Inspirations of a breathtaking race

Sunday morning the air in Vienna was as healthy as on no other day of the year: The 26th edition of the Vienna City Marathon curbed down car traffic significantly in many parts of the city as roads-blocks started from 0600 in order to allow preparations for the big run to take place. While some drivers found it difficult to navigate to their destinations, public transport got cancelled, or re-routed the roads belonged for a few hours to the runners - as well as some bikers or anyone else not moved by an engine. The weather was perfect for the spectators – around 10 degrees in the morning, blue sky and rising temperatures during the course of the day. As two Austrian marathon rookies – Andrea Mayr and Guenter Weidlinger – were expected to tackle the respective Austrian national records the weather conditions were eyed awkwardly by experts, as they seemed too warm for fast times.

The roads are owned by the runners. A relief for the trees and air!

At 0900 the racers were released and 29.054 athletes got on their way to tackle the whole distance of 42,195km, the half marathon or the marathon distance in a 4-squad-relay race. Crossing the Reichsbruecke near the UNO-City provides the VCM with similarly spectacular pictures as the New York City Marathon, when the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is being crossed. The route then leads into the Prater, passing our home towards the first district and via the ring-road and the Staatsoper onto the Wienzeile heading west towards Schoenbrunn. This part of the route, between km 12 and 16 is one of the most horrible ones for marathon and half-marathon runners as it is slightly uphill, and fully exposed to the sunshine. Having reached Schloss Schoenbrunn the route leads via the Technische Museum and the Mariahilfer Strasse again to the ring road – half-marathon-runners have reached their finish here – and then towards Friedensbruecke and via Obere Donaustrasse and Schuettelstrasse towards the Ernst Happel Stadion in the Prater and the Lusthaus – running down the alley after 34km is real pain!! The last kilometres are similar to the ones early in the race – up the ring road, passing the Opera and turning right onto Heldenplatz, where thousands of spectators were cheering enthusiastically.

Even though the marathon-racers passed our home 3x we decided to watch and cheer them in the inner city and positioned our self by the Opera, motivating the broad mass tackling half and full distance as well as the elite. While the men’s winner stayed with 2:08:21 almost 1 minute behind the VCM course record of 2.07:35 at year’s 25th edition, it all looked very good for a new Austrian national record by Guenter Weidlinger. The split times gave him up to 20 seconds advantage to the record of 2:12:22 set by Gerhard Hartmann back in 1986(!!), but the on the last 2000 metres the batteries went flat and he lost a lot of essential time and with 2:12:39 he missed the record by mere 17 seconds. The crowd in front of the opera went dead-quiet when realising that the record is missed. That was a spooky moment! But 15 minutes later a storm of enthusiasm came up when Andrea Mayr showed up, looking like falling over any second due to her extremely strange running style. It seemed very unlikely for her to set a new record as she had to run the last km in 3.00 minutes – see the video of these moments that Markus shot. Supported by her pacemakers and the frenetic cheering by the whole crowed she did the unexpected, reached the finishing line in 2:30:43: and thus beat Eva-Maria Gradwohl's national record of 2:30:51. On top of that the marathon-rookie, working fulltime as a doctor, won the women’s race.

Unbelieveable achievement! The half-marathon on crutches in 3:39:15. RESPECT!

The great atmosphere of 350.000 spectators all over Vienna and amazing achievements of elite and hobby-runners motivated Markus to pick up proper running practice again. As he is signed up already for the half-marathon at the Drei Laender Marathon on October 4th, it is about time anyway to get back into shape. But also, after a break of two years not participating in the VCM, the motivation is there to re-join the race in 2010!

Kerstin & Markus

Fill it up – the fasting is over

Easter, as one of the most important Christian holidays not only marks the crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ but also the end of the fasting season. Some people use this 40 day period, which commences at the end of carnival, to live up to their New Year’s resolutions and refrain either partially or completely from smoking, drinking alcohol and eating excessively. Very often the Easter Holiday festivities make up for all that sort of abstinence and the net effect of fasting is turning negative within a few days.

We did not really abide by the fasting rule, but did celebrate the end of the season with a big brunch on Sunday morning at Heidi’s place together with Sandra & Flo and Christine (Flo’s Mum) & her partner Norbert. The offered food range was sheer endless: boiled ham with freshly grated horseradish, smoked salmon with horseradish cream, boiled (coloured) eggs, baked beans with sausages and scrambled eggs, fresh fruit salad, various kinds of bread, a Reindling (traditional Carinthian dish) and of course various kinds of cheese and marmelade. Tea, coffee, juices and sparkling wine rounded the binge up. As if the brunch was not enough we had some more coffee and cakes in the afternoon together with Eugen, Kerstin’s dad and her aunt Lissi, uncle Werner and cousins Monika & Barbara.

