TRIP REPORT
Montenegro and UK
10/20 – 10/28/03
Finally, the last installment from the very lonnnggggggggggggg marathon trip to Europe in Oct.
Where were we? Oh yes! An early departure on Mon morning from Belgrade to Podgorica, Montenegro. I had verified before leaving Belgrade that Montenegro did not use the same currency as Serbia so that I would not have too many Serbian Dinars left. Montenegro uses the Euro and I figured that I could get those from an ATM at the airport. Bad Assumption! And our first lesson of many-to-be that there was/is very little infrastructure in Montenegro.
The country only has a total population of 650,000 and almost half of them live in Podgorica, the capital. After all the wars and turmoil in the region (and still going on) the economy is in a shamble. The economy and country need to be rebuilt from the ground up. The UN and other world organizations are working on it but they have a long way to go.
Back to our arrival at the Podgorica airport at 7:30 am. No tourist info center, no ATM and no currency exchange at the airport! I had made no plan or reservations in Montenegro except for hotel reservations for the marathon on the following Sat. In fact the race director had emailed me at the last minute to inform me that they were inviting me to the race as a special guest and would pay my entry fee and hotel. He sent me the name of the hotel they had booked. Our fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants plan was to go directly to the Adriatic Coast for some R&R and return to Podgorica on Sat. But how do we get there? I managed to find a taxi driver who would accept US $ (for which he charged me double the fee) to take us to the bus station in town. Since the main transportation system in the country was the bus surely the station would have an ATM, etc? Wrong again. No ATM, no tourist center and no currency exchange. And to make matters worse the ticket agent refused to accept any payment except cash in Euros for a bus ticket! This leg of the trip was not starting out good?
I had to find another taxi driver who spoke a little English and convince him to drive me into the city to the only working ATM to get some much-needed Euros and back to the bus station. Now we at least had money to buy bus tickets to Budva. Fortunately I had done a wee bit of research to discover that Budva was the most popular beach resort on the Adriatic coast. After an exciting one-hour bus ride through mountains in rain we arrived in Budva. And finally we had some good luck. No ATM, no tourist info center, etc. but at least there was a travel agency located in the bus station and a very kind agent who spoke English was able to provide me with some information and even booked a hotel in town for us. It was off-season so the hotels were half-price. Our hotel was located right on the edge of the Old Walled Town overlooking the Adriatic Sea. We spent the rest of the day exploring the resort town and quickly determined that we would use Budva and our nice hotel as a base and explore the whole coast of Montenegro from there by bus. Besides a great location Budva actually had an ATM and we needed to be near a cash supply since very few businesses accepted credit cards?
The coast is very beautiful and scenic. Coastal mountains rise dramatically from the Adriatic Sea so that the coastline is rocky and rugged. Reminded me very much of the Greek Islands with the desert landscape and rugged coastline.
Budva is small resort village but I could see how it would be very busy during the high tourist season in the summer. Most of the tourists/visitors are from Podgorica and Serbia trying to escape the summer heat. We explored the old walled town, which is over 2500 years old. The first written record of Budva dates back to Sophocles in the 5th century BC, who refers to the Illyric town of Butua. Most of the existing buildings were rebuilt after a major earthquake in 1667. About 20 Km north of Budva is another walled town called Kotor. Kotor is located on Bora Kotorska, the largest fiord on the Mediterranean. This town also dates back more than 2500 years. The Greeks called the area Akurion and the Romans built a settlement named Acruvivium which they inhabited for 6 ½ centuries. Many of the buildings date back to the 8th century. I found it much more spectacular and interesting than Budva. I even spent a few hours climbing a rock path up to the ancient San Djovani fort on St Ivan hill about 500 meters above the walled town. Believe me, my training on the 14ers this past summer was quite helpful on that expedition!
We got very good at using the local bus system to explore the small villages along the coast. The buses ran often and were cheap – about 1 Euro to go to Kotor. There were two types of buses – a large bus like those used in any city and mini-buses or vans. The large buses were in terrible shape. The mini-buses were newer and in better shape but usually charged more. We tried to take the mini-buses whenever possible because the roads were narrow and mountainous/dangerous. We also determined that the bus schedules meant nothing – if a bus was scheduled to leave at 10am you had better be there by 9:30 am because they would normally leave 15 minutes early or whenever the bus was full? We spent two days exploring the coast and then I decided that we should try to go to Ulcinj, which is the closest town to Albania and check to see if it was possible to cross into Albania? We had been asking locals for two days if it was possible to visit Albania and everyone looked at us like we were crazy and said “No’! Apparently there is still a lot of strife/animosity between the two countries and Montenegrins do not travel to Albania. On Wed we set out to go to Ulcinj. We got as far as the bus station – no buses to Ulcinj at this time of the year! So we decided to travel to Bar, the largest resort town near Ulcinj and then travel from there to Ulcinj. Good idea but when we got to Bar we discovered that there were only two buses each day to Ulcinj in the off-season and we would have to wait about 3 hours. Forget it – we wouldn’t get back to Budva until very late. This little story is typical of everything we tried to do. There was essentially no information available and very few locals spoke English, which made it even more difficult to travel around the country.
But there were two good/great things about the coast besides the scenery - the weather was warm for the first time since we left Florida and the seafood was great and cheap!
But I was already starting to get bored and since I couldn’t get to Albania I tried to find a travel agency that would arrange a tour to Tara Canyon. Tara Canyon is located in the northwest part of the country –about 100Km from Budva- and is the second deepest canyon in the world. However nobody would take us because it was off-season and the weather was not good for driving in the mountains. And to make matters worse it rained so hard on Thu that we were trapped in the hotel room for most of the day so we decided if the weather was going to suck we might as well go back to Podgorica early. It was a bigger city and there would be more to do? WRONG! WRONG!
