Rennen in Deutschland

Three months later I'm ready to write about running in Germany. I'm not sure what took me so long.

One day after arriving in Frankfurt I took to battling jetlag head-on with a short run. It was so long ago that I can't remember if it helped or not, but I eventually got into a pseudo-routine. It was a little rough getting used to real hills. Sometimes I felt like I was the butt of some joke, running uphill for miles, turning around, then somehow continuing to ascend farther. I think the experience was a character builder.

The timing of the trip with regard to Chicago Marathon training could have been worse; at least the program started while I was in Germany as opposed to peaking. My longest distance would be 14 miles to take place on the tail end of my time abroad, just two days before flying home. By that point, for the sake of my mental health, I needed it.

On Sunday, 30 June, I laced up my Mizunos and snuck out of my host's house. I didn't tell anyone where I was going or how long I would be gone because at that point I was entirely ready to be home. Although I had previously tried to pretend I wouldn't be running 14 miles up and down in the heat of the German summer, by that Sunday morning I wanted nothing more than to be alone with my Garmin.

I took my phone to document my journey from Istein along the Rhine to Huningue (France) and back. At every mile I took a photo. These are the highlights:

Look! It's German dirt!

Here's a dam and bridge to France, all in one!

I crossed the bridge, ran a loop in France, then took this when I re-entered Germany because I had hit another mile.

I took this one at about mile 7, which was my turn-around point, from the 3-Laender Eck bridge, which crosses the Rhine at the German, Swiss, and French borders. That's why the bridge has its name.

This is a good one on my way back to Istein.

And here is my final photo, the Istein chalk factory in the distance. I took this one shortly before I saw my hosts driving out of the village, apparently on their way out to try and find me because they were worried about me being gone for two hours.

I didn't get any good photos of the bad part of this run, which was when the dirt path became stone and broken concrete. I understand that the Rhine is being re-routed near Istein so the shoreline is completely ripped apart and under construction. I ran nearly a mile in pain resulting in a huge, gross blister on the bottom of my right foot and the death of my Mizunos.

And so it was. This run took me into France and almost into Switzerland. Part of me wanted to run into Switzerland just so that I could see me crossing the borders of three countries on Garmin Connect, but it was really hot, I had no fuel or water for the entire run, and when I had my chance to run over to Switzerland, the desire to get back to my host's home trumped everything else. Maybe next time...