January ends...

Just checking in with my monstrous blog audience. January ended up being a pretty successful Bucharest running month. I tallied a "Steve J record" 108 miles for the month, thanks to recent 4-day "blitz" of running after all the "suits" returned to the states.

Most of my runs lately have not been really interesting. The super-warm temperatures that were here most of the month have dropped back down to a normal winter-like state. The wind has picked up too, so I've been doing my running in either Titan or Herestreau Park to take advantage of the wind break down at Lake-level. Running amongst the apartment blocs is less fun during these windy days - sometimes you get shelter, but you also experience some serious "wind tunnel" effects in between the blocs that will nearly knock you over.

Steve J - Chick magnet?

Yes it's true. There must be something about seeing Steve J go running by in wintertime (clad only in his cool running shorts, windshirt, gloves and baseball cap while chomping down on sports beans) that drives the Romanian ladies wild. Ooooh Baby! On Wednesdays run at Herestreau, two young ladies (not clad in running attire) joined me for about 50 meters to admire my rugged good looks and my inspirational outlook on life:
Ok, I have to stop now before I get carried away. I'm pretty sure, like most of these Romanian youngsters, their initial goal was to "mock me" in front of about 10-12 other friends looking on nearby. However, when they started talking (read: taunting) to me they realized I was American - so in that instant I became much less of a dork. American's are the rock stars of tourists in Romania. Romanians are really curious about Americans and the American culture.

Anyway, before they tuckered out (tight-fitting European jeans and high heel boots are NOT good for running on cobblestones in case your wondering) they asked me where in the US I was from and whether it was nice there. I think I made them feel better when I told them that South Carolina was colder than Bucharest yesterday. I was relieved when they left - running, talking Romanian and eating sports beans is not that easy, you know?

Steve's first spring training setback...

And it's not what I thought it would be. When I first planned an early spring half-marathon goal, I figured I'd have some setbacks. Weather, sickness, and of course, more encounters with my canine companions came to mind. Forget about weather because we've had one of the warmest Januaries on record. No sickness or puppy dog teeth in my legs either, so....

V.P.'s and Managers and Schedulers - Oh My!

I forgot about one other thing that could get in the way. Yes, I do have a reason for being here in Romania besides running in Europe. That reason is my job. So, because my project is so hopelessly behind, we had a ton of visitors this week from the monster corporation that I work for to help us get back on track.

Unfortunately, getting us back on track kept me off the track (and any other running surface) by throwing off my running schedule this week. Bummer! Instead of sitting somewhere close to 100 miles for the month, I'm stuck at 83 with only 7.5 miles in the bank this week - pathetic. Fortunately, the big shots leave early tomorrow morning and I have 4 days left to salvage this month. So we'll see what happens.

Long run Saturday

Another spectacular un-winterlike day in Bucharest for today's long run. Some of the Romanians are already worried about having a hot summer....sheeesh. I thought I was negative - Summer is 6 months away!

Carbohydrate Fornetti Loading

Anyway, Before running, I had to make a trip to Selgros (think Sam's Club, but European) to pick up some supplies for the return on the Helpmeet and Maria. Since I only ate cereal for breakfast, I needed to fuel up before the run. Selgros is a perfect place for this since they have a Fornetti stand inside the store.

I know I talked about Fornetti before, but they just rock so I'm mentioning them again. For about 40 cents, you get a 100 gram serving size. In the picture, you see a 100 gram serving of mere (apple). I also ordered some carnaţi (sausage), but...uh....they didn't survive the drive back to the apartment.

On the package, "poftă bună" is the Romanian version of "Bon Apetit". The advertising slogan translates "Obvious Quality" (top) and "Perfect Solution" (bottom) or something like that. Just trust me, they're yummy.

The run was nice. I headed over to Parcul National for a few laps around Stadiul National. Lots of pick up soccer and "soccer-tennis" games going on all over the area. I then headed over to the nicer section of Parcul Titan for the 2nd half of this 10 miler. The dredging appears to be done at the Lake, but its still a muddy mess in spots, so I stayed away from there. Having my GPS back, its not as boring to run in the smaller sections of the park because I can vary the paths I take and still know my distance (which of course, for this engineer, "este foarte important").

Plenty of old people and young couples with little ones strolling the park today. A big group of kids and parents were watching a "veverita roşu" (red squirrel) that was out and about. I have to get a picture of these squirrels. Anyhow, with another spectacular stir-fry concoction for my post run meal (I was busy chowing down before I thought of another picture), another productive Saturday of running in Romania is in the books.

