74km Churfranken ultratrail from Miltenberg to Sulzbach, Germany

To visit Jürgen and Susi at the weekend and join the Churfranken race was a short term decision. We left on Friday evening and stayed overnight at their house. On Saturday morning we left to an IVV walk in Zeilhard with Susi. At the late afternoon Jürgen and I went to the briefing of the race, picked up his start bib and signed me in. There were not many people at the briefing. Also the starter list for the ultra marathon was short. Therefore there are teams of 2 or 5 runners. After the briefing we had a relaxed evening.

The next morning Jürgen and I took a relaxed breakfast. Post entry runners received their bid just before the race. Therefore we had to arrive there earlier. But that was not a big deal, because it was only a 15 minute drive from Jürgen and Susi`s home. When we left the girls went back sleeping. Susi ran on Saturday, so today she, her small daughter and my wife had planned to drive to some spots on the course to see us running. In the end they wanted to meet us at the finish line. The Churfranken race did not have the same starting and finishing location. By having the girls at the finish line, we did not have to worry about transportation to the start or back from the finish. People, who did not have anybody to drive them back, could use the train. It was smart to park the car at the finish line, because the train had a two hour frequency. Using the early train allowed the runners to be at the start just 30 Minutes before. There were not many runners at the start. I was the only one with a post entry. So in total there were about 100 runners including the team runners.

After the start we left Miltenberg and ran up the first mountain. The course had five stages and each stage included one hill. Because of the rain during the previous night, it was partly very slippery. , As local matador Tobias Hegmann and Ulrich Amborn took the lead from beginning on. I was joining them for the first 20k, than I had to let them go. Luckily it stayed dry until the late afternoon. Still it would be very interesting to see the other runners passing some parts. Even I had problems to get up there, because it was so slippery and there was no way to hold myself. When I passed these areas, only a few runners had passed them before. How they would look like when another 50 or 100 runners had passed them? Most of the time I was running alone, only in the end some team runners passed me. Besides that there were only runners at the aid stations. Because of the big amount of teams, there were many people waiting there. In the beginning there was only water to drink. Even I had many times stomach problems because of that, I was lucky today. After 30k there was also coke. Still it was not a huge variety. More options were the snacks. There were bars, salt sticks, oranges, bananas, etc., etc., etc. So save some money on the food and spent it for tea for beginning on, would be a smart choice. Even though I had a good day, my shoes slowed me down. All the time the bow got loosen. Just on the last ten kilometres it was more than 20 times. Besides I twice lost my shoe, because of the muddy and sticky ground. It slowed me down, but it did not stop me from arriving at the finish line. Just one aid station before the last I saw for the first time during the race Susi, my wife and – who was that? I knew the cloth! It was really Jürgen. He had to Stop, because he had problems again with his leg.

After I arrived at the finish, I had a little snack. I gave a short interview and finally had a warm shower. Afterwards Jürgen, Susi, Grace and I were sitting together and waited for the award ceremony. It was scheduled for 3pm, but started 20 minutes later. It was placed outdoor, so we had to interrupt the ceremony due to some rain. After the rain, it continued step by step. Finally we left quickly after we were called up to receive our award.