The Countryside of Venice

So we're back in Italy for what will likely be the last time for a long while. With our cruise leaving from Venice tomorrow, we're pretty much resting at the Venice Resort Hotel near the airport. With a late flight, it was much easier to get here - and alot cheaper to stay than the Venice Island hotels. However, besides its proximity to the airport, this hotel has really turned out to be a cool place for a runner to bed down. The hotel is a converted farm and is located right next to many square miles of country on the outskirts of the mainland Venice suburb of Mestre. It's a perfect place for another Steve J run - Italian style!

Farm runnin' is the place for me....

With the late night arrival (on a delayed flight), running this morning was out of the question. This forced me to go for a high noon running departure. At 92 F, it was a little bit cooler than Bucharest, but the 55% humidity at this hour negated the advantage. Although not as bad as Florida, Venice is not the driest of places in Italy for sure. With a little help from Google maps beforehand, I set out with my GPS "buddy" and hit a country road called Pezzana. The sun-baked road is surrounded by mostly soybean fields and some good looking corn which was well over 6 ft high. With a rare shade tree every now and then, it was stinking hot! Besides the heat, the only snag was that I had to divert my route when the road dead-ended into some kind of military barracks. I saw some tractor paths which were obviously on private land, but I decided to give it shot anyway. After all, I could either play the dumb foreigner (I'm really good) or count on my Italian heritage as a last resort if I got in any trouble.

Hot as it was, the run was quite peaceful. There were only 2 cars during the whole 4 miler that passed me. The flat-as-a-pancake fields with irrigation canals dividing them up could have easily passed for inland Florida farm country. Well, that's all for now. There is a chance I could squeeze in another mainland Italy run tomorrow before we head to the ship. After that, any miles I get next week will have to come on my portable track called Splendor of the Seas courtesy of Royal Caribbean. See ya!

No problem...It's just a dry heat

Yeah right! Just got back from a 4 miler after work today. There was a nice breeze and the humidity was only 17%. However, when it's 96 F in the shade, I'm just not buying this dry heat theory. Why I made this decision to run today instead of waiting until tomorrow morning, I have no idea.

Jet Lag Just Stinks!

Well my 1 week leave in New York was really nice. Got to see the Helpmeet and daughter as well as "the folks" on my side of the family. It was great to see everyone and get a short 7-day infusion of the good ole U.S. of A. I miss it. I even knocked out some decent running miles too, with my repaired fancy-schmancy GPS watch back in action! I should say the week was great until I got back here. I had my worst case of jet lag ever - wide awake almost every night from 10:30 PM until 1:00 am (or 2), yuck! My running routine took a kamikaze style nose dive, not only due to this, but a loss of motivation caused by the next thing....

Budapest Can Wait

Yes it's true. Steve's Fall Euro-running goal is no more. With our departure from Romania (Dana and Maria would be leaving for good only 5 days after the race) close at hand, as well as a leetle uncertainty with the job situation back in the US, we thought it would be the wise decision to table this one. So, my next round of motivation will have to come from an American race of some sort, which isn't such a bad thing, eh? My poor contest winner, Allison will have to survive with some good Euro-chocolate instead of a cool Hungarian thingy. Can you deal ok, Al?

Steve J vs various animals

So where have I been? Feel free to check up on my recent family blog post for June. I've been helping out with the missionaries from Stepping Forward each weekend as they prepare for the 2nd orphan camp-out this coming August. Although these missionaries will work you like crazy, I did take advantage of the late-sleepers in the group and got a couple of early morning 5 milers done at camp:

The place where the camp is situated is gorgeous. It reminds me alot of Cades Cove in the Smokey Mountain National park.

Race #1: Steve vs Horse cart

Last Saturday's run was the most interesting of my camp runs. I've been running a simple 5 mile route, going 2.5 miles down the road, turning around, and going back. I was running easy on Saturday when I approached the turnaround point. When I got there a tandem horse cart was approaching. As I turned around I noticed a teenager at the controls of the 2-horse cart. I looked at him - then he looked at me - Yep, IT WAS SO ON!!!

I turned around and bolted back towards camp. After about 1 mile he started closing. News Flash for Steve J - horse carts are faster than you think! A few minutes later he blew by me on a downhill and I was eating horse cart dust. Although my ego was a bit bruised I picked it up and started to catch him on a long uphill stretch. I was really working hard trying to catch him when I got a break. A rabbit hopped across the road in front of the cart. For some reason, the kid stopped the cart and walked into the field to tried to follow this rabbit. What was he thinking? Anyway, when he did that I broke into a long sprint to-the-finish back at camp. Yeah, it was a cheap win - but I'll take it.

Meanwhile, back in Bucharest

With very busy weekends working at camp, I've had to squeeze most of my runs into 4 days during the week in Bucharest. Running in Bucharest is pretty depressing after running in the countryside. And worse, it's hot!! The Romanians were right that the mild winter (where Steve J racked up the miles) foretold a hot summer. After several 90+ days last week, I switched back to early morning pre-work running. My most interesting run in the last two weeks was definitely Wednesday.

