23 November 2016
It is flat. It follows a river, the Sihl. And it crosses Adliswil. It’s the hometown of a politician who has a problem in memorizing the short forms of the bigger Swiss political parties. So, he is theoretically a member of a leftwing party but his politics are rightwing. If you cross Adliswil along the Sihl, you know why. In other towns, you are greeted with a welcome sign. In Adliswil there is only a huge sign (on both sides off the town) that warns you about the costs, if you get caught littering by the police. The sign also explains, how much littering costs for the entire country of Switzerland. It has only a small racist ground tone. But they have litter bins every ten meters or so. They have the traditional plastic bins and the more modern litter sharks. In a mix. It is not esthetically pleasing.
The first two miles the route follows the main jogging highway of Zurich. There is a car free path from the main train station of Zurich well right about dozens of miles deep into the canton of Zurich That’s why I run on this route. There are many dog owners and older individuals. I take a lot of precaution when overpassing them, sometimes I slow down when there is not enough place or I change the side of the street well in advance.
To get at least 22 km or 13 miles I run up to the train station of Langnau-Gattikon and then a short piece back on the other side. Then I enter the zoo of Langenberg. It is accessible without admission fee. First you are greeted by the Prewalski horses on my route. As I pass there several times per week I once saw them fighting each other. One horse bend it’s front knees and his back, to kick another horse with both back legs right in the head. I’m not sure if I would survive such a kick. They have a lot of byte marks. A short while up the hill you come by the Wolfs. They have a lot of crows with them because they are feed with raw meat. When there are not as many people, they are generally near the fence. I was once there alone because it rained, they didn’t care about me and were all laying right in front of the fence. There are bears, capricorn, lynx, dear, elk, buffalo and boar. You can walk right in to the enclosure off the boars. I usually stop there between 10 and 15 minutes to check out the fenced in wildlife. Sometimes I run around the huge elk enclosure and try to spot them. In summertime’s you can easily lose around 4 pounds on this route. Of course, you drink afterwards and not even 12 hours later you are as heavy as before.
One thing you will learn the hard way on this route if you didn’t already know it: Somebody is always faster; something hurts you all the times.
Once I saw two men from African descent. They were mowing down everybody else. They were not running. They were trotting. There flying phase was about 3 seconds every step they took. I mean you could clearly see how they held their legs in one position during the flying phase. And they were talking to each other and gesturing with their arms. They were thin of course and you could tell that it wasn’t the first time they went running. But their running was from another planet. Everything else looks lame and stupid in contrast. You can be a professional runner on an international level and you will not even come close after years of training.
Sometimes African runners come to Europe to take part in a row of Marathons simply to earn the money you get when you end up on the podium. Based on their running style I can tell that they were successful. And racism or all the stupid dreams about white supremacy is BS.
After doing this for some months now on a personal level I am happy. It will not enable me to compete in real world competitions. But I can do this spontaneously. I just drink a big coffee with milk and I run. Sometimes I’m even too lazy to take something to drink with me. I know it’s not super healthy like this. And based on my experience: A sporty drink is like a kick in the ass. You simply run faster when on this stuff. You get less fatigued. You arrive at home and you don’t have the feeling of an unpleasant encounter with a dumpster truck.
And I never get sore legs anymore. My knees feel like they should. My toe-nails are partially gone but they will grow again. I am specially proud about the fact that I can use my feet until they will no longer be able to support my weight but after a one day break I can run this route without pain.
To gain experience with height I started to run up the hill, down the hill on the other side around the Türlersee up to the hill again and back down on the side where I live. However, there is room from improvements on this specific route. And for the winter I need to fine tune it, as it is to steep on certain parts. At the moment I do not own one of these.