… at least not only a blog!
Jan 1st, 2012 by Hanna
Finished books:
Okt 11th, 2011 by Hanna
For my dad’s birthday in June, Marc and I visited France to meet my parents at our favorite place. I guess you all know where that is since I’ve have been going there for vacation my entire life. And we had such a special time – as always. It had been more than a year since our last vacation and I had really missed the place. This time we had family and friends visiting – Astrid & Klaus, Gaby & Herbert and Ingeborg & Karl.
It was only a short trip and we didn’t do much besides reading books, looking at wedding magazines, writing save the date cards, going on daily walks to the “Plateau” (see the picture below) and of course enjoying great French food.
Now, four months later it already feels so far away and I wish I could go back there tomorrow. Laveline, tu me manques!
Okt 11th, 2011 by Hanna
A special Thank You goes to my mum who took all the race pictures. My personal favorite is the following. I think it’s pretty awesome and really captures the moment.
Okt 11th, 2011 by Hanna
Finished books:
Okt 6th, 2011 by Hanna
And then came the finish line. I have mentioned already that I was kind of hurting during those last kilometers. But still, it was all worth it. After the finish line, I felt pretty awesome, pretty exhausted but it had this nice touch to it. And the nicest part was just about to start…when Marc went down on his knee!!! Well no. First he asked me to stand up again since I was sitting there all exhausted. So when I was back on my feet, Marc went down on his knee and gave this very sweet speech about us and the past 11 years. And at the very end he asked me to marry him!!! Yeahh!! So that was it – the question, the proposal -the moment I was dreaming of for such a long time. And he couldn’t have picked a better time point for it – it was just the perfect moment for the two of us! I feel kind of awkward to write about it because whatever I type can’t really reproduce this special moment. But believe me – it really was amazing.
And with the question came the most beautiful ring I can imagine. I really love Marc’s taste and I am happy that he went for his own taste and not for mine. Did I mention that he’s a crazy guy? He seriously changed a 50 ml falkon (= lab supply) into a tiny padded jewel case that I wouldn’t notice before and during the race. So that’s how my engagement ring actually ran a half marathon. 
Well, I guess I don’t have to mention what my answer to the question was. And maybe we didn’t really surprise you with announcing our engagement. I guess it has been in the air for quite some time and after 11 years it’s hard to surprise anyone anyway. But I am soooo excited for everything that is coming – all the wedding preparations, the actual wedding, the honeymoon. It’s just such an exciting time and I am enjoying every second of it!
Okt 2nd, 2011 by Hanna
And then, the big day finally arrived.
After all those weeks of preparation I was hoping for the perfect race. I believe I was in pretty good shape, even better than in Salt Lake. But of course, there are so many factors that need to add up in order for you to get a good finish time. My dream goal was to go sub2, so anything up to 2 hours would have been awesome and I really felt like I could hit that mark.
But then came the weather forecast for Sunday and it sounded like my personal nightmare. I love running in the cold – snow, rain, no problem. I can handle sun to some degree but I really prefer if I don’t have to. And that particular day was supposed to be sunny, HOT, HOT, HOT, with no cloud in the sky. Perfect.
<– The organizers tried their best to keep people from collapsing
KM 1-2
Unfortunately the race started pretty late at 9:30 a.m. when it already had 22 °C. But at that time it felt perfect. There were so many people and it was an awesome feeling to be part of it. The start was much more organized than in Salt Lake. I don’t know if it was because this time they had different starting blocks you were supposed to use depending on your expected finish time [even though men and women with exactly the same time were assigned in different blocks....what's the deal with that??]. Anyway, after a few meters of walking we could start running and got going towards Mombach, along a nice and partially shady alley. They really should have turned around the course – I would have needed that at the end.
KM 3-8
Now we passed through the property of Schott AG and that was actually much more fun than expected. They had put up bleachers, played music and did a good job cheering. And their factories fire department used their water hydrants to cool us down a little bit. Between Schott and the suburb Mombach is the more industrial part of the city but people at the side of the road were cheering like crazy and it was pretty fun.
KM 9-14
Kilometer 9 was where my dad and my grandma where standing. It was so great to actually know someone who’s watching and until then it also went really well time-wise. In Salt Lake, the hard part was State Street pretty late in the race. However this time it started at km 10. Maybe I started to fast (which wasn’t really the case when you look at my training logs), maybe it was too hot or maybe (and most likely) I just mentally hit rock bottom. At this point I was really mad at myself and luckily runners around me were all really tough. Not a single person was walking. Not like in Salt Lake where so many people took it easy. But that was good for me, otherwise I would have probably taken it a little bit slower at this point.
