What a climber! Christian Kleineberg, a fellow runner and friend, took on the challenge of the Welschlauf 2008, a mountain roller coaster that goes under the name of marathon, and climbed not only almost 1.400 meters in altitude but also the podium. In tandem with Erich Grailer, I escorted Christian through the beautiful countryside of the South Styrian Weinstraße on his way to an astonishing 3rd place and a remarkable time of 3:05:22 hrs.
A few years back I bought a mountain bike in order to be able to go with Erwin and ride the Großglockner Hochalpenstraße. In order to prepare for the challenge, I went on sorties to the Weinstraße for a good exercise. The Weinstraße can get breath-takingly steep at times, and you have to work hard on your bike to reach the next ridge. Back then, running on these streets seemed, (more…)