GPS-less in Bucharest (again)

Just checking in. I haven't posted lately for a couple reasons.

#1. We've been busy camping with the missionaries from Stepping Forward again at Camp Living Water on the weekends, so I haven't done any interesting long runs.

#2. My runs have really been boring since being kissed by the gypsy lady.

#3. Finally, I'm depressed since my fancy schmancy GPS watch bit the dust (again). I don't know what the cause of the problem is, but it died just like last year. As Yogi Bera said "It's like deja-vu, all over again"

But other than that, things are fairly normal here. The weather is warming quickly and its been in the 70's pretty much all week. Spring proceeds quickly into summer during the month of May here, so I expect we'll be seeing 80 degree temps soon. If nothing else blog worthy happens soon, we will at least have my race-guessing contest to fall back on in May for filler material.

Steve J out.

The party's over, for now...

So I'm back in Bucharest after a fun weekend in the really cool city of Brussels. Sometimes it is a letdown returning to Bucharest after running in the cleaner, more modernized Euro-cities, but you have to press on. Besides, those other really nice cities are also REALLY expensive which would put a serious dent in my travel budget if I worked there. Besides, with Spring in full swing, things are looking up in Bucharest. The trees are really filling out now and this does wonders for this city's appearance. Here's a quick recap of my runs on Wed and Saturday.

Wednesday: Kiss of the Gypsy Woman

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.

They're Back!

Ok, so I got my little "bit-o-sugar" from the gypsy lady and I was ready to run. It was a really nice day and after about 2 miles I was feeling normal again as I headed around Titan Lake. Unfortunately, as I reached the sunny bank of the lower lake, I looked up the hill and my run was ruined. Yes, the out-of-shape middle-aged Romanian speedo-wearing men are back. For some reason, when the weather warms up, these dudes start dropping clothes. I can still see Wednesday's fine specimen with his baby blue speedo like it was yesterday - nice.

Saturday's Long Run

I've been taking it easy since the race, but today it was time to get back into my training mindset. I've already picked out my late Summer/early Fall goal race which is another Half-Marathon. So, first priority is to restart my weekly long run (90 minutes or more), a critical training component for most distance racing. (Don't worry the guessing contest will happen - I have to get some research done and hope to have it ready for May)

Plant a tree, Drink a beer?

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.

Well, that about wraps up the running in Bucharest this week. I will probably get another 4-6 miler in tomorrow (Sunday) to finish this week in the the mid 20's for total miles. It's a nice start towards building my base so I can smash my Vienna time in the next race.

Brussels Part Deux

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".

Bois de la Cambre

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!

This was much nicer than my run yesterday since this park is big enough to minimize the noise of the nearby city traffic. There are lots of hills here though, so it was a good workout for the 3+ miles I spent inside the park. Now, my only challenge is not to be depressed when I return to Parcul Titan in Bucharest.

Steve J runs Brussels!

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.

Anyway, after I somehow fit in supper at our apartment I was ready for a run (Ok, that's not quite true. I had to make a quick run to the store to buy the next morning pastries ahead of time - then I was ready). I decided to visit two parks in the modern section of Brussels instead of trying to get through the historic section. At 6:45 PM the historic district would be packed in with tourists on very narrow streets - not good for running. You should be able to get plenty of pics of this area on the family blog in the next few days.

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.

From there, I headed down one of the "urban canyons" of downtown Brussels to the next park, Parc Du Cinquantenaire. The traffic was heavy, but unlike Bucharest, there was actually order in the roads and the sidewalks where clear of parked cars (and traffic!). So, it was pretty easy to run downtown. I saw this bridge thing near one of the EU buildings that I thought was neat.

This park is in the shape of a simple house drawing and comes to point on the east side. Here there are a couple of massive structures which are now two big museums. 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.

Both of these parks have really nice landscaping, but I can't be filling my "manly" running blog with pictures of flowers and other "girly" stuff. If you want that you can go back to the family blog, got it? I did take a picture of this castle sculpture thing for you though:

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).

Steve gets company for a day

Hey all,

We're in Brussels, Belgium right now, but I haven't run yet. We're heading to Antwerp for the day, but I may be able to get one in when we get back. Check the family blog for all the trip details that the Helpmeet throws up there this weekend.

Week Wrap-up

A quiet week of running in Bucharest this week. Temperatures are gradually warming up with the 60 degree mark getting more common. I have been taking it easy since the half marathon and just enjoying the weather and getting some slow miles in.

The most fun I had running this week was Wednesday. For this week's run with missionary John Lewis, he brought a couple of friends with him to Herastrau Park. They were two Germans named Dirk (far right) and Simon (far left) who were in town for the week. Both live near Munich. The older one, Dirk, has run several marathons and is a long distance specialist. The youngster, Simon, was a running rookie so we took it slow - and he did just fine. 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).