From there we made it back to the city center of Mainz and the more historic part. It was really pretty passing by the cathedral and the spectators were awesome, just as expected. For that you have to know that people in Mainz are special anyway – very open minded, very happy and outgoing. It somehow must have to do with the Rhein and the local carnival. But due to that the Marathon in Mainz is well known and loved.
KM 15-20
After the city center came the part that I feared the most in advance. But due to my personal fight after KM10 it was actually not that bad anymore. Still tough since you run on a really straight road that is split in half – 3 km towards Mz-Weisenau on one side while the faster runners already pass you on the other side of the road on their way back. And when you finally reach the turning point (which took forever) it’s the same 3 km back again. And to make it even worse there is not a single tree but blue sky and bright sun burning from above. It has never been nicer to reach a water station, not only to take a zip of cold water but actually to pour it over the head and get all the clothes soaked – and that was really life saving.
KM 20-21,0975
Well, that’s nothing to make fun of. There were plenty of people collapsing, in particular right before the finish line where my mum was standing. And I’m glad that my body/mind always keeps me from pushing myself to hard. Well, it sucks when it keeps you from getting a better time but in the end all that matters is that you finish and that you finish healthy. I have to admit that my body started hurting during those last two kilometers and I had troubles with my toes for weeks after. During those last two km I had this voice in my head asking why I was doing that, yelling that it’s the worst thing to do and that I would never do it ever again. But of course as soon as I reached this lovely yellow line I felt sooo great and minutes later I was already making plans for the next race. So I guess it wasn’t that bad after all. I rather enjoyed the people and all those carnival bands playing on the side of the road. Mainz rocks!!
For those of you who were wondering about the finish time. I must confess that with 2 h 12 it’s far from what I was aiming for and basically the same time as in SLC. But I guess for that particular race and those conditions I can still be happy about it. And next time…..
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P.S. Another blogger gave his race report the following title: ”In der Wüste war ich noch nie – In Mainz schon”. Well said.
P.P.S. Well that was the official race report but there is another important story connected to it that I need to tell you about. But that deserves a separate blog entry. So next time…
Okt 2nd, 2011 by Hanna
Hey everybody!! I’m back!!! After months of not taking care of my blog I will try my best to get it going again. I have seen in the past how much it actually means to me – it’s a nice way to keep all the great memories together and I wouldn’t want to miss that in the future. So here I am!!
I will start all the way back in May. You know that I trained for the Gutenberg Half Marathon in Mainz earlier this year. It actually took place on May 8th (mother’s day!!) and of course we were there. We actually drove to Mainz the Friday before to see my family and get over the long drive. On Saturday we walked around Mainz a little bit, went on a short 30 min run along the beautiful Rhine River, visited the marathon convention at the Rheingoldhalle (I got an awesome massage for free) and went to the pasta party.
<— A small part of the St. Martin’s Cathedral in Mainz
- The Saturday farmers market -
- Mainz getting ready for the big race -
So far everything worked out as planned – just until we joined my family for dinner (of course skipping the food and enjoying a nice bottle of water) at a vineyard somewhere in the countryside. I wasn’t sure if that was such a good idea since I wanted to go to bed early. But we all agree that we wouldn’t stay very long – so it seemed fine. We even car-pooled, which ended up being the worst idea of all. I won’t tell you the entire story but we ended up at the vineyard with a car that wouldn’t accelerate, waiting for the ADAC breakdown assistance service and waiting was pretty much what we did. They made us wait three whole hours, telling us eventually that the service guy had been there but didn’t see us and therefore had left again. Sure. Eventually, my dad decided against the option to wait any longer and took the risk to completely destroy the engine just to get us back to Mainz. Luckily nothing happened and it seems like the car just had some software problem that got solved after restarting the board computer.
So I ended up in bed way too late but luckily I still got six hours of good sleep. So the next time no more dinner parties in the middle of nowhere the day before a race, or at least in combination with a second car. Just to be safe.
Mai 3rd, 2011 by Hanna
Current reading:
Finished books:
Apr 25th, 2011 by Hanna
At the University of Fribourg, they recently had an old, re-used door built in between our lab and our neighbors. So now, every time you walk towards our lab you pass this funny and motivating sticker from the past.
