Day 3 – Austrian Marathon:

We woke at 0730hrs and rapidly packed the car ready for the dash for the Austrian border.  Conscious of the large travelling distance between Vienna and Nuremberg we had chosen to run the Austrian 26 miles along the banks of the River Inn, the natural border between Austria and Germany.  This meant we had a 3 hour drive to the start line of the Austrian marathon then a further 3 hour drive to Nuremberg.  The Austrian marathon, our third in as many days was thoroughly miserable.  After the disappointment of the delays we had during the Prague marathon we were still keen to get another sub 4 hour 30 min marathon.  Using the www.runmap.net website the route was along the stunning River Inn toe path which gave us castles, churches, a mountain railway and a university town to rival Canterbury.  I hit my first serious wall of pain on the event so far on the 12th mile and every further mile was pretty cheeky.  To be honest I could not have been less interested in the scenery.  Without the help of Matt’s constant supply of nuts, jellies, mars bars and quick witted chat it could have been a different story but we finished on 4 hours 12 mins. Done, 4 left!

Current status – 4 legs in various stages of deterioration, 2 swollen and bruised ankles