Vienna Race Wrap-Up

Maria's smoking 1.2k

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.

Maria's time: 6:09 for 1.2 km (equivalent to a 8:07 minute per mile pace!)

She placed 8th of 21 girls (her age) and 24th of 75 girls (ages 6 to 10).

Pretty cool. I am a proud daddy in case you couldn't tell. By the way, Maria's friends who traveled with us, Alexa (1st in her age group) and Florin (5th in his group) Bucur also did really well.

Miscellaneous Race Notes

If you're a real devoted Steve J fan like these Austrian gals who are shown here encouraging Steve J on Sunday:

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).

Running Geek Stuff

Finally, for my running buddies, here is a nice running-geek graph from my fancy schmancy GPS watch data:

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?

Steve J's crazy Austrian Half

Pre-race "preparation" by bus.

First, let me write a wrap up of what will probably go down in history as my worst pre-race preparation ever. On Friday night after my last blog post, we settled in for a wonderful 4-5 hours of sleep. We got up at 3:00 am Saturday morning to get ready for the Bucur family to pick us up and get us to the bus station at the outskirts of Bucharest. By 6:00 am, the bus left for our 23.5 hour ride. I did my best to loosen up after every bus stop and Maria and I did a few short sprints in the Romanian city of Sibiu at about 2 pm (6 hrs in) on Saturday. I did my best to stay hydrated without overdoing it (the bus had no toilet - got it?). Thanks to the Helpmeet, I did have my pre-race pasta dinner on the bus since she brought some ziti's and grilled chicken along. We were near the Romanian border town of Adad by about 10:00 pm (14 hrs in). The Helpmeet was really cool. She let me get my own two seats while she sat with Maria so I could try to sleep (I sleep very poorly on any moving object). Unfortunately, a whole bunch of people boarded the bus at Adad and there were no empty seats on the bus. A Romanian kid took the seat next to me and ended up sleeping ON me for most of the night - nice. I may have slept for 4 hours Saturday night, but since I kept waking up every half hour to push this kid off me (personal space please!), I think 4 hours of sleep is a generous estimate.

In Vienna, finally!

We arrived in Vienna at 5:30 am Sunday only 4.5 hours from race time. I navigated our group to the apartment at 6:30 am. I did get to lay down for 30 min while Dana and Maria went out and scrounged up some coffee, croissants and a "red bull" energy drink for me to have before the race. At 9:00 we headed to the tram stop and then the U-bahn (subway) to the race. We saw a guy wearing running clothes and I asked him about where the race number and chip pickup was. He was Austrian, but spoke great English and was really friendly. The race started right at Vienna's largest shopping mall, called Donauzentrum.

Race Start

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.

I don't know if it was the adrenaline or the "red bull" I guzzled on the U-bahn, but I felt surprisingly good when I started running. After all, this is supposed to be fun! The Sun was out and the temp was right around 50 degrees with no wind. After 36 torturous hours of getting to this race, I was finally relaxed.

The Course

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.

My fancy schmancy GPS watch was the bomb. It was my first race running with this watch and it won't be the last. In addition to the really geeky map plots (see below), it really was useful for me to keep my pace in control. In a large race like this, you are constantly trying to get running room in the beginning and you tend to run too fast. My watch was set to "avg mile pace" so I could watch my pace during each mile.

The Numbers!

Finally, the moment you've been waiting for! From the really cool race site, here's the official chip data: (click on "Ergebnislisten" if you're bored at work today)

First 7 km: 35:23 (8:09 per mile pace)

Second 7 km: 34:03 (7:49 per mile pace)

Third 7 km: 32:10 (7:24 per mile pace)

FINISH TIME: 1:41:37

(566 place out of 1469 finishers, 124 out of 24o in age group).

In case your wondering, the Kenyans did not run this year and an Austrian (Roman Weger) won the race with a "slow" time of 1:04:36 (slow, yeah right). But who cares about him, when you can watch me near the finish:

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.

I hope you guys enjoyed my race post. I may post again with some final thoughts and running geek stuff, but we're off to make the most of our last 24 hours here in this really cool race city of Vienna.

Ok, so I really needed a challenge....

Well, it's Friday night at 7:30 pm and you might think I'm typing this from my apartment in Vienna, getting anxious for the race. WRONG! We missed the flight from the airport today. No Joke. I'm back at our apartment in Bucharest. We (the supposedly seasoned travelers) arrived at the airport 2 hrs before our flight (at one of Europe's smallest international airports) and STILL MISSED IT. It's a long story, and I'll leave it to the lovely helpmeet to tell you about it on the family blog - as soon as she recovers from the shock and horror!

