(2) A collection of good chocolate from here in Romania. (Ask Ashley if it's worth it)
(3) A 12 pack of Red Bull Energy Drink - endorsed by half marathon legend..Steve J. Yes, you can have the same drink that powered Steve J to 566th place in the Vienna Energie Halfbmarathon. This despite missing a flight and completing a 24 hr bus ride (including being slept-on by some Romanian kid) with no sleep right before the race. Steve J asks "Is it in you?"
If you don't have video, I snapped a pic from the video on the left that is priceless. As you can see, the pooch had a good lead on the yellow car before the caution flag came out...too bad.
Good jumping ability runs in the family as both myself (back in the day) and especially my not-so-little brother Dan can grab the rim on standard basketball goal. Height, however, does not - (thanks ma) so we won't switch Maria to B-ball anytime soon.
These past two weeks however, the scenery at the Parliament building has taken a turn for the worse due to a Formula 3 car race that is to be held on May 18-20. Right now, they are building this huge (and I really mean huge, no pictures will do it justice) conglomeration of temporary bleachers all around the building. It's basically a temporary NASCAR track that is completely built over the course of several weeks (for a 3 day event) and taken down over the course of several weeks every year. Of course this completely shuts off several major streets for traffic making the normal nightmare-ish commute even worse for a large section of the city. Ah yes, sounds efficient doesn't it? Unfortunately it gets worse.
So what was Vanghelie's great idea to improve the view of these spectators for 3 day once-per-year event? Yep, you guessed it...Let's just cut down all the 20-30+ year old trees which grow along the sidewalks around the race route!
By a wide margin, this is the most blog-worthy run this week, despite its short length (only 3 miles). The weather was excellent (near 70 F) and I walked outside of the bloc to stretch and give my training partner (yes, my fancy schmancy GPS watch) 1 minute to find all his favorite satellites. Anyway, there is this old gypsy woman that lives under our building in the utility area. (See the pic on the left which shows her abode, complete with a stray. She enters/exits from behind the green garbage can) She's really friendly, but difficult to understand - and mostly likely missing a few items upstairs if you know what I mean. I say hello to her often since I see her almost everyday going in and out of the building. So I was just doing a quick light stretch when I saw her come out of her little space. She usually just stays at the entrance and talks, but for some reason today, she came right up to me smiling and showing those not-so-pearly whites - about 1/2 dozen gold (or some other metal?) teeth. She was uncomfortably close to me (the Europeans don't understand the concept of personal space) going on and on about a bunch of stuff and I understood only a few words per sentence. She did ask me how far I was going to run and I replied "5 Km". She smiled and said a bunch of stuff - apparently impressed. Then, just when I was ready to take off, she planted a kiss right on my cheek!, said something and went back into her little space.
It was a spectacular day at the park today for my 10 mile run. The Sun was out, the wind was light and the temperature at 11:00 am was a perfect 64 or so. I noticed right away that Titan Park was packed. There was a huge group of volunteers planting trees in one of the bare sections of the park near the north side of the lake. This I thought was really cool. 
As you know from reading my blog (especially if you read my 10 mile trash run post), then you know that environmentalism, civic pride and cleanliness has a LONG way to go in Romania, especially Bucharest. Apparently the event was sponsored by Ursus, the most popular beer in Romania (think Budweiser with a bear instead of a Clydesdale) since all the volunteers had matching Ursus T-shirts on. Hey, if it takes a beer company to encourage some civic pride and clean up this town, I'm all for it.
The other major event going on was for children. Near the south side of the lake a stage was set up for Itsy and Bitsy and the kids were going wild. Itsy and Bitsy are alien bug-like things that DJ the kids radio station 99.3 FM. So how do I know this? I have to admit I listen to 99.3 a lot and not just for Maria. The station has been a big help for me to learn basic Romanian since all the conversation is at a level elementary kids can understand.
After a long day of walking (and of course, eating) in Bruges, we got back to the apartment and I decided to do a second run Monday evening. I decided to try to get away from the urban jungle and ran southeast towards a big green spot on my map called Bois de la Cambre. After about 1.5 miles uphill, I finally reached one of the entrances. I forgot my camera on the way out, so you have to deal with a few stock internet pictures and my geeky GPS plots, courtesy of my "training partner". 
This park is considered by some to be the nicest park in Brussels. According to Wikipedia: "The park layout was created in 1861 by Edouard Keilig, a German architect. Queen Marie-Henriette, wife of King Leopold II, often went horse-riding in the park." It is a huge park with many paths, athletic fields and a nice small scenic lake. There were all kinds of sports going on in the fields. I saw soccer (of course), cricket and others. At one point I even saw a few discs in the air, including some "flick" and "hammer" throws - the tell-tale signs of Ultimate Frisbee players. They were just fooling around though - if there was a game on, my run would have ended right there!
