at the 2nd run of the E.ON Thüring Energy-Cup in Neuhaus at the Renweg. But let's begin differently. My wife and I arrived the evening before the race and as luck would have it, a really great event was taking place at the hotel that evening. There was a 7 course menu created by 7 different cooks from Thüringen, corresponding entertainment and an unbelievable prize that the organizers and sponsors, which E.ON happened to be part of , declared as a advertisement for Thüringen.
The evening required a large amount of stamina. The event began at about 6:30pm with an aperitif and the obligatory greeting from the kitchen and ended at midnight.

Be glad that you can't really read the menu,

because otherwise your mouths would be involuntarily watering right now.

Corresponding wines were served with every course, while the highly motivated wating staff continued to fill the empty glasses throughout the night, beginning with the Riesling, the Rose, the Pinot Noir all the way to the desert wine, a smooth Müller-Thurgau.

My wife's resolve began to weaken.

In between, these creatures showed up that seemed to begrudge us the fine dining, or were meant to entertain us.

The ladies seemed to come out of their shells as well.

But let's get to the actual subject. Compared to the previous day, the weather was really great on Sunday. I was even able to sleep in a little, since the start for the medium and long distance race wasn't until 10am. I had decided to compete in the medium distance of about 31m/50km and 4921 vertical ft/1500hm (2 laps). Due to the amount of rain in the past few days, the track turned out to be quite strenuous. Both of my calves gave up the fight pretty early on and so I had to give up after the first lap. I was no linger functional.

I've never dropped out after 15.5m/25km before. It was a bummer too, because it really was a nice track (a lot of single trails and just a few yards of asphalt, I recommend it to evryone, it was well organized). Also, I thought that I was in pretty good shape, after riding about 932m/1500km just this June.

However, the next run of the E.ON Thüring Energy Cup is later this month in Waidatal and I'll give it another try, but before I do that, I will be riding a marathon in Albstadt and seeing the Beatsteaks at an open air concert.
So I will be leading a respectable life from now on.

Bye,

Elvis aka Martin