CRIScom travel experience flow – The personal website of Christoph Potzinger

Holidays with “the boys” used to have a different flavour . Also our destinations differed significantly from the current one. Instead of flying to Greece for a beer-induced summer holiday, this time we embarked on a different mission. With Hannes having opted out because of lack of training (and courage), four of us met at Pritschitz approximately at half-distance between Klagenfurt and Velden at the Wörthersee. Gernot had been responsible for organisation and accomodation and thus Stefan, Herbert, myself and Cedrick (my father’s Retriever) found ourselves in the beautiful backyard of a traditional Carinthian farm, run by Martin’s mother, one of Gernot’s best friends (Martin, not the mother), in warm sunshine on a Saturday afternoon. We were here not for drinking beer but wanting to cover a distance of 21’095 meters as fast as possible at one of Austria’s best run events, Kärnten Läuft Half-marathon . Of course, we had a taste of our favorite drink but just a small one.

Our preparation for the run couldn’t have been (more…)

Time passes too quickly. We are now looking back at a memorable weekend which is already more than a week ago. But let me go much further back in order to explain. It was in autumn 1996 when I first met Ben and Rich, sitting in the Cafeteria of a football club close to Manchester City’s Maine Road stadium. That we had a terrible football inclination in common was obvious from the very start . But this was not the only thing we had in common. We also shared the same accommodation, grand Arosa Hotel, and played for the same university team, Manchester Metropolitan University. Thus we met more often on the football pitch than we did at university, Rich and I playing for the first team, Ben in the third. I would quit the team after a few games but soon we should catch up again in the common room of Arosa hotel or in Flea & Firkin, a pub just across the street from the Humanities Department where I studied. (more…)

Despite the confusion that was caused by the marathon organisers, as a team we can be very satisfied with our first Austrian championships race. On Sunday, after Chris, Vinz and Jörg had already left, I was summoned upon the podium to take the medals for Vice Champions at the Austrian Marathon Championships in the team race. Because I was the fourth fastest (or slowest) runner in our team, I was not classified but, to be frank, I quite enjoyed it up there with the champs.

Being the second fastest marathon team in Austria is quite an achievement, all the more as we took part at the championships for the first time. Everyone was surprised and nobody knew that our team even existed in the first place . I took the medals and certificates for the three heros. Considering how difficult the preparation turned out especially for Vinz and Christian and adding the fact that Jörg hadn’t been able to train more than 50 to 70 ks per week, this result is even more surprising and goes to show how much potential these superb runners have
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On the way back, Erwin phoned me, informing that on the official Pentek results page, we were only ranked third. I thought that this might be a mistake by Pentek since I had the certificates in my hands and I didn’t give it further thoughts . Today, however, I contacted the Austrian Athletics Association where it was confirmed that the organizers had made a mistake . Thus we were ranked back to 3rd position. Now, we have to return our silver medals which will be exchanged for bronze ones. Of course, we were a bit disappointed but 3rd place is still a great achievement, one which injects our undertaking with new energy and motivation. Our next common goal will be the Austrian Championships 2010. Before that we are pursuing individual goals, which will see me and Jörg attempting the Berlin marathon on 20 September 2009

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I knew it after 3 ks: this was going to be a tough race. Whenever on such occasions my feet aren’t running by themselves, I know that it is going to be a hard and long, long way to the finish line. I hadn’t felt well all through the week before the marathon and never really managed to translate my planned marathon speed into one of my training runs before the event . Thus, I didn’t have high expectations for the run but little did I know how difficult it was going to be.
I had planned for a speed of 4:00 min/km but too soon I realized that this was just a dream. Still the first half marathon went quite well with 1:25:39 hrs (4:04 min/km) but with the temperatures rising, my speed declined very soon into the second half, clocking in at about 4:10 after 23 ks and deteriorating to 4:15 at 25 ks. With 17 ks still to run, my stomach started to churn and I had to stop and seek the bushes: diarrhea. It was terrible and a very difficult situation. My feet started to cramp and I found it very hard to gather speed again. It turned out, however, that it was a good decision to stop and get the bad stuff out of my body . At least, I could keep up my former speed and thus I continued, still struggling, though, along. Every kilometer seemed to be too long and the heat didn’t make things better. It was a tough run, a real struggle, and all I was running for was to see the finish line. Little did I care about the time anymore, just trying hard to set one foot in front of the other, doing my best to get enough fluid into my body, hoping that it would keep it. (more…)

Photo © Torben Meldgaard
My 5th marathon is drawing nearer, inevitably. And I am getting excited which, unfortunately, does not contribute to my preparation since it gets me out of bed early in the morning. Sleep is very important in this stage of preparation. Lack of sleep can have devastating effects on your performance, especially in the death zone after KM 32 . (more…)