1 December 2011

Frankfurters

I'm in Germany on business and last night I got to meet a new bunch of people when I sat down to dinner. After chatting with the guys next to me, I discover that one of them runs, cycles and swims regularly. He's even done a half ironman in 5 hours 10 and run a 10km race in 37'. Perfect, I have a new running partner. As any half serious runner, he had his kit with him and we made arrangements to go for a run the following morning.

We set out from the hotel at 7:30am and the city was already very active. Most Germans, it seemed, had already arrived at work and the city was bustling. We headed down easily to the river as my running partner claimed he needed to go slowly to warm up before making any exertions due to his age. "What age is that exactly?", I enquired ? "40", was the reply. We sped up.

We ran by the Rhine on the north bank before we ran out of path and then along the railway line, before we ran out of space beside the railway. We turned and headed for home at this point and he pushed the pace, so I followed. I overtook him and I pushed the pace and he followed. We ran the kilometres back along the river in between 4:10 and 4:20 pace so I was pleased to achieve some real exercise, feeling good too after the marathon.

We ran 8.5km all up in 41:05 or 4:50 per km on average. Not bad and we'll do better tomorrow, now I know what he's capable of.

1 comment:

Gérald said...

8 décembre James. Toujours en Allemagne ?

J'attend toujours de voir s'afficher 7-0 sur notre compteur ainsi que le compte rendu de la course :). Je pourrai pas faire pire l'an prochain . C'est le bon côté des choses :) :) :)

Et, je suis assez d'accord avec Nicolas pour le 11-2 . On ne change pas les régles en cours de route (même si tu as raison sur la manière de compter, il fallait le décider avant !) .