Holly Zimmermann

Mens sana in corpore sano (A healthy mind in a healthy body) If you are like me, you spend so much time training in the spring and summer that when off-season arrives you don’t know what to do with those hours that are normally filled with sport. Especially on the weekends. Now you can have breakfast with the family… twice! Although, I’m sure for most of us it doesn’t take much effort to find substitute activities… Cleaning out the garage? Organizing a year full of photos? Going to church? St. Laurentius Catholic Church, Alteglofsheim Church on Sunday is unfortunately one of the things that gets sacrificed from my calendar when I am in training, as there is almost always a long run on that day. But I miss it. And today I was back in the pews. What is the purpose of off-season anyway? Why don’t we just race and train 12 months a year? As everyone knows the answer is simple: to give ourselves a chance to recover and regenerate.   Our bodies have been pounding the ...

The Savoy Bookshop and Café in Westerly, Rhode Island, together with the Cottrell Brewery in Pawcatuck, Connecticut hosted me for a book talk this week inside the brewery! Just after I got there and started setting up, the first guest arrived (45 minutes early!), an 80-year-old who introduced himself to me and said that he ‘used to be a runner’. I replied that I could tell that by looking at him ;) Which was partly true and part politeness. I talked for about an hour to a very attentive audience, then opened up the floor to questions and was inundated. It was really fun to banter with the audience who’d been loosened up a bit with the free beer samples. The Savoy Bookshop had copies of my book for sale and several were purchased and all wanted them signed by the author… me. There was a 91-year-old swimmer who also told me tales of his ultra swims. Talk about an inspiration! The brewery is a small family business owned by Charlie Buffam, who chatted with my Dad over a Ston...

( Click here  for the English version) Meine Aufgabe: 51 Kilometer, 2080-Meter-Anstieg / Abstieg Der Tag begann nicht gut. Zwei Alarmglocken läuten, eine auf jeder Seite des Bettes, um 4 Uhr morgens. Ich setze mich verwirrt auf. Ich beugte mich vor, um den Wecker auszuschalten, und stoß mein Glas Wasser um, das auf meine Laufkleidung fiel, die ich ordentlich auf den Boden gelegt hatte, damit ich am Morgen blitzschnell hineinschlüpfen konnte. Plan B. Kaffee. Ich ging auf Zehenspitzen in die Küche, wo ich die Kaffeemaschine auseinandergenommen im Trockengestell der Spüle auffand. Ich baute sie zusammen, drückte die Daumen, schaltete die Maschine ein und wurde mit allen möglichen blinkenden roten Lichtern begrüßt. Kein gutes Zeichen. Ich drückte trotzdem auf ‚Brühen‘ und wurde mit unliebsamen Schleifgeräuschen konfrontiert, und nein, nicht mit dem Mahlen von Kaffee. Ich fing an, Tee zu machen. Während das Wasser kochte, nahm ich den Föhn mit zu meinen nassen Hos...

( Hier klicken  für die deutsche Version) The Task at Hand: 51 kilometers, 2080-meter gain/loss in the German/Austrian Alps  The day didn’t start well. Double alarm bells ringing, one on each side of the bed, at 4am. I bolted upright in confusion. Leaning over to turn off the ringer, I knocked over my glass of water which spilled onto my race clothes that I had placed neatly on the floor so that I could slip into them in a flash in the morning. Plan B. Coffee. I tiptoed into the kitchen to find the coffee machine disassembled and in parts in the sink’s drying rack. I pieced it together, crossed my fingers, turned on the machine, and was greeted with all kinds of blinking red lights. Not a good sign. I pressed 'brew' anyway and was treated to some unwelcome grinding noises, and no, not the grinding of coffee. I begin making tea. While the water was boiling, I took the hairdryer to my wet shorts. Back into the kitchen for toast and by this time Frank was...

Three and a half weeks after returning from Nepal, where I had been without my family for 3 weeks to run the Everest Marathon, I was scheduled to leave for Chamonix, France to run the Mont Blanc Marathon. The trip would have been only for 3 nights/ 4 days, but I cancelled it, because I felt that my family needed me at home. Thankfully I could still cancel my hotel booking, but I had already paid for the race as well as the flight there, and those were non-refundable. I receive harsh criticism from some people about luxurious travel to foreign destinations to pursue a selfish hobby. Everyone has the right to their own opinion, I respect that, but I believe everyone should be able to choose their own hobbies and do what they want with their own free time without being judged by others just because it is a different path than the norm.  My husband and I both devoted many years to self-funded higher education in order to create a solid basis for our future and that of our...

The Everest Marathon is known for its extremes. Extremely high, extremely technical, extremely remote and, above all, extremely, breathtakingly beautiful. To begin, what other race on earth takes ten days to get to the starting line? From Kathmandu it’s a 30-minute flight to the beginning of the trek which commences in the Himalayan village of Lukla. Sounds wonderfully idyllic. And it is, if all goes well. But this is Nepal and the clock ticks differently here. Our 30-minute hop of a flight was delayed due to poor weather  in the mountains. Then after finally taking off six hours later, only 15 minutes into the trip we were told that the weather window had closed in Lukla and a landing there wasn't possible. We’d be turning back to Kathmandu. Once back in the capital city, we taxied around on the runway till we pulled up next to a small building and the pilots jumped out of the cockpit to use the bathroom. The 15 passengers were also let out briefly to use the facilities wh...

I know I haven’t written much lately…with the release of the book I have been overwhelmed with marketing tasks that are all new to me…so unfortunately the blog has been silent. But what a way to get started up again with the Tenzing-Hillary Mount Everest Marathon! This year will be the 16 th edition of the event which takes place each year on May 29 th to commemorate the first successful ascent to the summit of the highest peak on earth, which happened in 1953 and thus we’ll be running on the 65 th anniversary of the great day! I will fly from Munich over Abu Dhabi to Kathmandu on May 14th, then fly to the tiny Himalayan village of Lukla on May 16th where we begin the climb. A brief word on Lukla. Its is frequently referred to the home of ‘the most dangerous airport in the world’. Arriving and departing aircraft must use a single STOL (short-takeoff-and-landing) runway. There is low prospect of a successful go-around on short final due to the terrain. There is high...