Saturday's Long Run - The Big Building

First, an update for "The Contest"

Time for a break from "The Contest". The next clue, a good one, will be posted Monday. Actually, all the clues this week will be good. I hope to have a winner by Wednesday.

OK, now for Saturdays long run..

Big time, I'm on my way-I'm making it
Big time, I've got to make it show yeah
- Peter Gabriel

Unless you ran around the Pentagon in Washington,DC or the Boeing facility in Everet, Washington or the Aerium in Germany, you won't top this run today. I ran to the People's Palace of Parliament, one of the largest buildings in the world in terms of volume and floor space. We visited the place as a family earlier this year, but this is the first time I ran in the vicinity (My runs weren't very long back then).

Here's some stats on this monstrosity from Wikipedia:

Volume: 90,052,400 cubic feet
Materials: 35,314,670 cubic feet of marble
700,000 metric tons of steel and bronze
31,783,200 cubic feet of wood
3,500 metric tons of crystal

The building was the brain child of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. It was originally called "House of the People", but the name was changed sometime after the Romanian Revolution and Ceausescu's execution. Ceausescu was known for a lot of things, mostly bad things. His sense of architecture is definitely one of those bad things, according to this reviewer:

"the combination of cultural and aesthetic illiteracy, rigid Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy and an innate taste for gigantism was… devastating"
-Edward Behr

Much of my run today traced the path of my run last week on Unirii Blvd, which runs right into the Palace. One thing I noticed while running is the hill that the palace sits on. If you're a Big guy like Ceausescu thought he was, then you're gonna build your Big office on the Big hill in the Big City, right? Never mind the historic neighborhoods that were demolished in the process, the building needed to be there - what a guy. It is also said that, due the amount of marble used in construction (Ceausescu wanted every material to be from Romania) , people had to scramble for alternate materials for tombstones.

And always they're amazed
When I show them round my house, to my bed
I had it made like a mountain range
With a snow-white pillow for my big fat head
- More Peter Gabriel

Yeah, I had that Peter Gabriel song in my head during most of the run. Once I turned onto Unirii Blvd, the Palace can be clearly seen 2 miles away as I ran towards it. I made it there 45 minutes into the run and then proceeded to do one lap around the secured perimeter. It took me over 16 minutes to get around the thing, covering 1.75 miles. It was weird going uphill after 10 months of running in this mostly flat city.

Got coke? - WWSJD? (What would Steve J do)

Ok, here's a scenario for you. You've been running for 80 minutes and you still have nearly 30 minutes to go. You're running out of gas (that pack of sports beans you ate 40 minutes ago is long gone), the wind is in your face, you nearly got ran over by a car doing 25 mph on the sidewalk and you're getting cranky. You've past several fast food joints throughout the run (including 2 McDonalds) and literally dozens of street vendors. Then... you see this place:

Well this is what Steve J would do. If Steve J had 3 Lei in his pocket (he did), he would run in that store (he did) and get himself a 1/2 liter coke (yep, he did). Yes, oh yes, coke never tasted so good. 10 minutes (and a several belches) later I was fired up and picking up the pace for a high-energy finish. It doesn't get any better than this...

Or does it?

I got back to the apartment feeling rather pleased with myself for this 11.6 mile run. I also still had a good caffiene/sugar high going from the coke. When I got upstairs, I realized the Coolest Helpmeet Ever was making things happen. Check it out:

Yes, the woman was fixing Churros. Churros are Spanish donuts, and they rock! Apparently she and Maria found some frozen churros during their last visit to Auchan (the newest hypermarket) while I was at work this week. All you have to do is remove from the freezer and fry them in oil (can't go wrong there) and sprinkle with sugar. Sweeeeet! (literally).