Tag: running

airport night run: my first 10km race!

the blog has been in a bit of a lull… april was a whirlwind of adventures and trips – i’ll try to catch up :)

first things first: earlier in april i’ve finished my first 10k race ever, without stopping nor fainting – a mighty accomplishment for my chubby self! :D

i even got a medal to prove it:

(that funny shape on the medal is the outline of the race track, part of which are the airport’s runways!)

running a 10k race had been on my latest 101 things in 1001 days list, but i never thought i’d do it so soon, since up until very recently the most i had ever run was around 5km. but the airport night run sprung up on us and i grabbed the opportunity of running on what will one day become berlin’s shiny new airport. i mean, how often do you get to run on a future airport’s landing strip? :)

well, we do have the privilege of living next to a former airport, so i had run on a runway before… but i’d kind of forgotten that the new ones are much longer, around 4km in total… it felt like it went on and on forever! i forgot to take my ipod with me, and so spent the whole time running a speech in my head in several languages, in order to keep busy. i seem to need a sort of distraction to run, and missed my beloved podcasts dearly.

but it was ok in the end – in fact, it was actually rather nice! the race started around twilight, and by the time we finished it was completely dark and all the airport lights were on, giving the track a bit of an otherworldly feeling. volunteers cheered us on enthusiastically in the dark, and gave people high-fives… it was magical! i just kept running and running and running until the finish line… it took me 1:10 to do the 10km, at a very relaxed 7:00/km.

so yay! it was good and i’m glad i did it… but now is time to finish this airport, ok berlin?

Post author By ana
Post date May 9, 2014
2 Comments on airport night run: my first 10km race!

in portugal just life

lisbon’s mini-marathon

remember two years ago, when i said i didn’t run? well… it’s fair to say things have changed a bit since then. it started while cheering for the athletes on the berlin marathon, last year. some of the people running the course were quite old or didn’t look very physically fit… and yet they were doing this amazing endurance feat! and it got me thinking that i should be able to do it too, at least a little bit. i mean, i’m just a regular person, i should be able to run a few kilometers! so i decided it was time to quit my whining and just do something about it.

i like how easy it is to get going: grab some shorts and an old tshirt, some music, lace your shoes, and off you go. i run with the boy until i get tired (about 5km in) and then i let him go on for the rest of his (much faster paced) run. so far, i’ve ran a total of 155km, and i plan on slowly running my way to a total of 300km this year.

also, i confess i’ve always been secretly jealous of his running medals… which is silly, i know… but now i can enter competitions of my own and get my own medals! :D i truly love how democratic running is: anyone can enter these races, just sign up and run run run!

so i did! here’s my brother and me, heading towards the starting line for lisbon’s mini-marathon:

the race is just 7km, and filled with people enjoying this unique opportunity to cross the amazing 25 de abril bridge on foot, so the pace is slow and relaxed. while the boy sweated his ass off on the half-marathon, the two of us leisurely jogged our way to the finish line, stopping to take photos and admire the view :)

my grandpa helped build this bridge, back in the 60s, and i couldn’t be prouder of him for such a fine job! it truly is a stunning work of engineering.

and of course, there were medals! and ice-cream too, which was lovely! :)

(oh! and the boy ran the 21km in 1:28, breaking his previous record! humpf! :P )

in germany just life

races, before and after

i might have mentioned this once or twice or thrice before… the boy runs. he runs a lot, and he runs fast, often doing pretty well in competitions. me? i stay on the sidewalks by the finish line and cheer for everyone that goes by, clapping for the kids, the old people, the fast ones and slow ones, the ladies, the skaters, the guys running in suit & tie… pretty much everyone, until my fingers hurt or the boy arrives – at which point my clapping is all for him :)

i also take the opportunity to steal away his phone and take photos with it! we have a little project going on, documenting the races with before-and-after photos… here are the results so far.

asics 10:

barcelona’s half-marathon:

tierpark lauf:

berlin half-marathon:

airport run (which was cold and wet and miserable):

curiously, after every single race the boy gets this bulging vein on his head that looks suspiciously like something out of harry potter…

in germany

running in the zoo

you gotta admit, it’s not the most common place for a 10k, but it turned out quite nicely! after a scary moment of oh-my-god-we-forgot-the-microchip!, the boy managed to rent one at the last minute, and finished the race in record time. after that, we ate sausages and spent the rest of the day strolling around, checking out all the animals. :)

and in the end, a well deserved ice-cream! :)

just life

he runs, i bike

i cannot, for the life of me, run. i’ve tried, motivated by the boy’s good performances and general encouragement, but it just isn’t for me… after the first few hundred meters, i get tired and start feeling miserable, regretting ever putting the sneakers on. i never got runners high, and the only place i feel at ease exercising is underwater :)

so, we have a sort of deal: he runs, i bike. he usually runs for 10km, in about an hour – which feels strenuous to me, even though i’m the one sitting… but following him across parks and through garden communities, discovering a different bit of the city every time, it also gives me a sort of serenity, and time to catch up on podcasts and itunes lectures, which i quite like. all in all, a good compromise, i’d say! :)