Massage for the Soul, Massage for the Feet

”Anybody here doing meditative trail running or just trail running? I would like to find such a small group in the area or to initiate one if anybody interested.”

This is ”our” Facebook-Group where you can ask any kind of question and you always get a reply and I love it, because you really can ask everything at all (There are no such as ”stupid questions”, only stupid reactions to the questions!!).

Some are trying to mix and pretend they ”ask” while they just do some advertising for a product or a service. The usual chaos and disrespect on the on-line world!

So, the replies I got showed me that:

1. some persons could be interested and I invited them to contact me, but it seems they are not ready for such a challenge, after all (sic!);

2. there is no such a group in my living area;

3. anybody knows what this can be (and anybody is asking.). 

Before I explain what I understand under the term of "meditative run", the story of the day starts with the probably the most important picture of yesterday's adventure:

The trail: Schüttdorf (750 m) - AreitLounge (about 6 km 1.411 m) - Glocknerhause (1.583 m) - Pinzgauer Hütte (1.695 m) - Hochsonnbergalm (1.851 m) - Maurerkogel Peak (2.074 m) - Schmittenhöhe (2.000 m) - Mittelstation Schmitten (1.325 m) - Schüttdorf (about 5 km - back to 750 m) - about 30 km long, ca 7 hours of slow run & hike + about 1,5 hours of break on the way, over 1.700 m high gain (cumulative).

As I got no specific contact, just some "wow, such an interesting idea!! I'm in!", the next day in the morning, at 9 a.m. I spontaneously posted an event on my Trainer profile for the same day: "Meditative long trail run, meeting point X at 11 a.m., Contact me up to 10:50 under .... phone number".

Maurerkogel - Epic Run indeed!
The run was special not because it was long, but because at km 16 I felt and dislocated my left shoulder. I thought I can die of pain. It was 16:45 and my last chance to get the cable for the descent has vanished. So, I was alone on the whole mountain and I still had to run back home over 10 km. The short version of the story: I "put the shoulder back" and run back home using only the right arm. It took about 2 weeks until I could use the left arm again and I had pretty "funny" days, not being able to wash myself or to help me in the bathroom ...... yeah ....

****  

Three nights ago I had a dream. I went to the front desk of a big hospital and I asked: ”How can I change my heart? I was told, my heart is sick. How can I get another one, a new one? Do I order here and I get a new heart?”

Something is changed now. This is the second message I get.
The first was two years ago .... Delirium im September
Update: after about ten days I was able to exprim the dream by drawing the idea and this was the first what came out.

This was the second what came out:

 ****

N-am mai scris de mult în română. Pentru că mi-e greu, pentru că mi-am pierdut dexteritatea și probabil interesul  sau pentru că, după 10 ani de bloguit, mi se pare că ”vorbesc” la pereți. Cele mai citite și comentate postări aici nu sunt cele în română, deși cel mai mare număr de cititori și vizualizari provin din România.

O carte nu intră în valoarea de carte, dacă nu e citită. Un scriitor nu  numit cititor, dacă nu e citit. Un jurnalist nu e recunoscut ca jurnalist, dacă nu publică într-un mediu de mass-media recunoscut. 

Așa că ... d-aia nu mai scriu în română. Și de cele mai multe ori mi-e greu să mă decid între cele trei limbi ..... scriu în limba de unde provine un feed-back, so simple is that.

Running through the clouds ... Schmitten 2.000 m

Trail Running Schmittenhöhe Berg: 20 km, 1.000 m uphill

Wow! Again and again ..... just a perfect day for running, again and again running/walking on an empty mountain ..... with the clouds!

A spontaneous long run on Monday. 

Yesterday it was a quiet, silent day and I didn't feel like going out. Not at all. I slept longer and Marty decided to go visit some friends of him. I wasn't in the mood for anybody and for anything, anyway. I have such days, even I do not always love them. But know I just try to work on myself (again), to keep the mind clear of thoughts. Challenging task, you need years to overcome the habit.

