Past Sunday Vienna yet again belonged to the runners as the 30th edition of the
Vienna City Marathon took place and took control of major roads in the city centre. While all of us were very keen to watch the race and cheer the runners, Jakob was always of the conviction, that he is running the marathon himself. Hence he was wearing his running outfit - shoes, pants and shirt - being not only nervous, but also full of energy for the race. When the elite runners - led by superstar
Haile Gebrselassie - passed us at the Rotundenbruecke Jakob was watching with huge astonishment how fast man can run and quite a while later he was amazed by the sheer amount of people that were tackling the race - more than 40.000 runners in all disciplines in total! We lateron made our way (running ofcourse) towards the ringroad where Jakob would have loved to use the nutrition areas for himself and was very happy when he did get an (empty) Powerade cup in the end. Together with dad he them was running alongside the racers on the course all the ringroad towards Schwarzenbergplatz watching runners, waving at spectators and happy whenever he had a chance to crush a plastic cup on the road.
What a great training-track!
Our base for the remainder of the race was the Schwarzenbergplatz where we not only could watch and cheer runners around km 12 of their race but also at km 41, so just before reaching the finishing line. While Jakob did avoid the competition with the leaders of the men's race he did run alongside some of the following runners for 100/150 metres and he did (almost) keep pace with them - see the
video as evidence. Spectators along the course were as amazed as mom and dad and applauded the little boy a lot. He obviously loved that, as he repeated the little sprint 4 times. Together with Stefan and Viki we then refuelled the batteries with meat at McDonald's. Maybe not the healthiest food, but closest to the track so we did not miss much. When Viki's brother-in-law had passed us on his last metres of his race we said farewell to the great spot and made our way home by bus. Both Jakob and Julia have been really tired and used the busride for a short rest.
I can run. I can bike.
Once we reached home Jakob must have found a second energy as he was demanding to go out again on his bike and use the opportunity of traffic-free roads to ride his bike. Kerstin decided to go out with him while Markus stayed at home and put Julia to bed for an afternoon nap. Half an hour later he received a picture showing Jakob on his bike in front of the State Opera, approximately 5km from home. He did really ride the bike on the race track all the way there, made his way together with Kerstin to the finishing area before meeting Stefan again at the Rathausplatz . From there our big-boy cycled to Schwedenplatz where he got a well deserved large ice. The ride home was then very casual and we are actually pretty amazed of the energy Jakob had all day long. Not only was he running a lot throughout the day, but it was also his first big bicycle tour! Chapeaux!
Julia, Jakob, Kerstin & Markus
