Hello, my name is Tim Teege
and this is my blog.
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New Website Section: The Bookshelf
12th of February
This site is growing.
As I’ve mentioned in my recent Goals 2020 post, I will continue reading books this year. Roughly one per month. Afterwards, I would like to share my short opinion on them – not just for people to get an idea about the content, but also for myself to remember the book by. My ability to remember things isn’t the best, that’s why I write a lot down.
So, teesche.com has gotten a new section named “Bookshelf”. You can find it in the navigation menu. Also, newly added (finished) books appear on the front page of this website, mixed with the standard blog posts, in chronological order.
Wovon ich rede, wenn ich vom Laufen rede
165 pages,
★★★☆☆
Finished on 28th of January,
buy here.
[German translation] Haruki Murakami is a well known and quite successful Japanese author. I’ve known him since I’ve read his book Kafka on the Shore some 10 years ago, which was weird, but great. Turns out he is an endurance runner as well, cultivating it as a hobby just like me. Naturally this book was on my list and actually was gifted to me twice. It’s a short collection of moments in his life during which he was focussed on training for specific races, for example the NYC marathon which he usually runs every year. I’ve found myself in many of his words. As a book, though, I’m not sure it’s justified. A bunch of blogged essays would have done just as well. On a positive note, the German translation of the Japanese original was refreshing – I don’t speak Japanese, but you can hear it somehow between the lines. Something different to the US originals I usually read.
Goals for 2020, Goals for the new Decade
15th of January
The beginning of a new year always gives me a good feeling of renewal, even though it’s a completely arbitrary point in time. Since I’ve created this habit of yearly reviews and plans in 2016, it’s been fun and interesting to me to set these challenges for myself and try to complete them. In general I was quite successful, but I’ve always learned a few things from the failures, too. That’s why I don’t think I’ll stop this habit now.
For reference reasons, here are the last few year’s posts I’ve published about yearly goals.
Wer jetzt noch umblättert ist selber schuld
10 Jahre The Hirsch Effekt aus der Sicht von mir
264 pages,
★★★★★
Finished on 12th of January,
buy here.
Goals 2019: State after December and Conclusion 2019
4th of January
That’s it, the year’s over! The final month during which I hold myself publicly accountable for the goals I set for 2019 is in the past. Time to take a deep breath.
Permanent Record
328 pages,
★★★★★
Finished on 30th of December, 2019,
buy here.
An important document of the times we’re living in. Global mass surveillance is a fact. Snowden writes about his life in an interesting way, focussed on facts, with just about zero humor. It’s not the place for that. For everyone who has followed him by watching interviews or listening to him talk on conferences or in Podcasts, there isn’t much factually new, but his personal surrounding story adds to the story quite a bit. Who is he, why is he motivated in such a way, what exactly happened during those few days in Hongkong, how did the flight play out – it’s all rather thrilling to read about.
World Record Holder Christian Hottas’ Billwerder Bucht Marathon
24th of December, 2019
There’s a person on this planet who has completed more marathons in his lifetime than everyone else. His name is Christian Hottas and he is from Hamburg.
What’s your guess, how many marathons do you have to run to be number one in the world? 500, maybe a thousand? In the World Megamarathon Ranking of June 2019, Christian Hottas was listed as number one with an insane 2,785 completed marathons. Imagine that. How many marathons per year for how many years? And by the way, when does a marathon count as a marathon?
I would find answers to these questions today from number 125 in the world, according to the list.
Goals 2019: State after November
2nd of December, 2019
Cold cold Sülldorfer Feldmark-Marathon
19th of November, 2019
Looking through the list of marathon races during Germany’s colder months you won’t find much. But a few races you can always count on are the ones organized by members of the notorious German 100 Marathon Club.
After all, they somehow all made it to 100+ marathons by running marathons. If there aren’t any, you’ll have to make them yourself.
This man has not only exceeded the 100 marathons in his lifetime, but even 1,000.
1,618 is his current and probably final marathon count as he has given up the running at age 78, which was a few years ago. Now, he still makes marathons happen for others. That’s someone to look up to.
Ultra Steinhart 666 😈
19th of November, 2019
To be honest, I just signed up for this race because I thought the name of it is just great.
Also, getting through the cold winter months of northern Germany comes a lot easier to me when I have a bunch of long distance races to look forward to.
After having reached basically all the goals I’ve set for 2019, this counts as bonus. Frankfurt marathon two weeks ago went well enough to make me feel successful, so I was looking forward to having a race after that training phase. Now I can just run as I feel like, with no imposed restrictions because of the training plan.