Rund-um-Jena

my pictures
pics from finish line

This is an annual 100-kilometer event (62 miles) held in Jena, a small town in Thuringen, Germany. I particiapted for the first time on June 9- June 10.

My friend Brandis Keller gave me the idea to participate a few months ago. At first I just wanted to try it out; I wasn't attached to finishing it, which seemd at the time to be an impossible task. As the past few months went by and I was hiking and running more and more, my immediate goal became: 100 KILOMETERS! I didn't care about the time, the main thing was to finish.

The day of the race came on Friday, June 9th. After a big pasta party the night of June 8th, and a few months worth of anticipation, I was ready and waiting at the starting line. Brandis and I had shown up more than an hour early, and she had time to introduce me to her colleagues (and colleagues' friends), who were also participating. A marathon runner, and ultra-marathon runner among them, they seemed a bit more ambitious than us, but very nice people :-)

We gathered together at the start line, scanned our chips at the same time, and were on our way. Our group was Brandis and I, Uwe and Thomas, colleagues of Brandis', Wolgang, a running partner of Thomas, and Gerhard, a guy who happened to be standing next to us. The race started at 6pm. We would be walking through the night and more. We got off at a nice pace. Fast, exciting. We were a 650-person snake, taking off from the start line, making our way down the street, a few kilometers down the first streets, then up the first hill to the Horizantale, the trail that goes somewhat flat, and somewhat up and down, through the hills surrounding Jena. Brandis and I managed to stay with her ambitious colleagues. As avid hill-runners from the area, they also guided us nicely through the many twists and turn-offs we would have otherwise missed.

We reached the first station after 21.5 kilometers and 3.5 hours. It wasn't dark yet. And we were still happy, smiling, and hopeful. We got bags with bread and chocolate and bananas, as well as coke or fruit tea to drink. Then we took off again. Our group was already thinning, since Uwe starting up  before the rest of us.

The next round was mostly in the dark and lasted 22.5 kilometers and 4:15 hours (which included our 20 minute break at the first station). We were surprisingly unsympathetic walkers. When someone needed to pee, that was his own problem. He or she peed and then ran like mad to catch up with the rest. We didn't wait for each other, no reason to stick together in the long run, since no one really wanted to be held back by the others. But the trail was already thinning of people as the faster got further ahead and the slower even further behind. We were still somehow a coherent group though. When Brandis' feet started to hurt, I pulled by her arm up the hill. She ran short stints to make up for her stride length, and pulled through, despite sharp foot pain, to the 44 kilometer mark, the 2nd station, which we reached just before 2am. Wolfgang and I had impolitely pulled ahead for the last few kilometers and left the others slightly lost in the dark. Brandis, however, had gotten super motivated at the end and had run down the last hill so that they actually got to the station only minutes after us. Food and drink were good and necessary. We had made no stops up till this point, and all hydration was done while walking or running. Brandis left the race at this point because of the foot pain. Maybe that was a good idea, since the worse was yet to come.

The third section was the longest of the race, 25 kilometers, took us 4:45 hours (including 20 minute break at station 2). During the nighttime hours Wolfgang and Thomas ran ahead. I was determined not be left alone in the dark, and ran my hardest to catch up. But it was short-lived, since they ran ahead again an hour later. After some time of motivated walking (how long? an hour? two? maybe only 20 minutes...) I suprisingly ran into them. They were even more surprised that I was. Gehard, however, had fallen behind at this point, and was actually alone and busy getting lost on the confusingly marked trail. At some point we could turn off our headlamps; watching the sun rise together was beautiful. The section ended with a nasty knee-killing downhill before 3 kilometers of foot-killing asphalt.We were getting more patient with each other as pain started to kick in nearing kilometer 69; we waited happily when someone fell behind. The last 1.5 kilometers were especially painful.

Upon reaching Station 3 we were clearly not the only ones hurting. Taxis were driving up to pick people up. As we got ready to leave to station, Gerhard and Uwe showed up. Gerhards knees couldn't take anymore, and he called his friend for a ride home. I changed my shoes and saw the beginning of my big blister for the first time. Big and yellow, it was under my socks, but above my shoes, and was apparently due to the fact that my socks were too tight.

The break had revived us though. We were sleepy and hurting, but a nice sustained uphill was a welcome break after the long downhill before the 3rd station. It became enjoyable again. But tiredness was setting in. Thomas and Wolfgang had been awake for more than 24 hours by now. We took it slow. We took drink breaks for the first time, and walked slowly and casuallzythrough the morning, letting ourselves get passed by many super-fit old men. The section was only 15 kilometers, but took us 3:40 hours, longer than the first 21.5 kilometer section. It ended with a narly uphill, steep steep and up stairs.

Them most amazing thing happened after the 4th station. As the pain started to kick in again, the only thing we could was RUN!! It felt better than walking, since our walking muscles were all worn out. We lightly jogged. I would start to walk again, but would inevitably end up lightly trotting again, out of excitement, pain, and pure desire to be finished. The last stretch was a beautiful thin path along the cliffside, sunny hot, and looking down on the city. Absolutely picturesque. One last stop at a spring for a drink, only 5 k left! But low and behold, the break after trotting had left my legs dead to the world, and it was all I could do to make them stand me up again. We started off slowly. We had 5 kilometers left, and 50 minutes or so till the 19 hour mark, our new goal (which had seemed far out of our reach only shortly before). Downhill, and on ashpalt! Pounding pain on the balls of my feat, resistant protest in my legs, and knife-cutting blister pain. (The chaffing on my back, legs, and arm hadn't even started to register yet, but would shortly, soon after finishing.) We walked persistantly together. With 2 kilometers left we had 19 minutes till the the 19 hours mark. Time to run again. My legs protested, but Wolfgang helped my pushing me from behind. It was clear by this point, that after almost 19 hours hiking togher, we would also cross the finish line together. The last few hundred meters my legs could run on their own again.

Then we made it, smiling for the camera, in 18:56:28, 18:56:33, and 18:56:35!!! I was the 6th woman to finish, and awfully proud!