Thanks to mapmyrun.com, I knew my hotel in Hamburg was a hop, skip and jump away from the Alster lake, a beautiful spot right in the heart of the city.  There’s a great five-mile run around it that goes mostly right along the water on a perfect dirt trail.  I had the opportunity to run it once last Wednesday afternoon, in sun and high 50s, and again Thursday morning, before sunrise and in maybe the high 30s.  Awesome.

I have to admit I figured going in I’d be some kind of freaky, bizarrely-attired nutjob, clearly from the States, a lone runner among oodles of nice, relaxed amblers.  Instead, I was a freaky, bizarrely-attired nutjob among dozens of freaky, bizarrely-attired nutjobs, whose countries of origin weren’t readily discernible.  Whew!

Anyway, the running was fantastic (if chilly Thursday, but I’d been reading about the Navy SEALs and wasn’t going to let a little cold or jetlag keep me from my workouts for sure).