Wanderers Über Alle

By The Great One

Petra Ironwoman Kretschmann and Susan The Great One Hurrey finished out the year 2005 by running in the second largest 15k New Year's Eve race in Europe, the Silvesterlauf 2005.

The race begins in Werl, Germany and finishes in Petra's hometown, Soest.

The race was shaping up to be a typical Wanderers-in-attendance race. For starters, Petra and Susan cut it a little close in terms of the starting time and found themselves running to the start line with bags in hand that they still needed to check before the race. This was not necessarily a big deal until they realized that the bus with everyone else's bags had already left for the finish line. Petra had visions of us running with our bags "I really saw us running 15k holding our bags". Fortunately, The Great One came up with a brilliant idea: Ask a stranger to take our bags to the finish line. Once again the Wanderers had to rely on the goodwill of a stranger.

Onto the race. It was a beautiful day in Germany for a race: Rainy and cold. But really there was so much going on during the race that you hardly noticed the inclement weather. There were at least 6,000 runners, spectators that lined the entire 15k race course, a man running with a full-size Christmas tree attached to the front of his body, sausages being handed out to the runners, and an interesting – interesting after getting over the shock that it's not water – sweet hot tea for the runners.

When all was said and done The Great One finished with a time of 1:20, despite being infected by the bird flu, and Ironwoman finished a few minutes later at 1:29.

As a post-race recovery drink The Great One strongly recommends stopping at one or two of the local pubs for a taste of the local brew. It's definitely a cure-all for any aches and pains.

Official Race Website (in german) >>

The sign at the start line contained
a smorgasboard of running options.

The Great One scheming to have
her luggage hauled to the finish line.

The second biggest New Year's Eve
15K Race in Europe is off!

Petra Ironwoman Kretschmann and
Susan The Great One Hurrey
finished in 1:29 and 1:20 respectively.

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