Late Saturday after we got back on the train from our Antwerp visit, I decided to head out for a run. It was probably the worst weather day of the trip with 50 degrees and partly cloudy, but not too bad. Seriously, after the nonstop eating all day on Saturday, I really felt like I had to do something. Just FYI, if you want to get started on a low calorie food thing, this is NOT the country to visit first. Brussels is not only the capital of the European Union (EU), it is also the food capital of Europe - possibly the planet. There are restaurants and snack bars (including moving ones) everywhere! The best is that you don't have to eat at a 4 star place and spend 100 Euro to get something good. What I love about the Belgians is that they appreciate the value of a top quality snack. Yes, this is a Steve J kind-of-place.
My first destination was Parc de Bruxelles to the north, which is situated in the city center directly in front of the Palais Royal (which I got a couple pictures of). Parc de Bruxelles is a rectangular shaped park with several wide lanes criss-crossing through it. 
The park is about 1 mile around the outer perimeter and the surface is hard-packed gravel/dirt. I would imagine the local business people and diplomats who run use this park frequently.
Also, they have frequent displays of art and other cultural stuff here too. Today, they had a display of really interested aerial photos taken from around the planet.
The one that interested me was the Military museum. It had guns and stuff outside it and hey - I'm a guy, so anything with guns involved must be cool.
Brussels is a fairly compact and crowded city with alot of old and new architecture. From one of the highest points of the run (near the Crown Plaza Hotel) I took this shot that can give you an idea of what I'm talking about:
All in all, it was nice slow meandering 1o Km run and I somehow finished it in about an hour despite numerous stops to take photos. I did have to get used to the gradual, but long inclines and declines here. Brussels feels very hilly compared to flat-as-a-pancake Bucharest. I hope you appreciate the mental toughness it takes to do a run like this, especially with these things located every 300-500 meters: 
Hope you enjoyed this run as I added another country to my list. Don't forget to click on all the hyperlinks if need more background info (meaning you're bored at work today).
I know a lot of people who think Germans are serious non-funny people, but I had plenty of evidence Wednesday to show that this is not true. I'm just glad John didn't feed them mici before the run, or it could have been much, much worse (inside joke, that's all I'm gonna say).
Maria totally rocked her race. We only got a couple of training runs in for this race due to our busy schedules here (Maria has gymnastics 5 days a week). At the starting line, the group was tightly packed with the 75 girls in the race. Although she was tired from our bus ordeal, Maria handled things really well. She started at a moderate pace and kept her discipline for the first loop, letting the fast-starters get ahead. On the second loop, she picked it up and was just blowing by girls like crazy. On top of that, she fought off a runners stitch (pain in the stomach area) in the process.
but you couldn't make it to the race, this website had photo's and a couple of videos. Just click on "Wien-Energie Halbmarathon Teil 1" and "Teil 2" - then select either video, photo, or slideshow icons. Also, outrageously expensive race photos can been seen here at this website. Just click on the "Wien Energie Halbmarathon 25 Mar 07" and enter in our race numbers (Maria: 4016, Me: 184, Florin: 4017 and Alexa 4018).
The race goodie bag was a real nice haul. In addition to the medal and the T-shirt, they had powerade and plenty of food (sandwich, donut, fruit).
As you can see my pace dropped steadily for the first 9 miles, then I slowed a bit at the finish. I probably should have run the first mile slower, but I guess I was pumped up by the crowd, the "Red Bull" I drank and hearing the music "LET'S GET LOUD" at the race start "HEY HEY HEY" - I have that in my head now. The last mile took FOR-ever and I really had to bear down to stay below 8 minutes for the pace. I may have been a little too aggressive in the beginning with my lack of sleep - or I just ran out of gas. However, although it wasn't perfect, I'm pretty pleased with the effort as a whole.
Looking Ahead
I've had a bit more time now to reflect on the race. It will be difficult for me to run another race in Romania (especially if it features such exciting options such as running in traffic like last October) . My perspective has changed after running a really cool, well organized race like this one. Also, unlike the Romanian race, they had real water at the aid stations and not the carbonated stuff. I stopped at every one except the first. Vienna is known for its super clean water and they served the racers right from the fire hydrants after mixing in some electrolytes. So, no offense to my Romanian friends, I think my Fall goal race will be out-of-country if we're still here.