For my first Half-Marathon last October, we took an 8 hr train ride the day before and arrived at dinner time the day before the race. That wasn't the ideal preparation, but I still ran good. Now this is going to top that experience BIGTIME! We had few options, but thanks to the Bucur family and their friend Liliana, we came up with a way to get to Vienna before the race.

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!

Back up and runnin'

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.

Unless something unusual happens, the next post will feature my Vienna running experience!

Stumbling at the finish line...

The week started out great with 3 days of running, but now I'm down again. Since Thursday, I've come down with "the crud" as they say in the Southern USA. I don't know if I've got a light cold, or if it's allergies caused by whatever is blooming right now. I've had no energy and this random cough which makes me sound like I'm 90 years old. With 2 weeks to go until the Vienna Half Marathon, this pretty much stinks. After 3 days of whining, I finally gave in and tried the Helpmeet's claritin last night, so hopefully that will kick in. I still have a nice chunk of miles logged in so far this year, so hopefully 1 bad week at the end won't do me in.

For my loyal readers (all 4 or 5 of you), I hope things will pick up on this blog, but who knows. Our travel season will be kicking in and the leaves on the trees will make better pictures in Bucharest (not the most photogenic city in winter, that's for sure).

Just checkin' in

Quick post today since this was a pretty uneventful running week. If you're bored, all the "partying" is happening on the family blog - or as Dana says "The cool blog". But hey, this is a running blog, so what did you expect?

Week of EZ running

OK, I admit I ran that 14 miler last Saturday a little too fast. I actually did run the next day for over 5 miles, but by Monday I felt pretty wore down. Since I'm a much less stupid runner than I was last year, I took 2 days off. I then decided to skip any speedwork this week and focus on some nice easy (EZ) pace running.

I hooked up with missionary friend John at Herestreau on Wednesday for a nice run after work. Temps were in the low 40's and it had rained that day, so the park was nearly deserted which was nice. After that, the weather improved bigtime for this weekend. For the long run today, I got out there at 6:20 am and it was already 50 F. I watched the sunrise and the city of Bucharest come alive in the early morning as I ran to (and around) Ceausescu's palace (Palace of Parliament) and then back home for a total 11 miles. Outside of a few comments (which I did not understand) from taxi drivers and several (non-violent) dog encounters, this run was pretty tame. I'll probably try to get a short run in tomorrow to finish up the week.

February Winds down: "Este frig afară!"

"It's cold outside!" in Romanian. A cold front blew in (and I really mean blew) on Friday and temperatures plunged into the teens overnight. It's 16 F right now early Sunday morning.

Week in Review...

Monday - Started the week with a nice easy run with Maria. If you remember, Maria will race one of the kid's runs after my half-marathon. We covered 2 miles in Titan Park in just over 20 min. The kids race is actually less than 2 miles, so Maria will have no problems.

Speed session interrupted

Tuesday was more interesting than normal. I was blasting out 6 x800 meter repeats on the decrepit all-weather track next to National Stadium. During my rest lap after the 3rd repeat I was stopped by the coach of a bunch of young "footballists" (soccer players - I just like that word). The ever helpful Romanian coach thought I was doing sprints and wanted me to get on my toes. Thankfully, I actually know enough Romanian now to explain to him that I was preparing for a half-marathon (semi-maraton in Romanian). He said "Ahhh" and left me alone.

On Wednesday, more perfect weather (it was in the 50's most of the week) for another run at Herastreau Park minus John who had father duties. I didn't run on Thursday, but we did do another "cross-training" session at the Ice skating rink in the National Park complex. You can check it out on the family blog. On Friday, the previously mentioned cold front showed up with 25 mile-per-hour winds, so I skipped my easy run that was scheduled that day.

LLLLLONG RRRRuuun SSSSaturday

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.

Once again, I did get interrupted on the track near National Stadium. There was one other hardy soul out there jogging, and he asked me how many laps I was going to do. I told him I didn't know and I was training for a semi-maraton. I think I got those particular words down pat now.

Here's some Romanian trivia for ya. Valentines day is starting to be observed here, but the traditional Romanian "lovers day" is actually today, Feb 24. It's called "Dragobete".

Anyway, I ran the first 10 miles or so easy and felt really great. At mile 10, I looked down at my fancy schmancy GPS watch and it basically told me to hurry up and see if I can finish a half-marathon distance in under 2 hrs. 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!

Steve's 12 for 12

First a quick recap of the week. This week was "Aşa să aşa" or so-so in Romanian. It wasn't a really great running week here in Bucharest, but it wasn't really bad either.

Monday's excuse: The weather turned seasonable cool to start the week. When that was combined with a late departure from work and a longer-than-average commute - this became an easy day to blow off.