Filled up to the roof - our french lion on the way home

Monday morning the big eating continued with another breakfast in the sun. Renate Werner, the Meierei, who have returned last night from Spain where the visited their daughthers Anja in Barcelona and Katrin & Dipak in Gran Canaria, joined in to tackle the many leftovers of the Sunday brunch. Markus skipped the breakfast as he was trying to cram the car with all the stuff we want to take back to Vienna. Apart from the luggage we brought along we also wanted to take back the two pieces of furniture we ground and coloured on the weekend, a little casket and a small table, as well as something very special: the traditional cradle which was built especially for Kerstin more than 30 years ago and which hosted Kerstin, Sandra, Katrin & Anja. Fitted with a new mattress it will accomodate the new generation soon! Fitting all the bags & furniture pieces into the car demanded a lot of tricks and twists, but at the end of the day the car was filled up to the roof, had everything in it and after a long journey due to heavy traffic and jams we got home safely to Vienna in the evening.

Kerstin & Markus

Fresh colours all over the place

We shortened our working week by taking Friday of and headed West Thursday night towards Hoerbranz to spend the Eater holidays with Kerstin's family. The weather, already at early summer temperatures the whole week, improved even further and it felt more like summer than Easter holidays and so we spent lots of time outdoors enjoying the revival of nature after a long winter. We did long walks along Lake Constance followed by yummy ice cream, Markus tried to get into a running rhythm again, relaxing breaks over coffee with Kerstin's Mom and sister and Markus also did some DIY for Heidi - he installed a new WiFi-router so her access to the WorlWideWeb was sped up again.

Just hard-boiled eggs - but the colour makes a difference

What would Easter be without the colourful eggs? Most probably boring. Hence we picked up some colour in the shop, bought plenty of eggs and helped the Easter bunnies with bringing colour to all our lifes on Friday evening. Well prepared with gloved, lots of paper and plastic bags to protect the table we had an hour of fun colouring eggs which are going to be eaten during the weekend still. But eggs were not the only things that got some fresh colour. While all of us added some tan in the warm & strong spring sun, Markus ground a small casket, so far used as nightstand, and a small table so that Kerstin could put on some fresh colour four our little one. The first furniture is prepared.

Kerstin & Markus

The night of blue-white!

It looks like we reached the end of a very long and cold winter here in Vienna as at the end of last week spring finally broke and so we immediately ventured out - like many others as well - to exploit the warm evening on Friday together with Lini & Peter in Do-An's outdoor garden at the Naschmarkt. The weekend even felt like early summer with temperatures of up to 25 degrees in the shadow. We prepared our terrace, adjusted all our plants and spent a lot of quality time relaxing in the sun. Given we were still quite tired from the past weekend in Barcelona this was just the right thing to do.

Out of the trough - ready for take-off?

Monday night was all about sports, to be more precise basketball. First, Markus' team in the Austrian Basketball League, the Oberwart Gunners, have managed to put an end to a so far unseen drought and cut their 9-game loosing streak with a mentally very important 64-54 home-win over the Traiskirchen Lions. After several very tight games in which the luck was not on their side in the crunch-time this victory was a big relief and just in time to get momentum back before the start of the play-offs in a bit more than 2 weeks time. Hopefully they can find their rhythm again and roll on through the post-season and maybe straight into the finals.

Hi-Flyers all season long already - living up to expectations

Later that night, precisely at 0315 Vienna time, March Madness reached its climax and the the NCAA Championship game tipped off in which the North Carolina Tar Heels were challenged by the Michigan State Spartans in snow-covered Detroit in front of stunning 72922 (!!) spectators. UNC, already traded as championship favorite at the beginning of the season, was not at all bothered by the fact that MSU in fact "owned" the arena (the East Lansing campus is only 92 miles away from the Ford Field) and played from the very first minute of the game like champions and raced to an undisputed 89-72 victory and crowned themselves for the 5th time in school history NCAA Champions! Even though Ty Lawson played outstanding, accounting for 21 points, 6 assists, 8 steals and 4 rebounds, it really was the whole team that made the difference. Congratulations to North Carolina!

Kerstin & Markus

Why do nice things go by so fast?