But something new happened in this cointext: I drew again! I drew a new drawing and I finished an old one that I started two months ago! And I opened my unfinished book and wrote new pages on it. So, it happenes something all the time and these life phases when you are in a sort of "waiting room" are not by chance here, there is a reason for it. 

I took the weight vest, 4 kg of sand on the back. I have to say that during the run, 4 hours long, I even didn't feel it. I had a small bottle of water on the waist and a thin rain/wind jacket. Cloudy day, agreeable temperature. Just the perfect day for a long trail running. 

The trail steepy starts just behind the building where I still live. Thousand meters uphill for the first km does mean a vertical run. I never got so far on this mountain, but today it was the right time to reach the highest point at 1.970 m: The Schmittenhöhe. 

I run on this mountain for 6 months now, starting 2nd of December, 4 days after I moved out here. Fascination pure. It is a green, not a rocky mountain. A soft mountain with plenty of options and trails. 

After about four kilometers, taking plenty of shortcuts through the forest - abour 1 km shorter, but steeper - I reached the Areit Lounge, the first "level" of the mountain, where a big restaurant and ski slopes starts and where you change the cable cabin to go higher. 

I always take a picture when I get here ....I don't get enough of the view!!

But the Areit Bahn is still closed for big revisions after a crowdy miraculous winter and ski saison. This is why the entire area is pretty empty. Who wants to reach the peak by cable has to go to the other cable which starts somewhere in Zell am See. For me is just perfect! 
The way go steep uphill to Glockner Haus and the 2nd Water Reservoir.

After Glockner Haus there are two ways to the Schmitten: a forest path on the left and the mountain larger road. I choose the narrow forest path that is steeper.

The path meanders through the forest in a very idyllic way. You can be anywhere in the world, if you want.

It is pretty amazing how I always find fascination in banal things that most of the people do not even remark. The scenery with the wooden table and banc at the edge of the path made me stop and take the picture and I do not get enough looking at it. The beauty of silence, the beauty of simple things, the curved path, the high trees, the vivid green ..... so much emotion.

The long way to the sky in front of me .... clouds and fog running from the right directly into the path I was going to follow .... exciting, just exciting!

Zooming the image to what I was thought to be the highest point of Schmittenhöhe ..... a construction site?

Austria entirely is a construction site, all over the country is been built .... houses, hotels, infrastructure, roads .... all over.
And looking back to the Zell am See Lage .... divine ....

And looking ahead while uphill running ....

I was closed to nail a ten km run and a total climb of 1.000 m.

 I reached the Schmittenhöhe at about 16:40. 
A small charming wooden chapel attracted my attention ..... as I didn't expect to see one here, so I went inside.

The Elisabeth Chapel
On 7 August 1885 at 8:00 p.m., Empress Elisabeth, fondly known to posterity as Sisi, arrived in Zell am See on a special Imperial train. She stayed at Hotel Elisabeth, which no longer exists. Before the construction of the Schmittenhöhebahn, guests were carted up to the Schmittenhöhe over a bridle path in a horse-drawn coach. Elisabeth didn’t wish to be transported in such a fashion, so on 9 August 1885, she departed with mountain guide Anton Ullman of Zell am See at 1:00 a.m. and hiked up to the Schmittenhöhe to view the glorious sunrise. Along a moderately steep bridle path, the ascent ordinarily took approximately 3 hours. Elisabeth, avid mountaineer that she was, completed the ascent in just 2 hours and 16 minutes. Sisi was an ardent sports lover, keeping fit and slender through hiking, horse-back riding and fencing.

Planned during 1904/05 by supporters Carl and Emilie Haschke as a memorial chapel to Empress Elisabeth according to designs by architect Josef Wessiken of Salzburg. Under the supervision of Jakob Menis of Zell am See, a carpenter and a mason (Strassgschwandtner and Herzog) both hailing from Zell am See, then built the Sisi Chapel.

On 10 September 1908, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the death of Empress Elisabeth, Dr. Johannes Baptist Katschtaler, Archbishop from 1832 to 1914, consecrated the chapel. There is still a personal souvenir of Empress Elisabeth to the left of the altar.
Until its sale to Agricultural Association and Zell Forest Association in 1984, it was part of the hotel property on the Schmittenhöhe. Its last proprietor was Franz Gramshammer, a hotel owner in Zell am See (Grand Hotel).