Steve gets a real life running partner...

My fancy schmancy GPS watch makes a nice running companion, but in reality every one of my training runs in the last year have been solo. However, yesterday I actually had a little company at Herestreau Park. John Lewis, a missionary who also attends our church, joined me for about 4 miles on a beautiful January day. It's hard to believe we are nearly in the middle of the winter here and temperatures have been around 50 F for several days now. I'm not complaining either, so keep on burning those fossil fuels, heh heh heh.

Steve's first guest runner!

John and I have been talking about getting together for a run for about 2 months or so, but our schedules and the weather have not been cooperating. Yesterday, it all came together. It was fun to run and chit chat. I did notice however, that the Romanian youth will laugh at you anyway, whether you are alone or not. Anyway, back to John. John has been here in Bucharest for almost 2 years with his wife, Sommer and two daughters, Sarah and younger Hannah. Here's a pic, shamelessly borrowed from John's website.

John is affiliated with the Assemblies of God in the U.S. He is working with the street kids of Romania (there are many here). Many of these kids are outside of the orphanage system, a system which isn't real good anyway, and are homeless. John has a really cool website will all sorts of information about what's going on in this important ministry area. Check it out here.

The new year begins!

In case your wondering, I'm alive and well in Bucharest. I arrived on Tuesday Jan 2. It was actually a nice day - mid 40's and dry and for January that is great. I looked forward to getting a little sleep and getting back to running on Wed. So, the nice weather lasted less than 24hrs. I woke up on Wednesday to a lovely cold rain. While I was at work, this rain changed to snow. We got about 2"-3" of snow before it changed back to rain for the rest of the day. This slushy mixture then froze overnight - lovely.

What was I thinking!

If you followed my recent blog contest, then you know I will running a half-marathon on March 25 in Vienna. What this means is that, in order to avoid embarrassing myself in front of a couple thousand Austrians, I actually have to train during the entire Romanian winter. Oh well, the plane tickets are purchased and I already told Maria she was running the 2km youth race. I guess I could back out and just watch Maria's race, but that would mean I would be the laughing stock of my massive 5 or so person blog audience - we can't have that.

Steve's training partner returns, better than ever (sort of)

The good news is that Steve does not have to train all winter alone. When we last saw Steve's training buddy, the fancy-schmancy GPS watch, he was critically ill. We saw him attached to live support (the charger) unable to function on his own. How sad. Well a new year has dawned and Steve and his fancy-schmancy watch are together again! What a sweet ending. Ok, that's not really true. What the watch manufacturer did was replace Steve's friend with a totally new watch. The old one was most likely destroyed or cannibalized for parts, but in the interest of telling a compelling and inspiring story - just work with me on this. Take a look at the happy couple. Awwwwwwww!


Week wrap up

So anyway, this week I slogged through the slush and mud and tallied 20 miles on 3 runs. Not bad for a travel week. The good news is that the temperatures are soaring right now and things are drying out. 50 degree temperatures are forecast for most of the next week. This could be one of the warmest January's in a long time, which is just fine with me!

Bring on the doggies!

Now, I'll put in the final chapter of the biting incident. I received rabies shot #4 in the US thanks to my lovely, awesome, but "not quite nurse material" Helpmeet. Actually, it really wasn't too bad, the needle just didn't quite go deep enough, so we think. The bump did go down after a couple of hours, no harm, no foul. For the final shot #5, I was back in Bucharest and Miheala Bucur (shot #3's injector) did the honors with daughter Alexa looking on intently of course.

Now that I'm Rabies-Proof for 2007 I have a new dog strategy. It has been said that the best defense is a good offense. So, if I start getting chased by anything smaller than say...for instance a pitbull, I'm going to stop, turn and fight to the death! I figure this is better than giving them something to chase. I tested my new strategy on Saturday with a really aggressive rodent-sized dog (think daschund, but skinnier and less ferocious - if that's possible). This little thing was walking with a really nice older lady. When I passed them, he growled and took off in pursuit. Instead of playing the victim, I immediately stopped, turned around and faced him in my most fearsome "tough guy" stance. The poor thing gave a yelp, turned and ran back between the poor old lady's legs. I had to repeat this 3 times because the little stinker got his courage back every time I turned back to run. Ha Ha! Victory is mine.

