Sat, Nov 25, 2017 - 5K - 01:00:00
5K SCB Berlin Grunewald Run with Hannah
Hannah had said earlier in the month that she wanted to run another 5K, so I found this run sponsored by SCB through the Grunewald forest. The weather all week had been relatively warm and dry, but this morning was very rainy and very cold, which made this run a proactive effort.  
 
It also turned out to be an effort to find the race itself, parking a half kilometer away and walking to a kind of sports complex on the edge of the forest, there we found the 20 or so men who were about to take off on the Grunewald Marathon, a half hour after the women had started. And fifteen minutes later, 17 of us walked up to the starting line for the 5K, the rest of the 50 who signed up apparently having been discouraged by the unpleasant weather conditions.  
 
The start of the race was two times around the track, then out into the forest where we immediately met up with large and unavoidable mud puddles filled with extremely cold water that completely soaked our shoes, but after the first soak, you felt initiated and it became a super wet run through the forest, not really flat, and not without fallen trees to jump over. The arrow markers were made out of sawdust and were almost completely washed away by the time we got to them, but we found our way back to the track, did one lap, and were out into the forest again for another run through the puddles and trees, finally making it back again for the finish on the track.  
 
Hannah originally wanted to beat her 28:10 time from the Great 10K Relay, but we very soon realized that this was not the race or weather conditions for record times, so we just enjoyed the run together through the forest, jumping aside the puddles we could, and sploshing through the rest, trying to find the saw-dust arrows, and running up and down inclines and over trees. In all, a fun, cold and wet race, with lots of fresh air.