Tuesday's excuse: I had a better reason to not run Tuesday. Somehow, I duplicated Dana's earlier "sleeping" injury and woke up with an awful catch in my neck. I could not turn my head to the right at all. I was in pain, cranky all day, yelling a my coworkers, etc etc. So there goes another lost day.

I got it together on Wed (8 mile) and Thursday (4 mile) with two pretty good runs as the weather (and my neck) improved.

Friday and Saturday: It got cold and windy again these days as a front came through. What is this, winter or something? Yes, I know - very lame, but I took a powder on both of these days too.

12 years of bliss, 12 miles of torture

To salvage the week, I decided I had to get the long run done on Sunday. If you've been keeping up with the family blog, then you know that Sunday was our 12th wedding anniversary. We didn't do anything special due to the amount of travel plans we have already made this year. However, we did get some big fat shoarma's at the City Mall for lunch.

I then had one of my great ideas. I'd run for 12 miles, 1 mile for every year of our awesome marriage. I'd use the time to mediate and thank God for the perfect Helpmeet that Dana is. So I headed out around 1 hour after lunch (keep this time in mind).

"Hello Steve, It's me, the shoarma"

Due to the cold weather and my lousy adventurous run last week, I decided to stay in Titan Park for this one. Everything went as planned for about 4 miles. At this time, the aforementioned shoarma began to talk to me from my belly - specifically it wanted out. The rest of this run was so torturous, I barely remember it. An old lady said something to me at one point with the Romanian word for 'run' in it, but I was too sick to translate the rest. About the only other thing I remember was keeping an eye on where I was in relation to the various port-a-potties scattered throughout the park. Somehow, I didn't puke even though I had to slow down to close to 10 min/mile in spots. Of course, stopping wasn't an option for an intelligent guy like me, and I did gut-it-out (nice pun, eh?) and finish the 12 miles.

Who would have thunk that devouring a 3/4 lb shoarma 1 hour before your long run is not a good fueling idea?

Steve's 10 mile "Run fit for Filth"

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.

What scenery!

I set out going south and made my way out of the city. After the 1st mile, the apartment blocs got smaller and smaller. By the time I was in mile 2, they were gone. The blocs gave way to small, mostly decrepit houses - some with gardens. The smell of fresh horse dung was in the air, and I could see a massive petro-chemical plant on my right.

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 first disappointment occurred when I reached the canal. The walkway on the north side of the canal has really been neglected in this area. Remember, we are in Bucharest, so when I say "neglected", I REALLY mean neglected. On this north side of the canal there were 2 lanes of traffic going east, so I headed west towards the traffic and tried to make the best of it. Broken pavement, trash and weeds were everywhere and I had to keep jumping off the walkway and into the road and then jump back up again. Traffic was flying past me as this little road basically becomes the Romanian autobahn once outside the city. My run in the country was anything but relaxing at this point. After a nerve-wracking mile of this, I began to look for a bridge so I could cross the canal and head against traffic on the way back.

The only good thing on this run was the lack of dogs. There were a few, but not as many as I expected. A group of 5 startled me at one point from across the road. I turned towards them and stopped, ready to do battle when they crossed the road (assuming all of them made it across). Just before they crossed however, I heard a whistle and they turned back. These strays were apparently semi-trained by a homeless person/dog herder, so that was a relief. I did see a few homeless people walking along the road with their belongings and several people fishing in the canal - and I have to assume they were fishing for food, not recreation (YUCK!).

I was quite relieved at mile 4 when I saw a lock ahead with a footbridge across the canal. The trash really builds up near the lock and the water smelled pretty ripe. I think it's quite safe to say that the canal which cuts through the center of Bucharest is one of the most polluted waterways in Europe and maybe the planet as well. I was happy to make my way across and start heading back - of course, things would get worse.

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 never thought I would be so happy to see the apartment blocs come into view. I'm glad I didn't try this run when I first got here, or I would have went straight to the mall and bought a treadmill. 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.

Week Wrap-Up

Well the "Carolina" winter has continued here in Bucharest and my running is going great overall. Temperatures were in the mid to upper 50's all week. After 2 miles today in what I now consider the spotlessly clean and perfect confines of Titan Park (ha ha ha) with Maria, I once again topped the 33 mile mark for the week. I started speedwork at Parcul National on Tuesday and cranked out 4 x 800 meter repeats at a speedy pace. I know I impressed the footballists (that's "soccer players" in Romanian) who were also doing some conditioning on the track. Wednesday was another nice run with John Lewis back at Herestreau park. John was coming off a 2-week layoff and had to work hard on this one. This was no problem as I able to handle most of the conversation griping about work the whole way. Thanks for listening John!

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!)