Chlosterwald, August 9, 2002

Chlosterwald is the forest where the relays of these world championships will take place. At the end, the best teams will fight for the medals. Many will have the opportunity. Hardly any country does have a decisive advantage. Trin/Digg favors the Scandinavians. The Chlosterwald however remains uniquely neutral.

Almost uniquely. Its brother forest is the Meggerwald near Lucerne. Both of them are located at the northern shore of a lake, both of them were formed by glaciers that pushed the rocks in front of them like a strong hand on the table cloth. Identical peculiarities include the characteristic and topographically odd corrugated iron. Almost four kilometers in length, the terrain stretches out on a small width of some 800 meters along the upper lake of Zurich. In the western part it displays its ugly face: it contains masses of thorny shrubs. Also, there are spots badly damaged by storm Lothar. The more we stroll eastward, however, the nicer it gets. The vegetation becomes almost pre-alpine. Blueberries, mossy spots, some swampy meadows though, but mostly with excellent runnability. Here, the relay forest seems like properly cleaned by a gigantic vacuum cleaner.

In the start and finish area the appreciative jogger gets a view over the lake to the chain of the Alps. Here also, there are those tremendous limestone quarries. The cliffs are up to ten meters high. Unused and partly overgrown the boulders lie around these days. Whoever properly finds the controls in these rocky holes is going to find nuggets too. Gold nuggets, pressed flatly, round, the shape of medals! Who is going to be blessed in the Chlosterwald, the forest of the monastery, and strewn with wealth?

Lukas Jenzer