I think another edition of the "Where is Steve racing next" blog race-guessing contest may be in the near future. What do you think?
The place was a mad house, but a well-organized mad house. With 1500+ runners and their friends and families, you're going to have a crowd no matter what. We cut things a little close and I almost forgot to pick up my timing chip. Gabby, after watching many runners doing warm-up runs, asked me if I was going to warm up. There was just no time so I told him I do my warm-up during the race (I said this confidently to make him think I actually knew what I was doing). After dumping my clothes and stuff on Dana, I hustled to the start and tried to find a spot in the middle of the pack. All the announcements were in German, so the only thing I understood was the starting horn.
The race course was really nice. It was a loop with 3 laps around the "Alte Donau" which translates Old Danube. I think it's a lake which was part of the nearby Danube river before it was diverted for flood control (If you're German is really good, just click the link for details). I like the 3 laps because I could see my six person "fanclub" at each 1/3 of the race and that was great encouragement.
With all the trouble pre-race (sickness from last week and especially the weekend travel disaster), I was really happy with this time. I chopped over 5 minutes from my first Half-Marathon in October.
And No, I'm not kidding. At approximately 3:45 am tomorrow (Saturday) we are heading off to catch a bus. The bus will leave Bucharest at 6:00 am Saturday) and arrive in Vienna at................5:30 am (Sunday - RACE DAY)!!!!!! Yes, a 24 hour bus ride that will end about 4 1/2 hours before the starting gun sounds at my Half Marathon.
I just may have to adjust my expectations a bit, but I'm still gonna run this thing! If you're not a praying-type person reading this - start, please!
It took a full week, but I'm finally getting over this nasty little head cold I had all last week. Nearly everyone a work had a taste of this bug. About the only satisfaction I got was spreading it to Bob, who is sharing my office until the end of the month. Just kidding - I hope he can kick it this weekend. While I was down-n-out, things were blooming at the park. I brought my camera along this morning to Titan Park for a slow (really slow) jog. There's nothing like a few pics to distract from this do-nothing blog.
Cool little winter project. This is an outdoor amphitheatre they started building in November. I thought it was strange back then since winter was about to start. However, with all the awesome weather we had this winter, they had no problem getting it done. I guess they'll have children's shows there, but I'm not sure.
For this week, the plan is 20-25 miles of easy running finishing up on Wed or Thursday to stay fresh for the race on Sunday. Hopefully the training I did before I got sick will pay off, and I'll beat my time from last fall - we'll see.
I would have to go back and check my records, but this was the coldest day I think I've run in Romania since I've been here. After a trip to Selgros and the fornetti stand located inside for some fuel, the temperature on the Internet read 19 F with a wind chill of about 6 F. The sun was out though, so I don't think it was that bad - it had to be at least 20 F when I started. I had to bundle up with most of my cold weather gear (sorry ladies, no pictures of me in the running tights) but I was actually pretty comfy. I wandered all over my home base of National Park and Titan Park. A few hardy old folks and dog-walkers were out strolling, but that's about it. The teenagers were nowhere to be found on a day like this.
I did just that, finishing 13.1 in 1:59 and then cooling down for a 14 mile total. With a month to go before the Vienna race, I feel good!
For Saturday's long run, I was feeling adventurous. I decided I would head south - outside the city for a nice run in the countryside along the canal. You see, we are located in the southeastern portion of the city, so I figured it would only be about 2-3 miles running to leave the city.
I ran under a massive formation of high-tension power lines before I reached the canal. I could hear the buzzing from the power lines as I passed and figured since I was probably glowing at this point, it would make me easier to see on the road (Note: you can ask Dana, who was quite un-nerved by the buzzing when we drove back for these pics). Ah yes, the sounds and sights of the "country".
My happiness was short-lived as I headed back east on the southern side of the canal. The walkway on this side was even worse, forcing me into the road for long stretches. The other side of the road was unbelievably disgusting as well. Trash was piled up over 5 ft high along the road. It looked like the road was carved through a dump when they had made it. I picked up the pace, anxious to get off this highway and back into the city. It was at this point that I realized my biggest mistake. At mile 7, I reached my starting point on the canal which was great, right? WRONG! I was on the opposite side of the canal and there was no bridge where I started from, duh! I decided to press on, running against traffic and hoping that another bridge wasn't too far ahead. Thankfully, about 1 mile away was another bridge and I crossed back over.
I give this area an 8/10 on the Steve J's FILTH-O-METER. Remember, it's not easy to impress me with filth. I've been to Panama City and Cairo which are a couple of the most filthy cities on Earth. So I know filth when I see it.
