Konig Ludwig Half Marathon!!

The drive through the Alps on the way to Munich-
a beautiful day!!

I am now caught up with my blogs!! A week and a half ago Josh and I drove up to Munich for the half marathon! I was so nervous because in the two weeks leading up to the race I didn't run as much as I would have liked. The longest run I did was about 8 miles before the race (I planned on doing at least one 10 mile run). It was a fun race, but it was strange because the race was in the evening, it started at 6:30 PM. It started in Fussen and looped around the town three times. It was hillier than I was used to, but not too bad! The minor hills and interval training that I did really helped! My goal of finishing in two hours went out the window because I decided to run with my friend Laura instead of pushing it. Since my training leading up to the race was not ideal, I figured it would be better to run a little slower and not injure myself. Laura was sick and her foot was injured, so the fact that she kept up for the first two laps was impressive!

Lap one was fairly easy, although the first look at the hills was a little rough. The second lap I wanted to pick up the pace, but kept telling myself "hold back so you have energy on the last lap". Since my longest run was only 8 miles, I was nervous that I would be dead on the third and final lap. Well, on the final lap I still had a lot of energy and the adrenaline was definitely kicking in! I picked up the pace a bit (or at least I thought I did), but still finished a lot slower than my original goal.

We had cheese in our bags at check in

Getting our game faces on (and trying to stay warm!)

My final time was 2:09:41. They clocked each lap and my times were:

Lap 1	00:43:52
Lap 2	00:42:53
Lap 3	00:43:31

The day was chilly so I wore longer pants (about capri length) with my running shirt, but it was freezing by the end of the race!! It was so cold I couldn't feel my arms from my elbows to my hands. When we went back to the car to change, the car said it was 9 degrees celcius outside!!! Thats 48 degrees farenheit. For a girl that has been used to upper 80's, low 90's, that was brutal!! Thanks to Josh for cheering us on and taking pictures! Even he was inspired by the race atmosphere. He isn't a runner, but said that he may be willing to run a 10K with me this fall in Italy :)

The view of the mountains

The medals we received at the finish line

Josh enjoyed a Konig Ludwig beer in between laps
(thats part of the course in the background)

We finished!

In addition to the race in Fussen, we also spent some time with Laura in Munich and I FINALLY saw the Godfather! Everyone talks about it, but I never knew what they were talking about. Now I get it! We also visited the Hofbrahaus and a few other locations in Munich before heading back to Milan on Monday morning. All in all, it was a good weekend and I'm happy I finished the race! I'm also proud of Laura for finishing her first half marathon in spite of her sickness and injury.

Sunday, enjoying some hard earned beer :)

What's the "wurst" that could happen?

Right around the time when Josh and I found out about our move to Italy, one of my best friends applied for a job in Munich, Germany. As it turns out, she got the job! She moved over to Munich about the same time that Josh and I moved to Milan. Last weekend we took a road trip to visit her and see what her new life is like in Munich. It was so great to see a friendly face!! I forget how much I miss having friends to hang out with in Milan. Since I haven’t been able to work yet (that’s another story…) and don’t really speak the language yet, it’s been difficult to meet people. There just aren’t those great girlfriends that you can call on a weeknight to get together to drink some wine, eat pizza and watch a movie. Seeing Laura was amazing! She hasn’t set up a blog yet mainly because she hasn’t figured out what the title should be. All weekend we were coming up with different quotes for her and laughing the entire time!! She also introduced us to her new group of friends in Munich and there are some amazing ex-pats that she has connected with. Two of them in particular, Brandon and Monica, were some of the funniest people I’ve ever met! We came up with all sorts of titles for Laura’s blog including “get to ‘gnome’ me!”, “whats the wϋrst that could happen?” and many others. Only time will tell if she uses them for her blogJ

While we were in Munich we visited the Paulaner Brewery on Friday night and on Saturday we went to a monastery outside of the city that doubles as a brewery. We sat in the beer garden at the monastery for lunch and a few drinks on Saturday. What a beautiful location! It’s not far from the Alps and typically you can see them off in the distance. The weather that day was gorgeous, but hazy so we couldn’t see the mountains. After lunch, we took a little road trip and drove down to Austria through the Fϋssen area. What an amazing drive!! In the distance we could see Neuschwanstein Castle, and Hohenschwangau Castle. There were glacial fed lakes the color of turquoise and mountains as far as the eye could see. It seemed like we were in one of Disney’s fairytales. We ended up in a town on the Austrian side of the boarder around dinner time; the town wasn’t far from Fϋssen. Unfortunately, the sights were closed by this time so we were unable to tour the fun castles in that town. Instead, we decided to have dinner at a Chinese restaurant. It’s funny how we drive down to Austria for Chinese food, haha.

Once we arrived back in Munich that night, we went out to a place called Mocca Bar. It was a fun bar where you can smoke hookah pipes and sit in an intimate setting with little puffs, couches and short tables. I have to admit, I had never smoke hookah before so I was excited about trying it. My friend Holly always raved about how fun it was, and turns out she was right! The pipes come with different flavors and it was surprisingly tasty. We ended up leaving the bar a little earlier than we anticipated due to some unwanted company that was being rude and actually got our group kicked out of the bar. One person in particular was knocking chairs over, and being straight up rude to everyone in our group. He kept going on about how everyone hates Americans and was completely bashing our political system and education (which he knew absolutely nothing about). I’m surprised he didn’t get decked by either Josh or Brandon when we left the bar… but all ended well. Thankfully, we don’t ever have to see him again!



The Chinese tower at the English Gardens- there was a polka band and biergarten

 On Sunday before heading out, we stopped at the English Gardens which is more or less a large park in Munich. The location is great! There are running trails, horse trails, people picnicking on blankets, beer gardens with polka bands, and just a serene escape from the city. Although, I was surprised at how clean and quiet Munich was!! There really isn’t a need to get an escape from the city. Laura lives in the city on a residential street, and it is silent!! I was a little jealous because our house in Milan is in a residential area as well, but there is a lot of street noise.

My favorite parts of the weekend: seeing one of my best friends! And also all of the fun we had with her friends Brandon and Monica. Shake your molecules!! (another one of the quotes we came up with that weekend…) and the autobon!!! I forgot to mention that I drove on it!! The only downfall was that our little Fiat didn't go more than 145 km/hr.

Next time: Hofbrahaus!