The place where the camp is situated is gorgeous. It reminds me alot of Cades Cove in the Smokey Mountain National park.
Race #1: Steve vs Horse cart
Last Saturday's run was the most interesting of my camp runs. I've been running a simple 5 mile route, going 2.5 miles down the road, turning around, and going back. I was running easy on Saturday when I approached the turnaround point. When I got there a tandem horse cart was approaching. As I turned around I noticed a teenager at the controls of the 2-horse cart. I looked at him - then he looked at me - Yep, IT WAS SO ON!!!
I turned around and bolted back towards camp. After about 1 mile he started closing. News Flash for Steve J - horse carts are faster than you think! A few minutes later he blew by me on a downhill and I was eating horse cart dust. Although my ego was a bit bruised I picked it up and started to catch him on a long uphill stretch. I was really working hard trying to catch him when I got a break. A rabbit hopped across the road in front of the cart. For some reason, the kid stopped the cart and walked into the field to tried to follow this rabbit. What was he thinking? Anyway, when he did that I broke into a long sprint to-the-finish back at camp. Yeah, it was a cheap win - but I'll take it.
Meanwhile, back in Bucharest
With very busy weekends working at camp, I've had to squeeze most of my runs into 4 days during the week in Bucharest. Running in Bucharest is pretty depressing after running in the countryside. And worse, it's hot!! The Romanians were right that the mild winter (where Steve J racked up the miles) foretold a hot summer. After several 90+ days last week, I switched back to early morning pre-work running. My most interesting run in the last two weeks was definitely Wednesday.
Race #2: Steve J vs Dogs
Running during the early morning in Bucharest does help to avoid the heat and the traffic. Unfortunately, it brings a higher level of dog activity since the strays haven't quite settled down after a long night of barking, biting and all the other things that dogs do. On Wednesday, I headed toward Titan Park for an easy 3 mile run. I approached the gate a restaurant called Casa Rustica which has a large outdoor seating area. There are several "restaurant strays" that hang out here and, as far as I can tell, they all HATE ME. As I passed the open gate, I made eye contact with 2 strays who were laying down, but not quite asleep yet. Uh oh! In a split second, they growled, jumped up and headed right at me. I panicked and instead of stopping and facing the 2 strays, I decided to make a run for it. I took off in a no-holds-barred, full-speed, hide-the-women-and-kids, all-out sprint down this Bucharest street! I hoped to get out of the "restaurant" territory and thus the dogs would lose interest. After about 30 yards, the dogs had closed to about 10 feet - they were going nuts, barking like crazy. So, there I was going full speed with my red tank top, shorts and flaming red shoes in the middle of Bucharest (in retrospect, wearing all red was probably not the best thing). I'm sure this provided no small amount of entertainment to the Romanian commuters and pedestrians waiting at the nearby bus stops across the street.
The good news was that the dogs gained no more ground, and after about 20-30 more yards they either gave out (these are well fed strays) or lost interest and stopped. I was pumping my fist like Tiger Woods when I entered the park - Take That You Canine Scum! How do like me now? Heh heh heh. So there you have it. Two races, two different animals - two victories! Chad Johnson is jealous I'm sure.
Well, I'm off the states for a 1 week leave. See you in July!
