Back home in Germany – with a stress reaction

November 7, 2009

Just came back to my home town Zwickau today after flying from Tampere to Frankfurt-Hahn yesterday and staying at a friends place for the last night.

The flight was very enjoyable this time – even with Ryanair you can fly comfortably. Actually I had one of the worst places when I entered the plane. My knees were constantly rubbing on the seat in front of me. Fortunately I sat next to the corridor, so I could stretch my legs a bit across the corridor. However, after the stewardess was almost falling over my legs twice, she came to me with a mean face and said: “Hey mister, could you please sit in front of the plane? There are still three empty rows?” Hell, I took the opportunity and enjoyed absolute leg freedom for 2 hours. Still I don’t understand why they keep the first rows empty and bunch the people together on as few as possible rows on the Ryanair flights.

In Frankfurt, Jörn Harland - a sub-68 halfmarathoner (just made his debut in the marathon in Frankfurt, hitting the wall badly and clocking a 2:50h) – picked me up and we had two nice runs in his home town Gelnhausen Friday evening and Saturday morning. We also had some good laughs, telling each other running related stories while enjoying some “Ebbelwoi” (some sort of apple wine/cider). Once again I experienced that I’m not the only crazy runner out there.

The negative thing is, that I have an issue with my right plantar tendon/heel, probably a stress reaction. It started Wednesday evening and since that, I replaced 3 running exercises with bicycle rides. Now I’m not so confident about the race tomorrow. I will decide on spot if there is some use to run or if it’s better to make some rest.