Back in Germany for Christmas and New Year I used this relaxing time and joined today a very unique race. The 13. Bear-rock Christmas Eve marathon in a small village in south-west Germany, just 150km away from my home. It is the only full marathon run during Christmas days in Germany. The race is family organized and just 90ish runners went on the track this morning. 
The track was on 95% unpaved muddy forest roads and we went on 5 rounds each 8.4km up to the „Bear-rock“ and back. Every round had a ascent of 250 meters. I felt a bit like the easy-company running up the Currahee. 🙂
Race setup was at 7AM in a tunnel below the highway. 4°C, wet and windy might be perfect trail running conditons, but I really prefer the sub-tropical conditons in China. 🙂 Anyway, as more I will run in winter time, I will get used to this conditions.
There was a drink- and food-station at the beginning of each round, at km2.5 and km6 and they served saugages, fruits, Christmas gingerbread, honeycake, fruitcakes, soft drinks and hot tea. Amazing service!!
I finished the race after 3h:57m and I’m quite satisfied with this time. The finisher medal we got at the end was worth all this lactate pain in the legs. We got a huge gingerbread-bear as a medal. A very unique medal and brilliant idea for a Christmas run.
Some carb loading with homemade Christmas cookies after the race.
Today was the first time ever where I had no blood blisters, black toe nails or any other damage on my feet. All nail damages on the foto happened on previous races. It was also the first time that I wore my new Salomon S-LAB Sense 3 Ultra. So it looks like that I ffinally found some shoes which really fits for me. Really great shoes and it was worth every penny to get them. Now I need to find something very similar to run city marathons.
Next race will be on New Year day at midnight in Zurich / Switzerland.
But now it is time for Christmas Eve dinner.
Merry Christmas to everybody out there