The high res picture from Lucerne half marathon a week ago (click to enlarge). Good for an overall impression, definitely not so good for (my facial) details ;)
A few pictures from the race on Sunday have surfaced, and one of the sponsors lets us get a high res version of one of them. Opting for number 1, I think, with all the touristy stuff in the background.
(GPOY)Wednesday: week 1, day 3
I forgot my favourite part in yesterday’s report about Tuesday: I snuck in a 30 mins run in the evening :)
Today was pretty uneventful so far: I only had to hand in a few papers here and there, lists of people who attend some training tomorrow, I ordered a few regulations - who isn’t interested in the latest news about pistol handling?
Up next, I had a medical check-up for my civil truck driver’s licence. I had the deadline moved to next week so I could have the army doctor do the check - for free. Result: my liver has normal size (9 cm). Phew. On the way to the appointment I snapped the second picture: since yesterday we switched uniform and now wear the extremely fashionable jumpsuit for mechanised troops.
The non-commissioned officers arrived later in the morning, but because I’m back to having the command platoon, I didn’t get any :( My NCOs are awesome, but I never see them: chef, mail corporal, materials sergeant… but this actually just means I had nothing really to do after lunch.
Instead I went running with one of the other platoon leaders, and because I signed up for my first triathlon directly after the service, I added a little spinning session in the gym afterwards (see third picture). During which my heart rate monitor died - I take it as a divine sign to finally get a GPS Rolls Royce type of a watch.
Dinner was - like everything our kitchen produces - more than okay, and now I’m passing time until 9 pm where we have our next rapport. After wading through the pile of paper in my mailbox (and writing this here), here’s what keeps me/us busy these hours:
- Our (over?)zealous Captain has opened 11 (eleven) disciplinary proceedings against soldiers who skipped their guard duty and were found drunk or soldiers who just disappeared for some time and returned too late. For reference: in other years, we had 0 (zero) proceedings. One of the soldiers has already fulfilled his complete duty and has been sent home - I wonder if the Captain finds out anytime soon ;)
- Our unit has to ensure guard over the weekend; the people have been commanded today. I don’t know how they were selected, but it’s very unusual to pick older soldiers who have a clean track record, I understand that they’re very upset. Also, some of them planned to move this weekend. I predict the list will have to be rewritten.
- The office badly needs a soldier to help them out until Friday. The first one we assigned didn’t want to so much that we started looking for another; I think we found one just now.
- The first applications for leave that are denied because of formal reasons will be returned soon. I’m not looking forward to telling the guy who wanted to go see a comedian with his girlfriend and has booked tickets already months ago that he can’t go because “deadline was on 10th of July”.
After the rapport tonight there’s a little social round with our Captain, the platoon leaders and the senior NCO’s. My feeling is that people in general don’t really look forward to it as it feels a little contrived, and it should have taken place on Monday already ;)
GPOYW: Walking the Four Days Marches in Nijmegen (NL)
Since 2002, whenever I can, I attend the Four Days Marches in my favourite non-Swiss country of the world, the Netherlands, to walk the military category (4x40 km with 10 kg baggage). Even though while walking (and hurting) I ask myself countless times why I do this: every time we’re done it feels like it’s been the greatest thing ever. Blisters vanish, but not the feeling of having accomplished something with friends.
The picture was taken during the third day of marching, quite early, as we haven’t handed out all the Swiss flags to kids along the roads yet.
GPOYW mud race edition
Last Saturday, I raced the “Wylandlauf” in Andelfingen, part of ZüriLaufCup, a local series of races, all between 10 and 17 km. Saturday was 14.85 km. Here’s me just before finishing:
Because the weather was really awful, it seems that only the total nuts were running, leading to a much worse relative placement than what could have been expected based on my time. Oh well. It’s going to be sunny sometime in the future and the slow fair weather runners will be around again ;)
Not all the roads were paved or gravel, there was quite some (slippery) mud, too. Of which I carried a lot around. The (ice cold) shower was a real blessing once the whole crust came off.