Steve's Romanian Running 2006 Wrap Up

After last weeks incident, things did settle down. Last Saturday the 16th, I returned to Herestreau Park (the scene of the "incident") for 3 full laps of the lake totalling 11.25 miles. Thankfully, it was an uneventful event with decent weather in the mid 50's. I did freak out a couple of Romanians with my water bottle storage plan though.

What is that strange American doing?

In addition to my usual pack of sports beans, I brought a water bottle with me since the water fountains are turned off for the year. During the first lap, I stashed the water bottle in the woods near the path so I could pick it up later for a drink without carrying it the whole time. About 30 minutes later when I came back around for lap 2, I retrieved it with several Romanians watching. I re-stashed the bottle and repeated this process for lap 3. Boy, did I get some weird looks!

Last few days in Bucharest...

Last weekend was the end of our 50 degree weather for now. This week has been damp, cold, windy and rainy at times. I did get 2 runs in on Monday and Thursday (the two best days) in a nearly deserted Titan Park. I think because November was so much warmer than normal, it has made it tough for me to adjust to the cold this month. Next month should be even more fun! The park does look nice at night though since they have Christmas decorations hung around the light posts as well as a large Christmas tree.

Thanks for coming along...

I want to thank my massive (I may need two hands to count now - I'm not sure) audience for tagging along this past year for these 700 or so miles of running. Next year will hopefully be just as exciting as I tackle some new European and some different Bucharest (and maybe other Romanian) running locations. I'm really hoping the animal encounters will be a bit less exciting though. By the way, I now have 3 shots down in my rabies series. See the family blog for the details of shot #3. I guess you can say I'm 60% rabies proof now. After 2 more shots in the next 2 weeks, I will be indestructable for 2007, heh heh heh.

Crăciun Fericite şi La Mulţs Ani (Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!)

Steve's Romanian Rabies Shot Experience

Just so you all know, this is kind of anti-climatic. In these modern times, the whole rabies vaccination deal is really easy. In the old days, it would have been 20 or so shots to the stomach, which would have made a really interesting post with great photos. So, I apologize if you got really fired up for a cool post after Wednesday's "take a bite out of Steve" incident. Ok, here we go.

I guess if I'm going to blog about running in Bucharest, Romania with 100, 000 to who-knows-how-many stray dogs, the story would not be complete without a rabies shot series. So, this morning, 2 days removed from the biting incident, I headed to this clinic.

This isn't just any clinic. The name "Uşa Deschisă" means "Open Door". The clinic is run by missionary Dr's Milton and Linda Hanson. Unfortunately, they weren't around today for a photo op, but you can find out about their ministry here. They have been serving the Lord here in Romania since 1994 when they gave up a successful medical practice in Minneapolis. They are so committed, they've actually become permanent residents of Romania. Milton is also a runner who has a few marathons to his credit. How cool is that? The Hanson's (as well as the Kay family) attend church with us at Calvary Chapel on Sundays.

Since neither the Hansons nor Thomas Kay was around, we had a guest shooter (or...maybe guest injector) for today. It was this pretty lady:
I couldn't spell her name, so she wrote me a note for the blog. It reads "Mean Nurse Oana". Ha Ha. Oana (think Joanna in Romanian) is about as mean as she looks. Of course, she was really nice. The shot was nothing - I barely felt it. I think on Monday when I get shot #2, she is going to show me how to do the rest (#3, #4, #5) on my own. Shot #4 will have to be done while I'm at home in South Carolina during Christmas week. I almost thought about having another blog contest, with the winner being able to administer the shot, but most of you guys won't be around. No fun!

Anyway, Romania is not only a great place to get bitten by a dog, it is also a great place to get rabies shots. Each shot is only about $30 US here. It is ALOT more in the States.

The other good thing is that I'm set for a whole year, no matter how many times I get bit. Cool!

CHOMP!!!! Dogs 2 Steve 0

So I've been looking for ways to spice up my blog, and today I got one. Errr...Uhmm...Actually it got me. Remember back in January, I had a close call with a stray. That episode was no big deal since it was just a scratch, so I blew off going to the doctor. Today, I wasn't so lucky...

Sunny day, sweepin' the clouds away....

I was so psyched about the Sun finally coming out today after 8 straight days of clouds and fog. I made up my mind to hit Herestreau Park after work for 2 laps around the lake (7.5 miles). I had a nice first lap and started to pick it up for a faster second lap. As I passed a set of stairs where people access the path, I noticed a guy at the top of the steps start to come down. Just as I passed the stairs (I was really not even close to the guy), I noticed he had 2 dogs with him unleashed. Anyway, I really didn't even sense any trouble until I was well past the area and heard the barking - uh oh! I looked back and realized they were coming after me and then stopped (without facing them) and figured they would back off with nothing to chase. Wrong!

