Germany and Korea

Me and a friend from Germany, wearing Namban Rengo and ASC Marathon Friedberg shirts!










Korea
On July 20., I went for an easy run in the hills of Seoul with David Deubelbeiss, the world-record holder for 24h ona treadmill. Well, again I saw that, the faster people are, the easier they train(http://www3.sympatico.ca/turnermike/David/aboutdavid.html).

Germany

On July 29. I ran a 10k in the forests near my hometown, placed 2nd over-all and first in age-group (!!) in 39:38, respectable on the course, and faster than last year, but slower than what I did in the more distant past.


On Aug. 11. I ran a 5k road-race in 18:42, probably slightly (150m) long, placed 5th over-all and first in the senior category. Two friends from Tokyo ran the 15k, and we supported each other, it was a lot of fun, also the party after the race. The 5k was actually meant as a warm-up for the 10k just 15hours later, in the morning of Aug. 12.. I was satisfied improving by 20 sec. on last years result, finishing in 39:18, also slower than my course record, but still, I hope to get close to my best over-40 times this winter.


Now it was almost time to leave Germany, but I still had hardly run with my German friends, especially one group which is very strong and has recently taken the German Marathon championship in 2:20:18 (Philip - formerly known as - Buettner - now married, but I don't know his new name) and sent one runner to Osaka on the 200m (Till Helmke/20:39). So on Tuesday night, I went to my hometown's track and put on my running-gear, when I realized I had no running-shoes. I tried to run in my street-shoes, but they were to heavy, well, Philip suggested I should try barefoot, and I actually managed to run a full set of repeats. Even five days later, the blood-blisters still hurt, but it was an interesting experience! I hope Philip will never forget his shoes when he has to run in a championship-race...haha. And my new nick-name over there is "Emil-Abebe", for the heavy boots on the first lap, and the bare feet later on...