Steve’s Romanian Half-Marathon

What a cool experience this was! There were so many firsts. It was my first half-marathon (13.1 mile) race. Before this, my longest race was 8km (5 miles). It was my first road race in Romania as well as my first international race as well. Most of this blog entry will focus on the race experience. Dana will fill in the rest of the trip details on the family blog. This is kind of long, so if you're at Lockheed reading this (you know who you are), you should fill up with coffee first.

Getting there on the Train

I am so glad we did this instead of driving. It was great to see so much of the Romanian countryside and the Danube River area. The train went west from Bucharest until hitting the Danube River which forms part of the border with Serbia & Montenegro before it turned north towards Timisoara. From a running point of view, it was great to be able to move around regularly. We had a great pasta dinner at our hotel, the Continental before calling it a night.

Pre-race Orientation – ok, where is it?

After a good breakfast, Maria and I headed outside to locate the start and finish for the race. It was about 8:30 and according to the information I had with me, the Marathon was scheduled to start at 10:00 and the Half-Marathon at 10:30. After about 10 min, we found what I thought was the starting area and there was nobody in sight. I also didn’t see any evidence of a race course set up in the road either (more on this later). I then figured we’d have better luck at the finish area and I was right about that. We found the finish line where a guy was unloading some stuff. I said “Buna Diminaţa” (Good morning in Romanian) and he said “huh?”. I thought "Great", that went well - now what?. I then said “Romanian?”. He replied “No!, Hungarian”. So I said “Servus!” (Pronounced “SIR-VOOSE” meaning “Hello” in Hungarian). He smiled and we continued in English. Ok, so how in the world did I know “hello” in Hungarian? Hungarians are Romania’s largest minority group and one of my coworkers here used that greeting once, and I learned it. I know you’re impressed.

The Hungarian guy gave me two important pieces of information. He showed me where to pick up the race packet and he informed me that both the Marathon and Semi-Marathon were scheduled to start at 10:00. By the time I got my race packet, it was already 9:00, so Maria and I hustled back to the hotel so I could get changed.

Warm-ups – Steve rubs elbows with one of the greats

So I got dressed and we all headed back to the finish area. It was about 9:30 and a small crowd was gathering. It was neat to be in an international setting. One guy, an Italian, came over to “chat” with us. We were able to make minimal small talk, but it was tough. I only knew a few Italian words and he (being an older guy) had minimal English skills. There was also a wide variety of long distance attire as well. Some people ran either the half or full marathon in Chuck Taylor all-star type shoes. Take a look. Talk about minimal footwear for a marathon! One guy had long pants on too!

It was then that we noticed several people taking pictures. After watching for a few minutes, we realized that a bunch of people were getting pictures with the same woman. It was Gabby Szabo! Gabby Szabo is perhaps Romania’s greatest distance runner. Among her many accomplishments:

1996 Olympics: Silver medal, 1500 meters
2000 Olympics: Gold medal, 5000 meters

She also has gold medals at several World (indoor and outdoor) Championships and had previously held world records for 2000, 3000, and 5000 meter indoor distance races.

I have to admit, I was a little intimidated so I asked another friendly Romanian girl to approach her and ask for a photo. Not only did Gabby oblige our photo-op, but we had a nice conversation also. After I told her I was American, she mentioned that she had spent a lot of time in the US for training while she was being sponsored by Nike. I figure now that we’re friends, she’ll put in a good word for me at Nike (I’m expecting a call any day now).

The start (on Romanian time, of course!).

With about 10 minutes to go, I was ready. I had eaten a bag of sports beans (thanks Granny!) and was sipping small amounts of water to wash them down. I conducted my warm-ups with the help of Maria. We chased pidgeon's at the same time, so I guess you can say we killed two birds with one stone (haw haw haw).

At about 9:50, we noticed the race director feverishly working his cell phone. I knew there was some sort of problem, but I could not fully understand the guy when he announced the delay with a bullhorn in Romanian. I was optimistically hoping they were having a little trouble closing off the roads for the race (boy was I wrong about that). After about a 40 minute delay, he made another announcement and I followed the crowd to the starting line. A bunch more announcements followed (all in Romanian) thanking such and such sponsors and then Gabby Szabo started the race.

At the sound of the gun, everybody took off. I mean really took off! I couldn’t believe how fast everyone started this race. Maybe this wasn’t really a half-marathon? Maybe they were running to catch a bus? I tell ya, I don’t think 7-10 year old boys on a 1 mile fun run would go any faster. For about 200-300 meters everyone ran out with the leaders, except me, thank the Lord. For once in a race, I used my head and stuck with my plan.

I cruised toward the first turn comfortably alone and in last place.

First 5k (3.1 miles)

Even while cruising at a slow pace, I started passing people long before I reached the 5k point. That was the good news, since passing people is fun. Coming from the back of the pack, nobody would pass me during this whole race. The bad news was that I realized they were not going to close the roads as I optimistically hoped. (Yet another good reason which proves optimism is a waste of time). They had volunteers at most intersections, but apparently they were only there to tell you where to go if you survived crossing the busy Timisoara traffic. It was insane! Shortly after the 5k point, I got a nice lift seeing Dana and Maria cheering me on.

Halfway point.

I felt good after the first 5k, but I resisted the urge to pick up the pace. I caught up to an older British guy and we chatted a bit while we ran together (and dodged 18 wheelers, open manholes and other fun things like that) for the next 3 miles or so. The middle part of the course was located in a major road construction zone. It looked totally awful, but the traffic was real light which allowed us to relax for the only time in the race. In the vicinity of the 10k (or halfway point) the Brit hit the water station and I used that as an excuse to drop him and start racing. I was feeling invincible and really started to push the pace. I had passed quite a few people by this point and the remaining runners were really spaced out – I only saw and passed 4-5 more people during the second half of the race. A few were doing the full marathon and were understandably going slower.

Incidentally, I only hit one water station during the race (somewhere near 15k). The water I grabbed was carbonated (yuck, how do you drink carbonated water during a race and actually keep it down?). Needless to say, I just dumped it on myself and did not stop for any other stations.

Bringing it home

Ok, things were really looking good until around mile 11 (I’m just guessing). I guess I hit a mini-wall because I started breathing heavy and I could feel my heart-rate jump. I could see the huge Metropolitan Church at this point so I told myself to keep the feet moving. I decreased my strides, but still tried to keep my feet moving as fast as possible. A few minutes of these baby steps and things started to feel better. I had just a little energy left for the final ¼ mile or so. The final sprint was interesting as there where dozens of pedestrians wandering around the square about 100 yards from the finish. I was happy I came in without running down any toddlers. None of these people had any idea there was a race going on. My time was 1:47:00. You can see my stealth finish here. No really, I did do it. Don’t you just love that delay on some digital cameras; I know Dana does…heh heh heh.

Ok, here’s the numbers on my finish: My Time: 1:47:00 Place: 26 out of 43 men, 30 of 56 overall, 5th in the 30-39 age group, 1st American (ok, I made those last two categories up)

1st place guy: 1:09:49 (smokin’), 1st place lady: 1:20:52 (also impressive)

Wrap-up

Right after the finish, a girl came up to me with a medal and a diploma, stamped of course (if you read our blogs you know how much they like ink stamps here). For some reason, I think she thought I was tired. I have no idea why. My new friend Gabby Szabo was also there and she autographed my diploma. By the time I was coherent, Dana had hold of my goodie bag.

Check it out – Candy and Wine. (Hey, we are in Europe).