 From the Chapel, a short round-trip named "Sissi-Rundweg" starts.

Sisi’s circular path is a short walk, only one kilometre, starting from the Elisabeth Chapel situated on the top of the Schmittenhohe. The walk is full of interest as in addition to the marvellous views there are information boards which detail the life of Empress Sisi.
Elisabeth Eugene Amalie, nicknames Sisi was the daughter of Duke Max of Bavaria and Ludovika, the Bavarian King’s daughter was born in Munich on 24th December 1837. The family spent their summertime on Lake Stamberger See in their small castle, Possenhofen, leading to a carefree life. She grew up happy with her seven brothers and sisters.
Sisi’s mother Ludovika, a daughter of Bavaria’s King Maximillian 1, was the only one of three sisters who did not marry into a Royal family. Her husband Max, was a Wittelsbacher, thus he was accorded the title “Duke in Bavaria” only upon his marriage. Conspiring with her sister, Sophie, the emperor Francis Joseph’s mother, Sisi’s mother Ludovika secretly tried to marry her daughter Helene to Francis Joseph. The prearranged meeting of the families did not go according to plan and the Emperor Francis Joseph fell in love at first sight with the young impetuous Sisi. They were married in a magnificent imperial wedding ceremony on the 24th April 1854 in the Augustinekirche in Vienna.
Sisi the traveller.
When Empress Elisabeth was ailing from coughing and respiratory complaints in 1860, she was inspired to take her very first trip abroad alone. She went to a spa in Madeira which gave her the opportunity to escape the rigors of court life. On her return to Vienna she suffered a severe relapse. Her doctors diagnosed “consumption”. The Empress departed to a spa on the island of Corfu.
Her escape from Vienna’s Imperial Court in 1860/61 launched a journey which was to continue up to her death. She travelled throughout Europe, to Asia Minor and to North Africa. When Elisabeth returned to the Imperial Court in Vienna after an absence of almost twenty years, she had transformed from a pale, shy young woman to a self-confident monarch.
Stretching out ahead of me I could see the High Altitude Promenade. I was tempted to do it now but decided to leave it for another day and concentrate on Sisi’s walk.
Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary.
At the beginning of 1867, she succeeded in reaching an accord with Hungary, despite strong opposition from her mother-in-law and members of the Imperial Court. On 8th June 1867, the coronation of Emperor Francis Joseph and Empress Elisabeth as King and Queen of Hungary took place in the St Matthew’s Church in Budapest.
Children.
When she was 17 years old, the young Empress Elisabeth gave birth to a girl, who was named Sophie Friederike. A year later another daughter, Gisela was born. In 1858, Crown Prince Rudolph Francis Carl Joseph was born. Her fourth and last child, Marie Valerie Mathilde Amalie was born in 1868 in Ofen, Hungary. Sophie died at the age of two from diarrhoea and fever. Crown Prince Rudolph committed suicide when he was 31 at Schloss Mayerling in Lower Austria, together with his mistress, Mary Vetsera.
The assassination.
On 9th September 1898 on the shores of Lake Geneva.the Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni stabbed Elisabeth in the heart with a knife he had made himself. She managed to board a lakeside boat but then collapsed. She died a short time later in her hotel. The internment took place on 17th September in the Kapuzinergruft in Vienna.
Source about Sisi: crosbyman66.wordpress.com
Back to my running day through the clouds: 

 It was 5 p.m. and the last cable cabin descended from the Schmittenhöhe nach Zell am See. I could have take it, but I didn't want to finish the marvellous day on the mountain, so I decided to run back to Schüttdorf instead.

It took me about 4 hours to get here, so in about 90 minutes I could be back home, by running most of the trail.

It was a relaxed nice long descent over 1.000 m and I enjoyed every single moment of it.

 I knew I will reach town on the day light, so I was worryless.

 A good bath, looking to the pictures, writting the blog and a good long night sleep :-)