A tale of two shores, Lacul Morii

Well, for today's long run location, I picked Lacul Morii which is located on the west side of Bucharest. Like much of Bucharest, Lacul Morii is full of contrasts. First, some quick history. Lacul Morii is actually a man-made reservoir that forms part of the flood control system in Bucharest and was finished in 1987. The Dambovita river flows into and out of Lacul Morii through a canal that cuts through the city. It eventually empties into the famous flood-prone Danube River in southern Romania.

To build a Fire

I started this run in the trashed, desolate southern side of the lake. It is wide open and windy all around the lake. According to an internet source, the lake was once lined with trees, but they were cut down for firewood by poor and desperate Romanains to heat their "homes" during the cold winters.

Early on this run looked like it would end early. A welcome committee of dogs "greeted" me as soon as I got out of my car.

Portraits of Poverty

I could see smoke from the fires of several homeless gypsy families nearby. I snapped this pic on the right of a gypsy "house" right after I finished. The family was just waking up and I could hear a baby crying. Puts things in perspective - we have a lot to be thankful for....

There was trash everywhere - this is no doubt a convenient dumping ground for contractors and other small businesses. I saw a few people picking through the trash looking for any salvageable items. This section of the lake reminded me of pictures I've seen of bad neighborhoods in South Central Los Angeles (Except for the couple of goat herds I saw, that doesn't quite fit) . There were a lot of people fishing in this nasty water too - yuck.

More Close Encounters of the Canine Kind...

I had one tense dog encounter right away. I ran by a medium sized dog that looked friendly enough. He didn't make a sound, but started following me from a distance. Soon, another dog joined him - they got closer and I started to pick up the pace. Then a third dog joined up and the three dogs got right on my heels. I'm thinking "Isn't this how wolves hunt?", watching and waiting for me to slow down or trip. I felt like an injured deer on a Wild Kingdom TV special. Just then, while the three dogs stalked me from behind, 3 MORE dogs came charging from the front! Uh oh! I thought I was dead. However, instead of taking me out, this new group of three attacked the other three dogs that were behind me which allowed me to escape (I heard a lot of barking but didn't look back). I guess I had crossed into a new groups territory and the canine intruders bothered them more then me.

I was pretty rattled but kept going. After about 1 mile or so, I ran into a locked gate. Bummer. I thought the path was continuous, but that was not the case. So, I had to go off course into what looked like a pretty poor section of Bucharest. None of the roads here are paved and there were lots of dogs, but thankfully I was able to navigate back to the lake and continue the run without incident.

Above pic shows my route map. I ran clockwise starting in the lower right hand corner - starting and finishing on the ugly southern shore where I took the pictures. Interestingly, the building that our church rents for Sunday morning is nearby.

Pleasant Ending

Once I crossed the canal on the west side (about halfway around), I passed a concrete barrier that read "Zona de Protectie". Of course, I had no idea what that meant but kept going anyway. Immediate I noticed the lack of trash in this area. Apparently, there is some clean-up going on to reclaim this lake. The whole north side was dog free and clean (for Bucharest standards anyway) for the most part. I even passed a couple of runners and walkers - wow! There is a nice little mini-park sticking right out into the lake, but I was getting gassed by then so I didn't go in. I did snap a pic from the other side of the lake though (see first pic up top).

Here's tinkling on you kid

Despite the rough start, it was good 5 mile run to push me over the 15 mile mark this week. Due to the unpredictable dog situation on the southern shore of the lake and the distance from our apartment on the other side of the city, I probably will not return here. Here's my last pic before I left:

I'm pretty sure this guy had just finished "marking" my car (see my wheel on the left) while I was taking the above pictures. He looks so innocent doesn't he?

Talk to you soon!

Steve's new stuff

As many of you know, I passed the 35 year split on 23 June. To celebrate the occasion, I decided to upgrade my running gadgetry. Feast your eyes on my brand new GPS watch:

As you can see, this futuristic looking baby just oozes geekiness. Like my old watch, its big enough to be seen from a mile away. It's also flexible. Not only will it be plainly obvious to Romanians that I am a foreign running geek, this watch will be equally fashionable stateside for a night out with 'da boys at your local Star Trek Convention - very chic (Scottie, I need warp speed and I need it now!)

As you can also tell from the graph on the right, the new watch (red line) is much more accurate than the old watch (blue line). (Hint: If there doesn't look like much of a difference, just think about who writes this blog and you will understand why it matters).

Two Shoes, New Shoes, Pretty and...Obnoxiously red

Just in case the technological monstrosity on my left arm doesn't get me noticed, I decided to get a shoe upgrade too. The change in my running form has made a shoe change necessary. Believe it or not, I did not intentionally get the most noticeable color, my feet are just hard to fit.

Ok, I know what your thinking. What was the whole running technique change stuff? For my non-running geek audience, I finally found a good drawing to explain it. Basically I want my foot to hit the ground like the foot in the middle of this hi-tech sketch.

I was very happy with yesterday's run of nearly 5 miles with little soreness. I think I'm finally ready to branch out and do some runs in some new areas of the city too, and get this blog going again.

I'm alive and well!

In a New York minute

From the running point of view, I had a nice break in New York. I ran 3 times in the morning there with excellent weather. One day, I ran to my old high school track (memories...blah..blah..blah..blah...blaaaah blaaaah - just think of the theme from CATS) and practiced my form by running 1/4 mile barefoot. Running barefoot is tough, but very helpful. Without the protection of those fancy running shoes, you must land your foot correctly everytime. If you don't, the feedback is instaneous - it hurts!

The week went by fast and it was really good to be with Dana and Maria again and see my side of the extended family.

Steve is back in town

I got back to Bucharest on Sunday afternoon and quickly got back to running. I ran Mon, Wed and early this morning. Each run was about 3-3.5 miles long and uneventful for the most part. The heat broke while I was gone, so the weather has been great with temps staying in the mid 80's. The low humidity here makes it quite comfortable when it stays below 90.

New Soarma source!

After Wednesday's run, I was starving and realized I forgot to take out any meat from the freezer. So, I decided to pass on the ramen noodles and find some grub outside. Right before I left for NY, I had noticed a new restaurant. I thought it was just a regular terrace bar, but then I realized they had a pretty big food menu there too. It turns out that they serve pizza, soarma's and a bunch of other stuff. The soarma was great. This place has some additional toppings and seasoning that the other place in the Piaţa doesn't have. Food goes along way to improving my morale, especially overseas.

Today's Run

I did run into a pack of dogs in the park today, but apparently they had owners close by. As the 4-5 dogs barked and closed ranks on me, I heard them hollering. It ended up ok. The dogs chased me for about 20 yards or so barking away, but no biting. It's always exciting when you get charged by a pack of dogs - you never know what they're going to do. It does get the adrenaline going, though, so at least it helps my running energy! Speaking of dogs, above is our newest addition to the dog family at work (actually there are several families of dogs at work, but this little guy is staying in our hanger right now). The dogs that chase me in the park are never this cute.

I'm heading back to help out at Camp Living Water today for the weekend, so this will have to be a short post. I did get some fancy new running stuff in NY that I'll post about when things slow down next week.