Race #2: Steve J vs Dogs

Running during the early morning in Bucharest does help to avoid the heat and the traffic. Unfortunately, it brings a higher level of dog activity since the strays haven't quite settled down after a long night of barking, biting and all the other things that dogs do. On Wednesday, I headed toward Titan Park for an easy 3 mile run. I approached the gate a restaurant called Casa Rustica which has a large outdoor seating area. There are several "restaurant strays" that hang out here and, as far as I can tell, they all HATE ME. As I passed the open gate, I made eye contact with 2 strays who were laying down, but not quite asleep yet. Uh oh! In a split second, they growled, jumped up and headed right at me. I panicked and instead of stopping and facing the 2 strays, I decided to make a run for it. I took off in a no-holds-barred, full-speed, hide-the-women-and-kids, all-out sprint down this Bucharest street! I hoped to get out of the "restaurant" territory and thus the dogs would lose interest. After about 30 yards, the dogs had closed to about 10 feet - they were going nuts, barking like crazy. So, there I was going full speed with my red tank top, shorts and flaming red shoes in the middle of Bucharest (in retrospect, wearing all red was probably not the best thing). I'm sure this provided no small amount of entertainment to the Romanian commuters and pedestrians waiting at the nearby bus stops across the street.

The good news was that the dogs gained no more ground, and after about 20-30 more yards they either gave out (these are well fed strays) or lost interest and stopped. I was pumping my fist like Tiger Woods when I entered the park - Take That You Canine Scum! How do like me now? Heh heh heh. So there you have it. Two races, two different animals - two victories! Chad Johnson is jealous I'm sure.

Well, I'm off the states for a 1 week leave. See you in July!

A moment of silence...

To reflect on the accomplishments of Steve J, who hammered out mile #500 during a 6.2 mile run in Titan Park yesterday. Wooo Whooo!

Some stats for the first 500 miles of 2007:

Number of countries included in the 500 miles: 3 (Romania, Austria, Belgium)

Number of dog bites: 0 (Thankfully only a few close calls)

Number of pairs of shoes used: 5 (Yes, I am a "shoe junkie" and have promised myself not to buy any more until 3 of those pairs are "retired)

Avg miles per day in 2007: 3.3 (or 23.1 miles per week).

Number of times kissed by the old gypsy lady: 1 (enough said - 1 is plenty)

It was fitting to get mile 500 on my run yesterday. It was one of those days that I just didn't feel like running. I was tired and just a little moody (might have something to do with Dana and Maria heading off to the states tomorrow). Let's face it, I wouldn't be sitting at 500 miles right now if I only ran when I "felt like it". Substitute that 500 miles for one of your goals, and you'll get the little life lesson here. What genius, eh? I should become a "life coach" or something.

The Contest Episode II - We have a winner!

Well folks, the contest is over already. Seemingly out of nowhere, faithful reader Allison nailed it after Clue #2. She avoided a nearly fatal mistake on Clue #1, when she made a 2nd guess that had the answer. However, thanks to my dwindling pool of readers, it wasn't caught.

So Allison gets to chose from our prize list (1) Budapest mystery prize (2) Romanian Chocolate or (3) red bull.

Allison corrected guessed:

22nd Nike Budapest International Halfmarathon, Sept 2, 2007

This is a huge race that had around 6000 runners last year. Maria and I will run a 5k together on Saturday Sept 1, and Sunday Sept 2 will be the race. I'm expecting to leave Romania in September so this should be my Euro road-race finale. Also, the Bucur family, who joined us in Vienna is expected to make the trip also.

The Contest, CLUE #2

Guessing on CLUE #1 is now closed, so on with Clue #2

This one's a little tricky.

This guy was born in Steve J's race city, but spent nearly all his life in the good old USA and became a legend (and arguably the greatest ever) in his profession.

Rule Reminder ----for those (cough...Allison...cough) who need it:
You only get one guess per post and the name of the race must be right.

Clue #3 will be out on Thursday.

The Contest Episode II, Where in the world is....

Steve gonna race next?

Background (This is Clue #1)

Time to see who is still reading my blog! Although this blog is not dead yet, then end is near with my return to the USA looming in early fall. However, there is still time to squeeze in a cool late summer Euro race (and the trip that goes with it). Needless to say, this cool race (and race city) meets all the requirements of last Spring's Vienna race. The requirements: We have not yet been to this city, the airfare was cheap and the August-Sept time frame is perfect for our last weekend get-away before heading back across the pond for good.

How to win

Once again, my challenge to you is guess (1) the city I will race in (2) the exact name of the race (It's publicized in English, so this won't be as difficult).

The first one to post a comment with the answer will win...(drum roll)

The Prize

Take your pick of (1) or (2) or (3).

