Melanie Does Life - being pregnant :-)

I am at Atlanta airport waiting for my connection to Tampa. Had a good flight from Frankfurt to here. Unfortunately it took a long time to get through customs and immigration but then I was lucky enough that I did not have to change the terminal for my next gate. I miss Germany but I can’t wait to be at home again.

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Ich bin am Flughafen in Atlanta und warte auf meinen Anschlussflug nach Tampa. Ich hatte einen angenehmen Flug von Frankfurt nach Atlanta. Leider hat es dann lange gedauert bis ich durch die Einwanderung und den Zoll durch war. Allerdings hatte ich dann das Glück, dass ich das Terminal für mein nächstes Gate nicht wechseln musste. Ich vermisse Deutschland aber bin sehr froh bald wieder zu Hause zu sein.

Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes. I had a great time celebrating my birthday on Saturday. I saw lots of friends and family and went to bed at 2am.

Today is my last day in Germany. I will start packing my bags soon. I am happy to go back home but I am also sad because I have to leave all the people here.

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Danke für all die guten Geburtstagswünsche. Ich hatte eine grossartige Feier, habe viele Freunde und Verwandten und bin erst nachts um 2 Uhr ins Bett.

Heute ist mein letzter Tag in Deutschland. Ich fange gleich an meine Koffer zu packen. Ich bin froh wieder nach Hause zu kommen aber gleichzeitig bin ich auch traurig, weil ich alle hier zurück lassen muss. 

One more day and I will be 30. My birthday is tomorrow.

Did you read the story at Runner’s World where a race Bandit gets paralyzed and tries to sues the race? What do you think about this?

Tonight we had a BBQ at our house. I ate some cheese sausages (love them) and had a couple of beers. It was a nice thing to do after spending the day together and visiting a renaissance fair. We called it an early night since today was the champions league final game. But instead of watching it I went for a run.

I called my grandma to drive me to my starting point (so I could run point-to-point without to many hills) but she did not like the idea of me running through the forest at night. I listened to her and changed my starting point - unfortunately I ended up doing less miles than I wanted.

I am glad I got this run in. But I learned that running after a BBQ/drinking beer is not the best thing - my stomach isn’t to happy with me since I am back home.

What are you doing on May 19th? There is a 5K run to support the Bloomingdale Library Survior and I would love to run it. But I am out of the country and can’t do it. Now I make some advertisement for the race and hope you can do it.

If you are in the area and have time - go run it. Check out the links below.

Link to Facebook Site

Link to Active.com

Link to a newspaper article

And yes, I know I posted the same thing a few weeks ago. Just a little reminder…

Finally I found the time to write the recap about the marathon relay in St. Wendel on 4/29/2012.

We were 4 runners to run this marathon relay. I was runner number 4. We weren’t sure about the weather and said I could run in the sun (since I am more used to it than the others). So I got the last spot. :-) This is a 2 loop course and each runner was running a leg something between 6 and 7 miles long.

U. was runner #1. She ran across the start line and after 1 hour and 8 min she came into the exchange area. C. was runner #2. She continued and came back to the exchange in 1 hour and 1 min. D. was runner #3. She took over from C. and gave the chip to me in 59 min. I took off and ran 1:28. I knew I was the slowest runner in the group but it was fun to run it. We crossed the finish line together and then got our medals. :) Our total time was 4:37:51. We placed 11th out of 13th woman teams (actually 14th teams but that time didn’t show a finishers time).

I ran 6.69 miles. I had 2 out-and-back parts. Saw lots of other runners out there (marathon started at 7am, half started at 11am). Lots of people cheering us on. At the aid stations they offered us water, some kind of sport drink, coke and small pieces of bananas.

I took over from D. and started running. Maybe a mile into my run one of my toes started to feel funny (but it didn’t hurt so I did not stop). I ran the whole part. It was fun to be there and since we were running through the town lots of people were out there cheering us on. I saw lots of people from the red cross (medics) and I saw at least one marathoner throwing up. I hope he is ok and could finish.

When I started my second out-and-back part the sun came out. I liked that a lot since it was windy and with the sun it was much nicer. But it did not last long - less than 25 mins later the sun was gone again. At mile 6.5 my team mates joined me and we ran the last part together. I even managed to sprint the last part and we crossed the finish line together. (I was the only one carrying the chip and that’s why we could do it.) They told me later that they only saw 2 more teams doing this. But I thought it would be a nice thing to do after spending the whole day at the race together.