Steve: "You want a piece of me?" Dog: "Why yes, actually I do"

One of those mangy &$%*$#% mutts took a bite on the back of my leg! Boy was I mad. I got more angry when the dogs backed off and the guy kept walking down the path without even checking on me at all.

In pain and bleeding a little, I tried to assess my options:

1) Stop the run, go after the guy and give him a piece of my mind - I scratched this idea since a) I don't know any mean words in Romanian and b) the guy still has 2 dogs with him that obviously don't like me very much - next...

2) Stop the run, walk back to the car, and call the doctor. This seemed like the wisest move, but stopping the run had a real sissy/surrender sound to it. How would I explain this cowardly act on the blog? - next...

3) Stop the run and get first aid from one of the Romanian teenagers who witnessed the event and (unlike the guy with the dogs) actually showed some concern. This was even more sissy-ish than option 2 - next....

4) Walk a little, see if the bleeding stops, then continue the run (with a little bad attitude for motivation) and pound out those last 3 miles. Then, after calling the doctor, brag to my blogging audience what a real tough guy I am. - sweet!

(Below, the wound on Steve's powerful right leg....)

Well folks, when I got back to car after finishing the run, I got on the phone with Dr Thomas Kay. Thomas is a missionary serving here with his family at a low-cost clinic. As expected, since I have no idea about the condition of those dogs, I will be starting a rabies series (5 shots total) on Friday. Trying to look at the bright side (we all know what a pure optimist I am), I came up with a couple of good things about getting rabies shots in Romania:

1) After these shots, I think I can get bitten by as many dogs as I want for the next year or so! (Don't worry, I'll ask to make sure)

2) Rabies shots are much cheaper in Romania. Everyone knows I'm always on the lookout for a low cost option for anything!

3) I already have a unique topic for my next post!

Let me know if you think of any more good things about getting rabies shots in Romania...

And don't worry, I'll bring the camera. Stay tuned for Steve's rabies shot post this weekend....

The beauty of low expections....

"Ain't no sunshine when she's gone, she's always gone too long, anytime she goes away...."

Boy is this the truth! The last dose of sunshine we received here in Bucharest was on Tuesday, the day Dana and Maria flew back to the states. To add to my misery, I caught a cold which I'm still feeling the effects of today. After Saturday though, I just couldn't handle another day sitting around inside. After church, I fueled up with some pasta and took a nap to prepare for the run today.

I really did not expect much from this run today. The fog and low 30's temperatures we've had since Tuesday was still here. In addition, we had a cold wind today that made it feel like the upper 20's. The leaves are gone and it really looks like winter out there now - just missing the ice & snow but it's coming. My only goal was to run 2-3 miles and call it quits. However, my outlook improved when I finally got all my stuff on and got out there. Titan Park had more people than I expected. Mostly it was the old folks strolling, a few young couples and a few mom's out with bundled up little ones. The teenagers and pre-teens were few and far between on a day like today and that was just fine with me. It was actually kind of peaceful and I hit a nice rhythm for 6.75 miles in about 1 hour. It felt even better since I expected a miserable outing.

Another post-run carb-loading edition

Although the run was good, the display I put on in the kitchen after the run was even more impressive. I whipped up a little Thai stir fry action. Check it out. What you see is some chicken, broccoli, orange bell pepper, Thai noodles in a sir fry sauce. Lots of carbs (I added more noodles), protein, veggies, and a boat load of salt from the sauce. Everything a tired runner needs. If Julia Childs was still with us, my phone would be ringing right now for sure, heh heh heh.

The sickies strike again...

I guess the combination of foreign travel, too much time breathing the virus-filled-air on airplanes, too little sleep, and very little running left my immune system open to attack. I barely made it 1 lap around Herestrau Lake on Tuesday before it really hit me.

The good news is that I'm feeling much better today. The bad news? Just look at my little live weather tracker below. That isn't exactly the best motivation to get back out there. Hopefully, I'll be able to get a short run in on Friday. It may warm up to 48 and we may even see the Sun too... yipee.

