Toni goes to Portugal

Toni, my best running partner who ran the marathon with me last October, is leaving Munich today. She's a doctor in-training and is going to study in Lisbon, Portugal. I have never been to Portugal and will most definitely now be paying a visit. I am very sad to see her leave, but know that we will be friends for some time. Doing a marathon with someone also forges a special relationship. I have the same with my friend Olivia who trained with me for my first marathon over four years ago now, we probably only meet once a year but it's so much fun when we do.


She is a very adventurous and inspiring person. Every weekend she is skiing or climbing or trail running. She's very eco-savvy and is driving instead of flying to Portugal. She drove to Russia and Greece last summer to avoid planes, something I have more or less failed at doing.

Over the marathon training we spent hours and hours together talking about absolutely anything. She introduced me to her friend at the party, who is soon to become a dad. I said "yeah we spoke about you... what was it... oh yeah". I remembered exactly the spot along the isar we were running and then that I knew all the major ups and downs of this guys life. Way too much for someone you've never met. I struggled to then to traverse a conversational route that made out we weren't bitching about him being a young dad, but also not to reveal that I knew he became a professional footballer that then got a knee injury and couldn't play, but thanks to strong workers rights in Germany he was given a healthy pension to buy a house for him and his girlfriend who is now pregnant. After he left we laughed and laughed.