6 hour German championship in Otterndorf, Germany

It is about 600km to drive to go to Otterndorf. So the only solution was to go there one day before the race. Because my wife and I had vacation it was no problem. Friday morning at about 9am we left to go to the north. At the residence town Celle, which was on our way, we made a short stop to make a year around walk from the IVV. So we killed two birds with one stone. On the one hand we had some change and relaxing from sitting a long time in the car, on the other hand we had some sight seeing. From there we had 200k more to drive. Without some slow flowing traffic we did not have problems. Therefore we arrived at about 6pm in Otterndorf. When we arrived, we still could pick up my start bib. Afterwards we went for some shopping. We needed some more to drink and something for dinner. Because it was only my wife and I in the car, we could use our “standard-accommodation” of the weekend – our car. Without the back seats and a board covering the foot area, we had a perfect area to lie down.

The next morning we had time to sleep long, because the start was at 10:30am. Why so late? I don’t know, but I was not amused about it. It is a six hour race and after there was still the award ceremony. Without delays it will be at least 8pm until we could leave. It is worth to mention that it is no fun to drive after all that. That’s why another day is needed to drive home. In sum it was three days for a simple 6-hour race. But that’s life, it was a championship and therefore we are doing a lot?! When we arrived at 9am at the start- and finish area the people were still arriving. We had breakfast and after went back to wait in our warm car. Just past 10am we went to the start.

After the organizer and the DUV president Jürgen Schoch had a speech before we started. From the beginning on, a fast group went away in the front. I was with some others in the following group. Even though it was very cool in the morning it heated up quite fast. But the weather was tricky because there was always a light cool breeze. I had a very good race until I got strong stomach problems after about three hours. It did not get better even when I ran slower and I threw up. I stressed myself with some more loops before I decided to stop. I had a shower and we started to drive home. But we did not get far. On the way to the highway we had to stop two more times because of my stomach. On the highway it did not get any better. So we stopped at the next parking area to sleep for a while. A few hours later we finally could continue home.