Race 3: 10:45. Finals. 160 meters away from the Torch, in Formula 1 positioning, hot temperatures and sand-containing air, we got down to business.
In an unprecedented racing process we started in a mass start. Based on the times and places in the 2 races on the day before, we were placed on our starting positions. The race went around the forecourt of the Aspire building and then 50 floors up. First, the qualified women started, then the men followed. Because of the packed staircase and the close to each other running athletes – a very interesting race emerged.
With many new adventures, interesting experiences, new friends and a ton of new impressions in a very short time – I took thankfully the plane back to Germany.
9 months ago at the European Championships I ended up somewhere on 39th place. This time I finshed the World Championships already on place 18. I’m on the way to the top!
10:30. Off we went! 1304 steps up to the 51 floor in time trial mode. This was the qualification race for the 30 fastest runners for the second race and the final. At the start – world champions and world top athletes from various disciplines such as mountain running, triathlon and duathlon. Since I was sick and had fever the weeks earlier, some shortcomings in the field of my long-term power still dominated. This had been previously shown several times in training stages on the bike. Therefore it was very hard for me today to deliver 7-8 minutes high-performance.
It’s been a while since I last met Leonard and his wife Susan. He was certainly an inspiration to many people on the planet. If it was in science, engineering, acting or any other subject. What many people probably don’t know is that Leonard also was once a heavy smoker and called himself „the world champion in smoking“ because he smoked so many packs of cigarettes a day, back in the 60s/70s. He became over the years very active in trying to send a signal to people to give up smoking and was talking about the effects and health issues on TV shows, books, twitter etc. 30 years later after he quit smoking he was diagnosed with COPD (chronic obstructive lung disease), which meant that his lung cells were damaged because of smoking. Leonard Nimoy died last Friday in Los Angeles.
About 800 people confronted themselves today with the 932 stepped Tower 42. On the heels of winner Piotr Lobodzinski, I started my race today. Despite burning calves, I run the race till the end, supported by the cheering of the audience over the last 4 floors. 4:44 minutes showed the clock at the finish line. I arrived a total of 17 seconds earlier than last year! 
Victory at Broadgate Towerrun in London! Today I won after 4:07 min and 877 steps, 9 seconds ahead of the Briton Mark Sims, who had five weeks previously beaten me by 5 seconds at the Danube Tower run-up. A pasta party and interesting conversations followed afterwards. To paraphrase the overall experiences with the words of Mark Twain “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.” Looking forward to Tuesday to the Vertical Rush at Tower 42 – with a harder competition.