Due to the fact that Saturday was all raining and wet we had to postpone crucial parts of our trip to Barcelona to Monday and therefore the start of the new week was dedicated to shopping. We met Anja in the morning for excellent breakfast at Café Flamant, close the University and afterwards made our way through Muji, Zara Home and El Corte Ingles on Rambla de Catalunya and Placa de Catalunya, and stopped by the probably most modern and stylish H&M store in Europe located in an old building on Avenida Portal de’l Angel.

After lunch in Bar Lobo, just off La Rambla, we continued walking down Carrer d’Avinyo, a tiny road with lots of nice shops and boutiques as we made the experience that we get to learn a city or area best if we explore it by feet, getting lost every now and then, but as long as we find our way back again, we really know the place afterwards. Hence it should not be a surprise for anyone that also on Monday we walked almost everything - we admit, that we took the bus from Passeig de Colom to Barceloneta! In Barceloneta we enjoyed a drink in Sal Café overlooking the beach and sea – this by the way must be the perfect place to chill in summer – before walking back towards our hotel via Born, Placa de Catalunya and Ronda de la Universitat for a short but absolutely necessary rest.

BCN - Even the garbage truck is branded!

Our local insider Anja who showed us a the city from a Spaniard's point-of-view joined us after work on our last night in BCN for farewell drinks in Bar Dostrece which we kept rather short as our taxi on Tuesday morning picked us up at 0500 to the airport to get back to Vienna on the early morning flight at 0640. Both of us headed straight back to work, are somewhat tired now and sad that the short break is over again. It was a great time with Anja and we are glad that we met her there, as fairly soon she might be back in Vienna again and we won’t have an insider anymore in this beautiful city which combines old architecture and tiny roads with modern design and cool bars and restaurants.

Kerstin & Markus

These boots are made for walking

Sunday morning continues where Saturday ended and so we opened our brolly and walked to pick up Anja in her flat and continued to Cafe Olivia, an extremely nice and cosy cafe for breakfast. After breakfast the clouds cleared and we headed on the underground towards Badalona where we watched the ACB league game DKV Joventut Badalona vs. Iurbentia Bilbao Basket in the Palau Municipal D'Esports.

As we had to queue quite long at the ticket desk we just got to our seats on time for tip-off and Markus had to buy the team jersey only at halftime. Verd-i-negra had to make up for the most recent loss at Tau Ceramica Vitoria, currently leading the ACB, by a huge margin of 34 points and they played very solid and concentrated all game long. Only in the second half the crowd got really going as "La Penya" came up with great combinations and when Ricky Rubio, the 19 year old super talent scored 12 points within 4 minutes to secure a clear 98-77 victory and crown himself game top scorer (coming from the bench) with 15 points.

"Forca Penya" - our support helped today

Once the game was over we headed to Park Guell in the west of the city and from that point on it were only our legs that carried us for the rest of the day. The walk through the park, designed by - guess who - Antonio Gaudi was followed by a stroll down Carrer de Verdi on which we had some refreshments and chilled out in cafe-restaurant Sol i Lluna. We then continued along Passeig de Gran Gracia toward Placa de Catalunya and onwards though the hip quarter "Born" through Barceloneta to the sea. By the time we got there it was 2000 and rather windy and the restaurant we were aiming at - Sal Cafe was already closed. Apart from joggers and people walking their dogs we watched a few surfers waiting for the perfect wave to ride and we then made our way back towards Born and Anja's workplace, the Casa Camper. A few drinks concluded the active Sunday - which was shorter by one hour due to the change to summertime.

Kerstin & Markus

Most of the rain in Spain is falling in England?

Friday night we left Vienna for a long 4-day weekend in Barcelona in and attempt to enjoy warm weather and tasty tapas in this the beautiful city. Upon arrival in the HCC Open Hotel, centrally located close to Placa de Catalunya we met Kerstin’s cousin Anja,who is living and working in Barcelona for drinks in the 7 Sins Bar just opposite her flat. It was great to go out at 2230 and just wear a light jacket as it was so mild.

Saturday morning though, while we had breakfast together in a small Catalan bakery Escribo it started to drizzle with rain lightly. We headed towards La Rambla, stopped by the Casa Camper Barcelona, a cool design-hotel Anja is working for and had to finally give in to the water pressure and bought an umbrella as it did only stop shortly raining every now and then in order to restart again soon. When Anja started working at 1400 we headed towards on e of the best Tapas Bars in Barcelona, Tapas 24 where we had to queue for 45 minutes in order to get a table. The bar is very well designed, though its only visible once you are sitting there and have time to check it out from your seat. Very friendly staff and excellent tapas have been absolutely worth the time waiting.

