Posts

Lounging and Limping

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  Most of today was spent building in time to get to the next part of the travel home as Chrissi in clearly excruciating pain.  A bit of waiter service for her at breakfast as was she really was grimacing with every stride and needed that energy conserved for us to get home.  Last time to wolf down a couple of 'berliners', small jam donuts in case you were getting worried. Packed up to leave the Park Inn, a hotel I will not miss. Apart from the odd post communist refurbishment of the room mentioned earlier, the wifi has been rubbish too.  The upside is location and a reasonable breakfast.  The location did meant it was a short 'hop' onto the S9 train to the airport which we were in just after midday, passing through one of the other now shut down airports en route, Schonefeld. This really has been a trip of lost airports! A very long, drawn out walk to the airport lounge, but with a slight delay on the plane not the worst places to rest weary legs.  On the ...

Running around Berlin

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  The reason for our trip came around and needed a bit of a plan as the focal point of our trip. Whilst I don't find much value in targeting international runs for full gas, there still needs to be a balance against making it somewhat worthwhile. As part of a Spring mileage plan and building for last couple of races on the home front it couldn't be a complete walk in the park, and so was pleased to find a Lliswerry team mate who has a strong and consistent half marathon record to run alongside. Not sure Leanne felt the same way mind you! So a serious breakfast of yukky oats and yoghurt after a poor nights sleep certainly gave the annoying race day feel but broadly felt relaxed and looking forward to it. Chrissi less so as she not a fan of the running events and perhaps a phobia that makes the weekend a little less enjoyable for her.  Left her in the capable hands of Chris, and Ian, we always behave better with other people. Leanne and I caught the subway to the Brandenburg Gat...

Follow the Hoff

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   Who remembers the Hoffmeister advert from the 1980s, follow the bear? This isn't about that but plenty of bears for you to follow if you want to in this City. But as you see, this relates to a far bigger beast. Much more rested than yesterday but somehow didn't make the day completely restful, far from it. Started off OK with the  Inn buffet breakfast, lots of bacon rolls in my case, not sure where they sit on the athlete diet calculator, but presumably not near the top. Hey ho holiday...  I did go out straight for a run after breakfast which would not be something I normally do on a full stomach, but it worked out OK. Ran down to the embarkment point for yesterdays river cruise, and then ran along the river, crossing over at one point thinking I might be hitting west berlin but it turns out museum island still the east, so think it was an entire east Berlin run.  Turning point was with the Reichstag in the background so wouldn't have been too far away, the c...