Germany in the Mix

Since it's been a month since the trip now it is really old news, but as I mentioned in my previous post I recently went on a trip to Germany.  We purchased some process equipment from a company there in March of 2010, so I have known for a while that a trip would be coming eventually, but the timing has been in flux for some time.  The original plan was for this equipment to be ready in September of 2011, but delay after delay has beset the project, so finally in April we were able to go check the machines before they were packaged for delivery.  The line I was in charge of is a DESNE line (Develop, Etch, Strip, Nova Etch).  This process takes a copper panel with a printed image photoexposed on it and turns it into an actual circuit.  The line was in pretty good shape, but there was a lot to go over, so most of the trip was working, although I did have a little bit of time to sight see.
The city I stayed in was Freiburg, which is in in the black forest far in the Southwest of Germany.  It was a college town, so there were lots of people, lots of shops, restaurants, and plenty to see.  There is a tower on a peak nearby that provides a great view of the city, so I wandered my way up there one evening, and again the next morning when the light was a little better and I knew my way there.  I had plenty of great food including some Spargel, white asparagus that is very tender and tasty, Spatzle, Saurbraten, Weinerschnitzel, and of course some German beer.
My last day there I also had almost enough time to get a long run in.  There is a mountain peak nearby in an area called the Schauinsland that I wanted to try to run to the top of.  The peak is at 1280 meters, up from about 200 meters that Freiburg sits at.  It was a great run, with pretty good trail markings for the most part.  Just as I hit the snow line (it was amazing to see snow, and even more so to run from town where temps were in the 70's to the peak where the temp was maybe 40) the trail disappeared for a bit and I had to climb directly up the slope for a while to get to where I could see a trail up above.  I made it to the peak and had some great views of nearby mountain peaks in France and Switzerland.  I could also see that the sun was dropping fast and some ominous looking clouds were rolling in, so I decided to hightail it back towards Freiburg.  I have been trying to improve my downhill running this year to be better prepared for some hilly trail races I have signed up for, and I got to put that practice to good use charging down the first steep section of snow covered road.  When I got back to the trail I did have to stop a couple more times for good photo ops, but steadily worked my way down.  Soon it was too dark to read the trail signs well, or to see obstacles on the trail, so I decided to  stick to the logging roads after that.  This made for a faster pace and a more stable and visible path, but it also descended much more slowly and hugged the mountain side which meant more distance.  It did eventually lead down to a paved road, by which time the sun had completely set and the rain was just starting to fall.  The paved road had streetlights, so at least I had a line of glowing beacons to follow the last few miles back to the hotel, where I arrived soaking wet and hungry.  A quick shower and Sauna worked wonders to leech the cold rain out of the body and by the time I wandered back out to look for supper the rain had let up.  Being a college town there were still many restaurants open after 10:00 pm, rare in Germany where almost everything seems to close at 5:00.  The legs were drained the next morning, but luckily not too sore for the long flight back to the US.
The Germany trip was over, but the weekend fun was not.  About 12 hours after arriving home I was toeing the starting line for my first running race of the season, Trail Mix, a 50km relay event.  The team I was on, the Nordic Ninjas had won the previous 6 years, and Travis Hinck and I have been on the team every year.  Matt Liebsch has been on the team for 4 years now, and this year we added Jeff Lanners to replace Dave Anderson who hasn't so much been doing the running thing lately.  My body was still pretty tired from the mountain run, and didn't really know what time it was supposed to be even, so I didn't have my best race.  Matt won, and I held on for 4th place and was the first second runner in if that makes sense.  It was pretty clear at this point that it would be a close race between the Nordic Ninjas and the Gear West Running Team, a bunch of River Falls alumni who my brother ran with in college.  Their first runner is was Kyle Donovan, who passed me with about 2 miles to go in the race.  He also beat me at the Afton 50k last summer.  Their second runner Jason Phillipe finished only a few seconds behind me  Their 3rd runner Jim Felling was not far behind, and beat our 3rd runner Jeff.  Their 4th Brandon beat Travis by enough to secure them the win, ending the longest winning streak in the history of this event.  It was a fun day though, and great to get the first race of the season under the belt.  The next up would be a much more daunting task, the Superior 50km along the superior hiking trail in Lutsen.