There are just two days left until the big showdown – Ironman Hawaii.

Tons of pictures are floating the world wide web on a daily basis. Well known Belgian photographer Kristof Ramon is capturing the Uplace Triathlon Team during their preparation for the race of the year.

The pictures below shows double Ironman Lanzarote Champ Bert Jammaer scrubbing of the seasalt after an ocean swim.

See the Facebook gallery of the Uplace Triathlon Team for more pictures. Beautiful vibe!

It seems that I have certain similarities. This time my counterpart might be the great Haile Gee.

The two of us did not get any further than the 35 Kilometre Mark in Berlin this Sunday. The two off us undoubtedly had different targets. Furthermore we had different troubles.

Hailes first problem was a not so pleasant “pacemaker” named Patrick M. who did precisely the right thing by using a classic style cycle approach to get rid of “The Greatest”. Some crosses later and Haile Gee was occupying the grass section in the middle of the wide Berlin roads. Asthma, again. DNF.

My goal was to direct runners to a finish time of 3:15. That worked fine until my stomach spontaneously decided to get rid of all the inhabits. The first time a uncontrolled gulp down helped to keep the capital litter free. Not so after the 15 Kilometre mark. I did a Makau style cross in the direction of the middle of the road and emptied the tank. My goal pace, 4:37 minutes per Kilometre still went well and I felt comfortable and under control all the time. Despite the settled speed my belly was not in high spirits.

Kilometre 22 saw the next “puke on the run”. My passengers in the 3/15 bus weren’t frightened as I always vomited when the crew was hitting the aid stations. Whilst I got an additional cramp just shortly after the 35 Kilometre sign I had to stop and finish the run. There was not an inch of energy left in me.

DNF as a pacer sucks even more than DNF as a racer. Lots of people were running with me and I felt very dreadful leaving them on their own for the final 8 kilometres. I just hope each one reached their personal goal and is happy with the race!

For me it was bad luck on the day. Today I still feel the blow and I believe what happened was the start of a flu. Bed will be the training ground for the next days I guess…

Just in time a brand new set of Brooks Green Silence racing pacing tyres arrived at the RUNssel garage.

The instalment went pretty unproblematic. Previous rubber off, a immediate calibration of the chase and off I was.

Berlin Bus 3/15 is now all set for its group excursion around the German capital this Sunday.

Tickets ready? Boarding please!

Gerade noch rechtzeitig vor der bevorstehenden Städtereise konnte die RUNssel Werkstätte einen jungfräulichen Satz allerfeinster Brooks Green Silence Race Pace-Pneus an einem Bus der Linie 3/15 der Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) installieren.

Eiliges Adjustieren des Chassis, Kalibration via fortschrittlichster Schnürsenkel-Technik, Probefahrt auf der regionalen Testrunde und zielstrebige Überprüfung des Reifendrucks wurden erfolgreich vollzogen.

Sollten beim finalen Test der TÜV Prüfstelle Berlin-Lichtenberg keine außerordentlichen Probleme auftreten steht einer zuverlässigen Abfahrt am kommenden Sonntag Morgen nichts im Wege.

Fahrscheine bitte!

A walk in the park
a step in the dark
a walk in the park
a trip in the dark
I’m getting away
escaping today
a walk in the park

Not only the Nick Straker Band knows how to rave about parks. There is much more to do than walk…

The parkrun idea caught my interest quite a while ago. Since that I am fascinated by the movement that is scattering from corner to corner of the united kingdom.

The idea is plain simple – free timed 5k races in a public park.

What sounds basic and straight forward is the authentic case. Even Athletic greats such as Mo Farah or Craig Mottram (Male record holder: 14:00) have taken part.

At the moment there are 89 individual parkrun events around the world. Nearly every major town in the UK has their run and runners across the island are not shy to show up each Saturday morning. Even the british troops at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan have their own race.