The later afternoon we spent in the sea. Unfortunately not the way we expected it and wished it for, swimming, but walking through the Aquarium, a huge marine zoo by the port with numerous small and large fish. We felt like back in Koh Tao or the Similan Islands diving at times and spent hours inside. It seemed we felt that we would not miss anything outside as rain continued and rather intensified.

Ever seen such a strange fish?

At 2200 we picked up Anja after work again and we headed tor Tapioles 53, a tiny restaurant run by an Australian chef. The restaurant has no fix menu but offers each day different dishes to choose from. It was not typical Spanish food, but absolutely mind-blowing. The setting of the restaurant, in an small former warehouse resembling more a lofty living room than a restaurant made this evening pretty special and made us forget the water coming down.

Kerstin & Markus

Someone used the time machine wrongly

Sunday night Markus travelled with his boss and one of his Scandinavian clients to Warsaw again visiting companies and finding out a somewhat more positive mood within the industries but still far away from economic optimism. The crisis is still visible and tangible, but people got used to it and seem to know now how to handle it.

Enough of winter - we want spring!

While the fact that it was snowing in Warsaw every night with snow even remaining on the roads on Wednesday gave us the impression that the time was turned back and winter is still there it somehow occurred to us these days that the past weeks have been flying by like a blizzard. The last weekend of March is ahead of us. A quarter of the year is over soon. Somehow that’s scary. On the other hand it brings us faster to nice upcoming events like a weekend in Barcelona in the very near future or Sissi & Andi’s wedding and “new arrivals” with friends, colleagues and us lateron in the year.

Kerstin & Markus

Lost in transition?

Today, Friday March 20th 2009 at 12.43 CET we can say farewell to winter and “Welcome spring”. Unfortunately this is only theoretical as temperatures dropped the past few days and we had fresh snow in the mountain regions and even within the city limits of Vienna yesterday throughout the day. It was funny and strange as sunshine and snowfall alternated several times and at the end of the day the snow has vanished again. We do hope very much that this was the last sign and we can unwrap our very own spring-ambassadors on our terraces – tulips we seeded in autumn and have slowly grown underneath protective fleece ever since. It is about time to dig out The Manhattans’1976 record “Kiss and say Goodbye, dedicate it to Jack Frost and let the spring feelings spread!

With the NCAA basketball tournament underway Markus has plenty of games to watch on the weekend, which he has to squeeze in between more furniture shopping, meeting Mary, Mirko and Valentin for the first time since them returning from their belated honeymoon in Thailand and Markus leaving for yet another business trip with a client to Warsaw with many company visits. Luckily for both him and also Kerstin the NCAA provides online on-demand videos of all tournament games, so he can stay in touch even while on the road.

Kerstin & Markus

March Madness - Let the games begin

Last night, on Selection Sunday, the US College basketball league's post season has basically been kicked off with the selection of the tournament brackets shortly after the last division-champion has been crowned in the regular season-ending division championship tournaments. While the winner or these tournaments are automatically qualified for the NCAA Championship Tournament (also dubbed “March Madness”), the remaining spots are being filled by an expert team in a selection ceremony.

On Thursday and Friday this week the teams will talk serious in the first round of the NCAA Championship Tournament. Every game is basically a final and thus intensity of the games will be very high. Whether we will see another game that is only decided after almost 4 hours and after 6 overtimes, like we have had in the Big East Championship Tournament quarterfinal between the Syracuse Orange and the Connecticut Huskies, is rather unlikely, but the teams will show maximum effort every minute of the games.

Let's see whether overall #1 seed Louisville Cardinals go all the way to claim the title in the Final Four in Detroit on April 6th or whether the Pittsburgh Panthers, for many the best team this year live continue their strength. Coach K, last summer responsible for the US Dream Team in Beijing’s Olympic basketball tournament, is another hot candidate to bring his Duke Blue Devils to the Final Four, but also Hasheem Thabeet, A.J. Price and Connecticut Huskies, Blake Griffin and the Oklahoma Sooners, Tyler Hansbrough & Ty Lawson with the North Carolina Tar Heels or Jonny Flynn and the Syracuse Orange are hot candidate for becoming 2009 NCAA Champions.

Definitely not the road to perdition! The tournament bracket is the road to glory.

To take a look at potential future NBA- or Euroleague players and to find out who will be this year’s NCAA Champion you can watch the games either on ESPN America (available on UPC Digital) or live on the web on a dedicated Video-on-demand site by the NCAA.

Kerstin & Markus