Marathon Des Sables continues...

Wolfgang mixes drinks to kill the blister pain


"I love it when Brigid and Kai come home!"


Setting off for the Marathon stage - what's left of us...


What heaven to find an oasis is the next checkpoint!


Bailiy's - don't leave tent, eh home without it!


The camp mourns for our deceased fellow runner, Bernard


Two tentmates contemplating stealing a camel today


Me at the finish of the MdS with Patrick Bauer


Having just overcome my most critical point in the race


Out like a light after completing stage 5, the marathon stage


Ouch! Daily blister treatment - just don't look...

Pictures from South Germany

A couple of fans at the Basel Airport




Getting ready for an evening run in Munzingen


Ilona and I at the MdS awards ceremony in Ouarzazate


At a childrens' benefit run for the Cancer Association, Freiburg


SWR TV filming my Guiness run at the Black Forest's highest point




Just having finished a state walking competition - came in 5th!




Guinness run - reaching the top of the first mountain. Minus 2 degrees.


Guinness run - first mountain in my pocket - heading off for mountain no. 2


Guinness run - at the foot of mountain 3 - reaching the climax!

Adventuresomeness

"I'd like to understand you." said a man who stopped me recently on my morning run to work. "What do you get out of adventures anyway? I think you're missing a few marbles!" After I'd stopped laughing, I asked him to tell me of his biggist yearning. He thought that was fresh of me, but while we were at it, he'd be able to stick out a night with Verona Feldbush. Na, I scolded, a yearning of non-erotic sorts. "A day in the amusement park!" he said, discovering a thrill.

"Just imagine," I started, "you've just climbed up to one of the highest points of the Great Wall of China. It's very crumbly and steep. You gotta "go" really bad, find a bush and crouch down. Just in that very moment you look up to find yourself surrounded by Mongolians, who are damned if they're not going to sell you a few T-shirts. A situation you'll certainly not encounter in everyday life." The man grinned. "Or you're lying in a sleeping bag in a Berber tent in the Sahara, enjoying the infathomable stillness of the desert night (well, except for the 3 snorers and 2 camels making whoopie...). You hear it coming and yell "Sandstorm! Valuables in the sleeping bags!" The tent is thrashing in the wind and all 8 tentmates have to hold the wooden poles supporting the tent so it doesn't blow away...

Adventure means saying adieu to the civilized world, immersing in foreign territory, developing a counter-strategy in a very planned and administered world. Habit is like a rope: if you add a thread to it everyday, at some point you won't be able to cut it. Adventures are full of the most brilliant surprises, their course is suspenseful, their end unknown. Tingling experiences that stimulate and spoil the senses on a particularly grand scale. Vital energies are awakend. Adventure demands fantasy and creativity - boredom and aimlessness are non-existent. Borderline and extreme situations are overcome and mastered. Priorities are re-aligned as one is forced to face real dangers and bear out distress.

"Your on the course alone at night in the middle of the Sahara, the day was hot as hell and exhausting. You're hungry. The clear desert sky takes your breath away, but only offers short distraction as a sandstorm suddenly stirs up, making the florescent sticks lighting the way disappear. The batteries in your head torch are empty. You can't change them, the sand is blowing too hard. You lose your orientation. A truly desperate situation - and yet brilliant."
"Interesting..." said the man and rubbed his eyes as if removing the desert sand. "I don't think I'd ever stick that out."

It's not that we don't dare do things because it's difficult, but it's difficult because we don't dare do things. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. What luck it is to be able to live out one's passions. And those who cherish the things they've done in the past get to live them twice...

MDS videos 1

Running in the snow...

New set of MDS pictures...

Den Kindern Sonnenschein schenken für eine schöne Zukunft

Give a child sunshine for a better future

For the particularly colourful, interesting running events she has completed thus far in 2007, Brigid Wefelnberg wishes to turn the kilometres she ran in the desert at the Marathon des Sables in Morocco, the stairs she ran, walked, climbed and crawled on the Great Wall of China (approx. 52,000 of them altogether) and the many meters in altitude at the Great Tibetan Marathon and the Wallis Ultra-marathon in Switzerland into help and thus support an Co-op/orphanage in Tibet (www.reachladakh.com/Non_Governmental_Organisations.htm) and the “Akanksha” (www.akanksha.org), an organisation helping very underprivileged children in India, with a particular focus on education.

Donations (e.g. € 10 per 1000 she ran on the Great Wall of China) can be made to account number 91 551 12 at the Volksbank Freiburg, BLZ (bank code number) 680 900 00. Brigid will be presenting the money personally to Akanksha on a trip to Mumbai in January of 2008, where she will be running the Mumbai Marathon.

In addition, as with every marathon trip, Brigid uses her luggage space in planes for bags full of material donations of all kinds. She’ll be taking donations for the Cuban Running Association (running clothes and shoes) to the Havana Marathon in November 2008, as well as to the Coastal Challenge in Costa Rica, the Marathon des Sables in Morocco and to the Gobi March in China in January, March and June of 2008 respectively.


Für die besonders bunten, interessanten Läufe, die sie 2007 bisher absolvierte hat möchte Brigid Wefelnberg ihre erlaufene Wüstenkilometer beim Marathon des Sables in Morokko, Treppen beim Marathon und mehr auf der Chinesische Mauer (insgesamt 52,000 Treppen), und die vielen Höhenmeter beim Tibet Marathon und Wallis Ultramarathon in der Schweiz in Hilfe umsetzen, und damit ein Waisenheim in Tibet (www.reachladakh.com/Non_Governmental_Organisations.htm) und die Organisation "Akanksha" (www.akanksha.org) für schwer benachteiligte Kinder in Indien unterstützen, vor allem bei der Bildung.

Spendenbeträge (z.B. € 10 pro 1000 Treppen auf der Chinesische Mauer) können auf das Spendenkonto 91 551 12 bei der Volksbank Freiburg, BLZ 680 900 00 eingezahlt werden. Brigid wird die gesammelten Spenden persönlich bei u.a. „Akanksha“ bei ihrer Teilnahme am Mumbai Marathon Januar 2008 überreichen.

Zudem nutzt Brigid Wefelnberg bei allen ihren Läufen ihren Gepäckraum im Flieger für Sachspenden und nimmt sowohl zum Havanna Marathon (Nov 07) für den Kubanischen Laufverband Sachspenden entgegen, z.B. brauchbare Laufschuhe und alle Formen von Funktionskleidung, als auch zur Coastal Challenge in Costa Rica, Marathon des Sables in Morokko zum Gobi March in China in jeweils Januar, März und Juni 2008.

Malta marathon picture

Black forest region pictures