Apr 25th, 2011 by Hanna
It’s about time that I tell you about Marc’s latest achievement. After 4 years, 4 moves, 5 papers (with a strong tendency towards 7) and 1 book chapter, it’s officially over. He had his official defense two weeks ago at the University of Konstanz and now we all have to call him Dr. Marc E***** (or just Dr. Marc as Kelly’s 4-year old son Yann would say).
His final exam was pretty tough. He had to present his data for 30 minutes but then his examiners were so excited to ask questions that they forgot about the time and made him defend for another 1 1/2 hours straight. That’s a pretty long time but I guess an excellent grade wants to be earned.
Here’s a picture of his new handmade headpiece, all according to the rules of our German tradition and his personal preferences:
Congratulations, Marc!!!
Apr 1st, 2011 by Hanna
Today is April 1. Wow. Didn’t we just celebrate Christmas? But it looks like we left the cold and gray winter behind. Nature is waking up and I love the beautiful green color of new leaves. And good news: I’m still running, still sticking to my training schedule. So the lack of a new blog entry has been a good sign. I was just too busy, but still I had enough time to go running three times a week. And I have even better news…I finally reached that point – the point where everything is fun, the point where you could keep going forever. I’m so happy about that. Pace-wise and distance-wise I still have to work a lot, but at least I made it passed that notorious point.
But before we welcome spring, I wanted to share some older pictures with you. In March, I started running to work twice a week. That way I can increase the distance without arriving at work too late. It’s a pretty scenic run – first downhill toward the city, passing the cathedral and then up the hill before reaching a long, straight boulevard. And there is always room for variation – so I often add some extra kilometers before going to the lab.
And believe it or not, I lost my fear of hills. I actually start to enjoy running uphill….that must be the Swiss influence (and that’s really no April fool ).
Mrz 20th, 2011 by Hanna
During one of my runs last week, I came across this billboard. Its original intentions were to advertise one of the Swiss parties running for the Fribourg council. Those elections were actually held today.
For me as a foreign citizen (who is not allowed to vote) it’s less a political statement rather than a nice way to depict the every day life in Fribourg. And I guess I don’t need to mention….I really like living here! 
Mrz 12th, 2011 by Hanna
After the Flohmi (how the Swiss Germans call a flea market) on Sunday, we also went on a run close to Bern. Thanks to GPSies.com it’s very easy to find nice trails wherever you go. So we picked one along the Aare river, all on forest tracks, 10 km total and basically a loop road since we crossed the river half way through.
The weather was still perfect and I already had to experience the problem of wearing too many clothes. Looks like spring is knocking on the door. The run was ok, but I’m still not where I would like to be. As always, the problem is more mental than physical. I can just wonder what I would be capable of if I could turn off my head for once. Damn, I would be good. Anyway, that day I was still waiting for the point where running actually becomes easy, the point where you can continue forever. I’ve experienced it before, so it must be waiting somewhere!?
The Aare river – the longest river that rises and ends within Switzerland
The trail was beautiful and it must be even nicer in summer when the trees have leaves.
The turning point – not quite half way
Mrz 9th, 2011 by Hanna
Last Sunday, we went to the flea market in Bern. Friends of ours were selling stuff to pay for their upcoming plane tickets, so we stopped by for a visit. I was surprised how big the market was and how many people were actually shopping there. The location was also really interesting: a stable built in 1897 that was originally used for the horses and carriages of the city of Bern. In the 1980s, when the Swiss youth was fighting for the establishment of autonomous cultural centers, this building became one of the controversial subjects of that time. And that’s what it still looks like today – like an occupied building with banners and graffiti walls. Nowadays, it’s actually really a cultural center, exactly what people were fighting for in the 80s. And the very last public voting on whether or not to sell the property was just turned down last September (for the 5th time).
Here are a few pics…taken with our point-and-shoot camera. But it’s definitely a place worth visiting again with our DSLR – tons of subjects for a picture waiting in one place.
Mrz 7th, 2011 by Hanna
The last few years, we didn’t get to celebrate carnival at all – it just didn’t find its way to Utah. But with our move to Switzerland, we are finally back in the game. Well, I’m actually not too much of a carnival freak, as long as I’m not in Mainz or with my friends at home. But what I definitely love is Guggenmusik. Well, being born in the city with the world’s-largest Guggenmusik festival must have induced some special Guggenmusik-gene expression.
And since this is a Swiss/Alemannic tradition, we definitely had to go to the parade last Saturday, which is part of the annual Carnaval des Bolzes here in Fribourg.