Steve’s Nile River “Sunrise Run”

OK, it’s official. I can now add another country (and continent) to my running archives! After some additional Internet research that showed it was possible to survive a run here, I got my courage up for a morning run on Saturday. The traffic does indeed lighten up overnight, so I headed out as soon as there was enough light to see the pavement. Most of these pictures will be a little on the fuzzy side due to the lack of light. All of these photos I took looking towards the Nile. My run took me by several important downtown Cairo buildings including the Foreign Ministry and the Arab League. Security guards (fully armed) man stations at nearly every city block and photos are obviously frowned upon. I did not take any chances here.

Not in "Kansas anymore"...
From the Hotel, I headed south along the Nile for about 23 minutes and then doubled back. This is unusual in that going south actually means you go upriver, as the Nile flows northward towards the delta on the Mediterranean Sea. (Note: this is not the only river that does this - but obviously the most famous one) With the dim light at the beginning, the green lights glowing from the Minarets of the many Cairo Mosques can be clearly seen. Fundamental Islam is on the rise here despite the moderate Government lead by Hosni Mubarak. Nearly all the Egyptian women you see on the streets have head coverings and the number of women fully covered with burkas is on the rise.

Party Time!

Other sights included the many Nile riverfront hotels and dinner cruise ships. A Marriott can be seen on the right (so-so quality) photo along with the Nile Maxim dinner cruise ship. These ships, along with the small saiboats called Feluccas are all over the place.

Nice Sidewalk!
The sidewalk along the Nile was in good shape and I actually did see 1 group of 3 joggers during the run. In fact, I was actually pretty comfortable and I got less stares from the Egyptians than from the Romanians during my typical runs in Bucharest. Note that this is the center of tourism in Cairo, so this area is kept clean. The side streets quickly reveal how filthy this city really is.

The light began to improve and I snapped a pic at my turnaround point on a bridge. On the left is Rhoda Island on the river and you can see the Cairo Tower straight away in the center of the photo. I snapped a much better picture of the Cairo Tower on the way back. It is the first picture in this post. We visited Cairo Tower on Wednesday. It is the largest 100% concrete structure (no steel reinforcements at all) in the world.

It was a good run and the weather was perfect with temps in the low 60's I think. Maybe its good that I only did one run. No point in getting used to that weather now that I'm back in Bucharest.

Steve J in Cairo!

Hey all,

Just letting my massive blog audience know we arrived safely at 2:00 AM this morning. We spent the day doing a little recon of downtown Cairo either on foot or in a taxi.

I think its safe to say that this is the most NOT-run-friendly area I've ever seen. The traffic is so bad, it makes Bucharest look tame. Crosswalks are ignored by traffic. Cars will not slow down until you 2-3 meters into the street.

So, I don't want to make any promises. If I can get up early (and I feel lucky) I may do a short jog near the Nile, but we'll see.

Steve's winter weekday running haunt

Herestrau Park

With the shorter days of winter, it's now impossible to get my medium length (1 hr) weekday runs done before dark. Depending on the traffic, I usually get home with only 30-40 minutes of daylight left - and it's getting worse. So on Tuesday and Wednesday this past week, I drove directly from work to nearby Herestrau Park.

The international hood

Herestrau is one of the largest parks in the city. If it's not the largest, it is most likely the most well known. The park is located to the north of the city center. Situated around the park are some of the most expensive neighborhoods of the city and where you will also find a large group of international residents. My current parking location is just a few hundred yards from the Chinese embassy. Other embassies are nearby, so it is not uncommon to hear other languages besides Romanian - something I'm not used to hearing in my regular running spot, Titan Park, which is nearly all Romanian.

Activities galore

I visited the park earlier this year with Dana and Maria when we visited the Romanian Peasant Village which adjoins the park, but this is the first time I've run here. The park has a large lake which has a path that follows the shoreline and that's where I planned to do my running. The path is not just for walking and running. It allows access to the many restaurants, boat rentals, and other businesses at the water's edge. You can see a couple of them in photo #2 on the right.

In addition to being a cultural center, the park is also a bit of a sports mecca also. The picture on the left below shows domes for indoor tennis, while on the right you will see the Diplomat Club, which in includes the city's only golf course and an olympic sized swimming pool. It has 9 holes and is one of the few courses in all of Romania. I think the sport will be slow to catch on though. At about $20-$25 for eighteen holes, the cost is about 1/3 of the average Romanian's weekly take home pay.

As for the running, I was quite pleased. The pavement of the path is good by Bucharest standards. The park itself is pretty scenic and surprisingly quiet despite the crowded streets nearby. The fair weather crowds are nearly gone now in late November, with only the dedicated young-couples-in-love remaining; and they are usually are too busy to notice me, ha ha ha.