(1) A mystery prize from the race city (even I don't know what it's going to be)

(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?"

The Rules

Place your guess by commenting to the blog. Starting today, you get 1 guess per comment. If you are "blogger challenged" and are unable to leave a comment, email your guess to me at sjutton@yahoo.com. Make sure you name is in the comment, especially if you post as "anonymous" on blogger.
Note: You snooze you lose. You can only guess to the current post. You cannot go back and add a guess to an old post.

The first person to correctly guess the city and race wins!

Let the guessing begin!

(Clue #2 will be posted Monday - yes I am dragging this out).

No Surprise here!

I had my long run Saturday and had to detour around the Formula 3 race that was going on. While I was running, I missed a great show put on by a stray dog that nearly disrupted the race.



He definitely disrupted the commentator as you can see and hear if you have the ability to play video. What is shocking is that he actually says "This is not normal for Bucharest" (YEAH RIGHT!). I'll try to check my translation at work tomorrow to be sure. He also says later "This is not OK" in Romanian.

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.

If this picture doesn't sum up what it's like to live and run in Bucharest, then I don't know what does. Of course, I have some competition for the best Bucharest photo - just check the family blog's post for Sunday.

This girl's got "ups"!

Cool photo of year. Check out my daughter going airborne while practicing her floor exercise for Romanian Nationals: 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.

Environmental NON-stewardship in Bucharest

Remember my recent post about all the tree-planting at Titan Park? Well, some areas of Bucharest are going in the opposite direction. For my last two long runs (today and last Saturday), I've ran to the huge Parliament Building which we talked about in earlier posts on my blog and the family blog last year.

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.

The bleachers are only temporary and will be gone in June - so that's tolerable I suppose. However, according to news reports, the mayor of Bucharest Sector 4 (Vanghelie) came up with a stroke of genius to improve the view of once-per-year race spectators. (FYI, the city of Bucharest is divided into 6 sectors that look like pie pieces and has no less than 6 different mayors - the efficiency of big government never ceases to amaze me).

Anti-Arbor day in Sector 4

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!

From HotNews.ro: "The Cultura magazine claims Bucharest District 4 mayor Vanghelie is the one to have ordered all trees along the racing route cut down in order to improve the view of the spectators. He allegedly promised to replace them as soon as possible, but that is unlikely as such events will start all over again next year."

Fantastic! Forget about the 3 million other people who live in Bucharest for the other 362 days of the year. You know, the ones that actually inhabit the dustiest capital city in Europe and one with some of the smallest amounts of green space - we have a car race to put on and 40-800 Euro seats to sell!

"The amount of dust in Bucharest is over ten times larger than in other European capital cities, one of the reasons being the disappearance of around 60 per cent of the green spaces over the past 16 years, ....‘The quantity of dust in Bucharest is 260-280 tons per square kilometre. No such situation can be found in any other capital in Europe where there is under 20 tons per square kilometre’....The representative of the Association of Environmental Experts mentioned that the life expectancy in Romania is among the shortest in Europe, pollution being one of the factors influencing that" (Source article)

Yes, I know I'm on the "soapbox" and you guys really want another race-guessing contest. All I can say is "soon".

End of rant - back to running

Running has been great. I had two good Saturday AM long runs in row of 9.5 and 11 miles and I'm getting my shorter weekday runs done too and the crazy gypsy lady who lives under our building has been cheering me on (she calls me something in Romanian that I think means "sporty guy"). In additon, the weather has been nearly perfect for running as much of Europe is facing drought conditions this Spring.

Last Saturday's long run was memorable for the lack of stray dog activity, but today's run made up for it. This morning I saw literally dozens of strays and had to stop and face-down a particularly nasty one near Parcul National. The face-down strategy is working well. Even when they are showing the teeth, these dogs are actually really scared. They are mainly looking to attack you from behind and I haven't let them do that. Besides, I'm not afraid - I'm still rabies proof from December.

Perspective

On the final mile of this morning's run, I went by a blind man trying to make his way on the sidewalk that runs along the sides of Titan Park. I just shook my head as he poked around with his stick, trying to negotiate the poor quality Romanian sidewalk. Knowing the tendency of cars to actually use the sidewalks as a parking lot (or sometimes a passing lane!), it is a miracle that he even stays alive in this city. In a place with such ridiculous amounts of government regulation (it practically takes an act of congress to get a drivers license, get a visa, or sell a car here), it's absolutely criminal that more facilities aren't provided for the disabled. With my departure from Bucharest looming this fall, I seem to be more frustrated than normal at certain aspects of life here. The important thing though is not to waste time complaining about the failings of Bucharest, but to take stock and be thankful for the many, many blessings I've been given. In about 6 months, I will likely be back running in the greatest country in the world while that same blind guy will still be trying to negotiate the bumpy sidewalks of Bucharest. A little perspective can be pretty useful, eh?

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!