Yes, the ASCA Cross Country Championship was upon us once again! It just seems so soon because last year it was pushed to the fall because of the Volcano but this is normally the time of the year for it. And so a small but cool Lufthansa Team (girls: Yvonne, Christel, Yasmin, Kasia and myself, guys: Michael, Ralph, Albert and Jens) took off to overtake Copenhagen.
We all made our flights, AGAIN, altho Kasia and I had it somewhat tight and so did Albert out of HAM. But there we were, Piotr (Kasia's friend) picked us up from the airport and took us home to their luxurious 3 bedroom apartment (they pay 3500 EUR rent for a month!!) where we sat a little talking and then slept. The next morning we decided to walk to the Hotel to meet up with the team. We figured it'd make for warmup. We checked Google maps and decided it did not need more than 30 min so we left 45 for safety. But we just kept walking and walking and the hotel didn't want to show up and even though we even ran at the end we were late, very late, once again, mortifying! I felt like in a nightmare. By the time we reached, the teams were gone, only poor Michael (always the perfect gentleman and my personal guardian angel in delays) and Leif from SAS waited for us with a car and drove us to the start where the others were already warming up. So nice of them, they could have left us behind! At least this time we didn't miss the start!
Here before the race:
In any case, we did start and i managed to run a respectable time, for my own standards: 5.9 km in 25:41.
The 3 best runners (Orla, the kid from last year and one more SAS lady dressed all fancy) took off fast but the other EI runner and I followed suit quite soon after them. I kept seeing their backs for the entire distance so they didnt beat that much on us this time. I stuck on this EI lady and told myself i would try to overtake in the end if i still had the strength. Silly thing to think! Id been training for a marathon for 2 months, if i didnt have strength left after 6km i'd have been doing sth really wrong. So i did as planned, sprinted her down on the last 100m and finished 3rd among the under 40-s (4th total). Soon Yvonne (Gad) came in and then the guys started streaming in from their separate route, then Yasmin, then Kasia. Chrystel took a bit longer but she finished too which is what counts.
Here we are afterwards:
We all went picknicking then, SAS had cold drinks and sandwhiches waiting for us and we had a real nice time! Piotr sat with us too and even he said he enjoyed it altho he knew noone but us. Of course it needs to be mentioned that purely for Piotrs sake the Germans spoke English to us and each other as well, thats how nice they are!
Copenhagen rocks! Its beautful, diverse (a perfect mix of historical and modern) and offers so much. We tasted the famous danish pastries (brought over by Austrians):
We walked the Stroget, saw the entire waterfront incl the Black Diamond (royal library), the Royal Theather, got to Nyhavn and more:
Passed Amalienborg and the Kings gardens:
and then came up against the Mermaid, finally:
It was so jolly! Kasia and i got into the mood of moving to CPH (of course) and we enjoyed every minute of the day so much!
Of course we didn't make it to the dinner for 19PM but we didnt really intend to, either: the city had to be discovered first and we had so little time. Unfortunately we missed half of the awards ceremony but still made it for the team-results announcement and took our bronze medals in person.
Then we ate (cool food, i found the solution nicer than last years') and had a few drinks (i guess thats quite a few in my case, if i remember correctly, LOL) and had some fun until 1AM and then headed home. We eventually made it home to Brno too, tho separately as Kasia stayed a bit longer.
All in all, a very nice time again with an extremely cool team full of nice people. Looking forward to the next one!
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