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!

Is there another road race beside Ballycotton that sells out? Yes. The Lakes 10k in Blessington reached its capacity this year and had to close the entries. I was surprised when i entered the race website. „Sold out – no entries on the day.“ What is going on there? Lucky enough Kev got me an entry and i was delighted.

The 10k race around the Blessington lakes is kind of a home game form me. I just life around the corner and the route is a regular part of my spins towards the wicklow mountains. Instead of a tempo run i decided to jump in the race. A, more less, fast course was on the agenda and a race is definitely better than training.

Lakeshore Strides cant be praised enough. There is a reason why people want to run that race. Just from the moment i entered Blessington signs were leading to the race headquaters beside the lake. Once arrived marschalls took care of each and everyone. Parking went smooth and also around the registration there was no rush and great atmosphere.

The start was smooth as the organizers set up start corals for all estimated finishing times. Not many runners lined up at the front. The favourite was obvious. The field did not had the class to chase down Vinny Mulvey and after a couple of kilometeres the competition was stretched out. I found my rhythm pretty fast and cruised along the beautiful roads beside the lake. Knowing the course i was cautious of he hill just shortly after the 6k mark. Cycling up that hill is tough. Running was even tougher. Severe head winds didnt really help but finally i managed to reach the summit and rolled towards the finish.

37:02 was on the clock at the finish, 3 minutes slower than my PB. OK for the day. Still no speed but the strenght is there. Darren, Feidhlim and i went for a cool down jog and all of us were certain that this race is going to e classic in the irish road running calendar. Big up Lakeshore Striders – Great Race!

What did I expect from this race? “Nothing” would probably be the only and honest answer. With no watch and no real speed sessions in my legs this was always supposed to be a hard training day.

I never found my rhythm and had problems to hold the groups on a boring out and back course from Waterford to Tranmore.

The rest was hard work as i screwed up my pacing in the early stages and had to pay for that badly.

In Auto – Mode i cruised back towards the stadium in Waterford. The clock at the finish line told me that i had been out there for 80 Minutes.

Lot of speed work is ahead of me – Bring it on!

What the others have to say:

Rene Borg
Barry Minnock
Crusaders AC
Athletics Ireland
Irish Independent

Finally some racing! It has been a while since I stepped to the start line of a running competition.

After I started my (structured) training 5 weeks ago with an aerobic focused phase I had the chance to send a wakeup call to my drained legs. Two miles on the track in Tallaght should be sufficient enough to show the legs what they are supposed to do in a few weeks time – ran as fast as possible.
The facilities in South Dublin are among the best in Ireland. The track is great and fairly new. Good quality 400 meter ovals are rare and plastic surface is not the standard on a running track here in Ireland.

The BHAA held their last track meeting of the season and I took the chance to get the first serious race in. The competition was not really there as I had to run in the “Open Men” category. After a long warm-up I time-trialled to the win. A pity that not a soul was there to chase. I know that I could have run way quicker with a bit of contest in the race.

Nevertheless – after the 5k in Kilbrittain a couple of weeks ago this was my second race and the second win. This time my earnings went up to 30 EUR. Good pocket money for a bit of advanced jogging around the track.

My “winning streak” will finally come to an end when I take a trip to Waterford on Saturday to run the Half Marathon Nationals for my club, Crusaders Dublin.

Since 4 weeks my training is going solid and steady. The wedding spell is almost over and the centre of attention shifts away from step-aerobic on various dance floors around Italy, Germany and Ireland towards asphalt and grass. Full tilt on the training front – at last!

And as always there has to be a clear objective when getting into full preparation mode. Sad enough I cannot motivate myself with no goal in the diary. This time the final destination is the Florence Marathon on the 27th of November. As I ignored a good bit of the racing mid-season, Firenze is the last big race in the European marathon calendar and since a couple of years it is in my “race mind”. Each year runners from the UK and Ireland come home with great results and the standard in Italian road races is great when it comes to my range.

After changing the “percorso” the route is now a fully certified IAAF race which no net-drop. When you look at the times in recent years it is obvious that the course is quick. A crucial point may be the cobble stone sections at the end. The weather in the last couple of years was always poor. Means – no sun, which is vital for me as I had to find out after sinking at the Rotterdam Marathon earlier this year. So I hope for the common shocking conditions with low temperatures and light showers on race day along the river Arno. Some friends also decided to race in Tuscany’s capital which makes the trip even more attractive.

Around 14 weeks are left until race day and the “preparazione” regime will commence towards Florence.