At the end they had bananas, oranges, pears (all cut into handy pieces), some kind of sweet bread, water, sport drinks. That was very nice. Liked the race.

A friend of mine got sick this week - so she offered me her spot for this half marathon. I managed to change the bib to my name.

We left our house this morning at 6 am and it was raining a lot. My mom, 2 of her friends and I met up and drove to Mainz (1.5 hrs away). There we met with some other people and then took public transport to the start line of the marathon. After the bag drop we walked to our starting point. At this time it was still raining and we didn’t like it. I thought it was cold with temperatures around 50F/10C.

Before the start of the runners the hand cyclists started. Then it suddenly stopped raining. Great for us. :-) Unfortunately all the streets were wet and the humidity was high during the first miles. When the gun went off it took us over 5:20 mins to get over the starting line - later on I read that they had over 11.000 runners there.

A few hundred yards after the start line I tossed my jacket. It was an old one and it was way to big for me. I thought about running in it for a mile or two but that wasn’t working for me. My mom was really surprised to see me toss the jacket that early.

At mile 2 I could feel my foot hurting (same blister-area like my last half 2 weeks ago) and I thought that’s it for today. Just keep moving until the finish line and see how it goes. Probably not a good time, but at least another finishers medal. For the next few miles I followed another female runner. She was a bit faster than me and pulled me along (of course she didn’t know it). Then she slowed her pace and I passed her.

I continued by myself and soon after we came to an area where we had to run on cobble stones. Not a fun thing to run on considering they were wet. That part took nearly a mile before we were back on asphalt. The last part of the half took us to an 2 mile out-and-back part. The out-part wasn’t that bad since there were lots of other runners coming back - that helped me a lot to keep running instead of walking. I saw my mom and one of the other people on this part. Then I met 2 first time half marathoners, we started talking and I encouraged them to keep moving (“Pain is temporary, pride is forever”). Talking kept my mind away from my heavy legs and after a few minutes I was able to pick up my pace. After the turn around there were fewer runners and I walked for a short while. My legs were just to painful and when I started running again I found another runner to talk to and to run with. But we parted ways a bit later when I went ahead while he slowed down.

At the 2nd last aid station I meet another gentleman and we started talking. We were just 1.5 mi (2.5km) away from the finish and I told him that I want to break the 3 hours. He told me that was impossible. I didn’t believe it and we found out that he started a few minutes before me. But since he did know my goal he kept encouraging me. When he pulled ahead, he turned around and told me to keep up, to keep running. That helped me a lot and I think I might not have made my goal without him. After crossing the finish line we shook hands and I thanked him for helping me.

I crossed the finish line in 2:59:55 (chip time). That is 10 mins and 58 seconds faster than IronGirl two weeks ago. Don’t ask me how I did it since I still can’t believe it.

There were aid stations every 1.5 to 2 miles. They had water, frubiase (some kind of sport drink) and bananas. I still don’t get why they had plastic cups at the aid station. Not only is it impossible to drink while running (everything lands on your face or on your shirt) but the plastic is very slippery while running over it in.

After the race I talked the medical personnel into giving me a band aid for my blister before getting some food/drinks. After finding my mom we went to the race expo where we got our temporary finishers certificate and I bought another pair of cep compression sleeves.

I know I still own you the race recap from last Sunday and it is still a work in progress. It will come. I promise.

Today I got the offer to run a half on Sunday. One of my friends is sick and had surgery today. She can’t run on Sunday and offered me her spot. I talked to the organizers - and I can change her entry to me if I pay a small fee before picking up the race bibs. Now I will run a half in Germany. That is one thing from my 101 things in 1001 days list. I am not happy that my friend is sick but I am happy I got this opportunity. I don’t plan on racing it - I will make it a fun thing and my goal will be to finish. If I get a new PR, I will be very happy but I doubt it. Not with my last half less than 2 weeks ago and the marathon relay just a few days ago.

Otherwise I am enjoying my time here in Germany. I spent lots of time with family and friends. Tonight I was at a birthday and tomorrow is another birthday celebration.

Now I have to go to bed (here it is already 1am) - my mom is going to wait for me at 9am for a 3 mile run.