternoon

New York City Marathon 40th Anniversary

stats of this week: run 18km
stats of previous week: run 60km, 2 gyms

Greetings from New York City where I hope to finish my 5th consecutive NYC Marathon tomorrow. I have done a number of marathons without proper training but this one will be the worst! At least I managed to do just one long run of 26km last weekend in Dublin where I took the DART train to the coastal village of Bray and ran back to the hotel.

However, I will try to beat my Helsinki time of 3:59. Watch out for race no 10471 at
http://www.nycmarathon.org/ . I am in the first wave starting at 9.40 am local time which is German time 3.40 pm.

As usual I am here with my favourite travel agency http://www.interair.de/ . The Massai like chap beside me is Wolfgang Münzel, a former world class hill runner. Note that I am looking slightly overweight next to Wolfgang. He is the slimmest man I have ever seen. He is now 56 but still holds a number of course records of Alpine hill runs like the Matterhorn Race which he won several times, like many other important hill races. I am proud to be able to have a run with him along Hudson River. Here we are posing while resting on the newly opened High Line - a garden promenade above 10th Avenue.

Intermediate Home Visit

Back from Nepal, meanwhile I have already published a too big gallery at picasa before I will start to work on my ordinary Annapurna Circuit trekking report. This will take some time I have to admit as I am about to leave for Dublin at first followed by New York City.

Since the Helsinki Marathon in August I haven't done a proper long run. I will run NYC with the worst preparation for a marathon I ever did. I am sure I will be suffering. That's runner's life anyway.

Here's a taste of my ample photo collection.

Village life at Ghaza

Bodnath Stupa Surroundings

Observing Kathmandu Traffic

Kathmandu Sales Kids

Manang And Annapurna Range