Our planned parkrun in Pollok park, Glasgow is the first and the oldest one in Scotland. The event runs on every weekend of the year. There are only two Saturdays where the park cannot be used. Last Saturday was one of those days. The Highland Cattle show was on – no german sausages allowed. Bad luck for us.

Seb and I had to alter the plan of action. To find an alternative race is not really hard. One does not have to travel far from Glasgow to attend a run. I was in contact with Richard Leyton, Glasgow Event Director and head of Scottish parkrun. Richard directed us towards a relatively new run. Callendar park in Falkirk was supposed to be the scene of our maiden parkrun.

From Glasgow’s Queen street station it was a handy 25 minutes train ride and a final 2 mile walk to the Callendar park. It didn’t take the Falkirk crew long to identify who we are. “The Germans are here!” was the initial sentence that we listened to. News in the parkrun scene are spreading fast. Richard Leyton already announced us.

We chatted along with the friendly and welcoming crowd that was gathering in front of the picturesque Callendar House. We also met Richard who was travelling down from Glasgow for the run and together with him we made our way to the start line.

I did not expect anything from the run. I just wanted to experience a parkrun. Looking at several parkrun results it is not rare that a competitive field lines up. Not so in Falkirk on Saturday. It was the events 10th birthday so it is just on its way up to greater and faster crowds.

Callendar park is not flat at all. The route made its way on tarmac and then straight on solid paths up a lengthy uphill stretch. I ran “by sound”. That means I was running hard until I couldn’t take notice of anyone breathing behind me. Then cruised on.

It was great fun to run the course. All turns were marked and directed by volunteers. Not an option to run the wrong way. Derek Carswell warned us previous to the race. The park was supposed to have is exclusive “heartbreak hill”. I faced the hill with fresh enough legs and had no problems with the steep section.

My “winning time” of 18:44 demonstrates that this was not an effortless course. I loved it as it was challenging and the mix of terrain made it really enjoyable. The “german top 10 sandwich” was concluded by Seb who came in in 10th place. Good day out!

The parkrun initiative is a truly great one. I enjoyed the simple style organisation and the community feeling. If you travel the UK make sure you get a free parkrun in. Probably better organised as a pricey road race.

Thanks very much for having us and well done to parkrun and the Falkirk crew! Also thanks to nice guy ali for the picture!

 Offical Report 
 Results
“The parkrun show” (you might skip to 6:25…)

There is not that much Brian Sell and i have in common.

• He ran the Olympic Marathon – I don’t
• He broke 2:11 for the Marathon – I don’t
• He sports a stylish “Pre” mustache – I don’t 
• He has his body rendered in pasta – I don’t

But since a couple of days we have something in common – the same equipment supplier.

I´m thankful that the lovely people at Brooks gave me the chance to use their products.

That I’m more than exited to test all the shirts, shorts, shoes and jackets in training and racing goes without saying.

Just by looking at all the gear i can fully agree to the well known Brooks slogan – “run happy”.

I certainly will – Thanks Brooks!

Grundlegend haben Brian Sell und ich nicht viele Gemeinsamkeiten.

• Er startete bei Olympia – Ich nicht
• Er läuft den Marathon unter 2:11 – Ich nicht
• Er trägt einen “Pre – Style” Oberlippenbart – Ich nicht
• Er hat seinen Körper mit Nudel modelliert – Ich nicht 

Doch seit ein paar Tagen haben wir etwas gemeinsam – den selben Ausrüster.

Es freut mich sehr das Brooks mir die Chance gibt alle Ihre Produkte zu benutzen.

Wie ein Kind an Weihnachten freute ich mich über das Paket aus Münster und der Inhalt ist erwartungsgemäss vom Feinsten.

Schuhe, Shirts, Jacken und Hosen in bewährter Brooks Qualität warten nun darauf in Training und Wettkampf benutzt zu werden. Ich freue mich drauf!

Vielen Dank Brooks!