The other big plus was the lack of dogs. I'm guessing this place gets more attention from the dogcatchers due to the important people living around it. There are a couple of nice bridges over the small bays around the lake. One lap around the lake is 3.75 miles. I did 2 laps on Tuesday and 1 lap on Wednesday (a much nicer day) with the camera.

Of course, it wouldn't be a running post for Bucharest without the usual risk of serious injury. In order to get completely around the lake, you have to cross this really old railroad bridge. Ok, when I say really old, I was being generous. It's actually falling apart and they are building a new bridge next to it, but it isn't done:

The first thing I had to do was climb up this muddy embankment. Then I had to cross the old bridge, doing this little balance beam type running that they don't tell you about in the running books. Amazingly, before I crossed I saw an actual warning sign, which is an unusual sight at Romanian construction sites. Of course, as a true Bucharest resident, I promptly ignored it and crossed anyway. Don't worry, right before I ran across I performed a detailed structural analysis of the bridge. I stepped on the edge of the first plank and jumped up and down a few times. After that, I pronounced it "structurally sound".

Coming up...Steve runs Egypt!

No Way!.......Way, we are off to Cairo on Tuesday for 5 days. Stay tuned.

The Contest: And the winner is....

I'll let Falco make the announcement:
Chuck R was able to "correctly-enough" guess the event. He had a little mistake, but he saved his guess by providing the winner of last years race (Clue #1) - that way I knew he had the right one. I think Chuck is going to pick prize #1 (Lemon-Lime) unless he waffles in the next 24 hours.

Runner-up Ashley was 2 minutes late, but he'll get a prize as well.

Note of Thanks

Good job fellas, and thanks to all of my loyal readers for participating!!! Comments to my blog are always welcome, even if there isn't a contest going on...Hearing from different people is fun and gives this slightly homesick runner something to look forward too....

Clue Wrap-up

Clue #6 was the Austrian Singer Falco, singing "Rock Me Amadeus", his rap tribute to Mozart (Clue #2). Falco also is the orginal singer of "Der Kommisar", which was done in German, the language of Austria. Falco, like Marie Antoinette (Clue #5), was born in Vienna, the race city. Mozart was born in Saltzburg, but lived and died in Vienna.

Steve's Race

The perfect answer I was looking for was "Wien-Energie Halbmarathon", which was won last year by Charles Ngolepns from Kenya with super fast time of 1:01:07 (about 10 minutes faster than the winner of the Romanian race I did this year). This is a huge event with lots going on
including 4 shorter races, one of which Maria will will get to do for her European race debut.

The City

Vienna looks like a cool city to visit. We are also planning on at least one day trip to Prague or Munich to add another city/country to the trip!

I guess that's it for The Contest, I'll let Falco wrap things up with what could be my Spring Half Marathon themesong....

Clue #6

Ok folks, here we have the original singer of the song covered in the English language by the group After the Fire in Clue #3 (He also had a video, but it is so bad, I decided not to use it - you can find it on YouTube).

Now this song, which many consider to be the first song in the"rap" genre to hit #1 on the pop charts in the mid 1980's, is a tribute to the dude pictured on Clue #2.

This singer, the guy in clue #2, and the woman in Clue #5 all have something in common - besides being dead...they all lived in Steve's race city at some point.

Clue #5

A old hottie (that's how she's played in her movie appearances anyway - you gotta love hollywood) with some help for you,

If you don't know the city after this clue, things look bleak for you...you must hope for a mistake by the leaders today.

Tomorrow's clue, if necessary, is a video clue which will help those still stumped by clues #2 and #3.

Clue #4

A monologue....

Maria is very excited about this race. She is excited because she also gets to race on the same day. She has already run a 1 mile race and a 5k in 2005, so I expect this 2k distance to be no problem. We will have to make sure we are careful with the Champion Chip, so it doesn't fall off my little running partner's shoe like it did during the 1 mile race last year.

A critical clue for those lucky enough to be farther along....

Tomorrow, another picture clue to help bring the back-of-the-pack folks closer to the front of the guessing race...

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).

Clue #3

Although some 80's music knowlege would be a plus, if you can utilize google, you should be good to go...and take a big step towards figuring it out.

The Contest, Clue #2

A little retro, but this dude is stylin'

Guesses to the previous post (11/14) will no longer count.

Let the guessing for Clue #2 begin!

Clue #3 (a video clue) will be posted in 24-48 hrs.