We took a bus back to Podgorica and arrived at our hotel two days early. Podgorica, formerly called Titograd during the Communist era, is the capital and largest city in Montenegro. Because of the many wars and constant turmoil in the region the oldest building still remaining in the city is the ‘clock tower’. It is 200 years old and the only building more than 50 years old in the city. The rest of the city is the standard ugly, large and decaying concrete buildings built by the Soviets. The city has no beauty except for the mountains that surround it! And there is nothing to do in Podgorica!
By coincidence as we were asking if we could check in early, the race director also arrived at the hotel. We explained that we had come early and that we would pay for the extra days at the hotel but he insisted that the race committee would pay for our complete stay including all our meals. Since he spoke very little English he later introduced me to a very cute redhead who would be my escort/translator during the official events of the race. Ummm! Things are looking up? She informed me that I and another runner, Emmanuel Kosgei – a Kenyan whom I had met in Belgrade would be going to a press conference the following morning. Oh No – it is starting already and I wasn’t even supposed to be there until Sat?
She picked us up at 8am and drove us to the TV station. I figured that we were going to tape an interview for the sports news? After we were seated in the studio the race director asked me to take my jacket off to show my’50+DC’ T-shirt. I stood up, took off my jacket and started to walk away to leave my jacket somewhere – and all Hell broke loose! We were about 10 seconds away from going live on something like ‘Good Morning Montenegro’! I got seated back down in time for the live morning TV show. Emmanuel stated that he was going to try to win the race and beat the course record of 2:12 and I gave the same flowery BS that I presented in Belgrade.
I was concerned about how much more ‘official’ BS I would have to put up with but they really didn’t have their act together and they became bogged down with all the elite runners that arrived later that day. So they overlooked or left me alone for the rest of the race events, which was fine with me. On Sat I decided to try again to get to Albania on my own. My sports manager decided not to go since I had no idea how I was going to get there? It was probably a good decision because it was not an easy trip.
First I went to the bus station to check if I could get a bus to the border? No – take a taxi! So I found a taxi driver who spoke a little English and understood what I was trying to do. For 20 Euros he drove me to the border and promised to come back in 3 hours to pick me up. I had to check with the Montenegro border guards, walk to the Albanian border and check with the Albanian border guards. After paying a fee/bribe of 10 Euros they let me across the border. Then I had to find a taxi driver and negotiate a fee (10 Euros) to drive me to Shkroda, the nearest city to the border. As we drove into the city past the donkeys and horses pulling carts, hundreds of burned-out cars and garbage along the side of the road and through a few small poverty-stricken villages, I was coming to the conclusion that Albania was a dump. Finally I arrived in Shkroda. It is a large city still mired in the Russian/Soviet system and looks just like a Soviet city – large, crumbling, concrete buildings that are falling apart. As I walked around I realized that every business on the main street had a portable generator operating in front of their shop? I assumed that blackouts must be a typical occurrence but the power never did come back on during the few hours I visited the city? After only an hour I was ready to leave – get out of there but I still had a few hours to kill so I explored some of the side streets. I had now definitely decided that Albania was/is a DUMP. In fact I used to think that Romania was the shit-hole of Europe but Albania now holds that title. It was time to go back to Podgorica – even Podgorica looked good compared to Shkroda! Fortunately I did not have any problems or additional bribes to pay to get back across the border and my taxi driver was waiting to drive me to the hotel. So for 70 Euros I got to visit Albania for an afternoon. But I considered it a great investment because it provided an interesting adventure and story to tell and I could have spent thousands of dollars to travel there from the US to come to the same conclusion – and I would have had to stay longer?
When I arrived back at the hotel I ran into by new buddies, Emmanuel and Ramzi. Both runners were running the Podgorica marathon after running Belgrade. That is unusual for elite runners. They informed me that I was supposed to pick up my race package at registration in a nearby school. Whatever happened to the race organization? They no longer seemed to exist? None of us had any information on an official pasta party other than we thought it was being held in the hotel at 7pm? So my sports manager and I showed up in the lobby at 7pm but there was no official pasta party so we ate dinner in the hotel restaurant. Big mistake! It was the worst pasta I have ever eaten! Later that night the weather turned nasty with thunder, rain and strong winds. Sure hope it clears by morning?
Sunday was M –day! I woke early and decided to eat a light breakfast since the race didn’t start until 10am. I joined Ramzi and a few runners from Moldova for breakfast and we talked about races in Moldova. The runners confirmed what I had learned in Belgrade and invited me to stay with them if I visited Moldova. Nice guys – like all runners! By 9am the rain had stopped and the sun started to shine. It must have been cold the night before because there was a light dusting of snow on the mountains surrounding the city. I was concerned about the cold temps – should I wear a long-sleeve T-shirt for the race? My sports manager and I walked downtown to the main square where the marathon started and finished. There was supposed to be a traditional ceremony at 9:30am before the start. At 9:30am there was nothing happening and hardly any runners at the start? By 9:45 I became very concerned about why nothing was happening? I found a race volunteer who spoke English and asked why? Because it was only 8:45! The clocks had been set back one hour on Sat night. Great! We were probably the only two people in the country who did not know that! Nobody on the race committee had thought of informing us about that little fact? It was probably on all the TV channels and in the newspapers but we only had two local channels in our hotel with no English and we hadn’t seen an English newspaper in 10 days. Well, at least we were early!
I found a park bench to lie down on and rest. Next I had to find an alley or bush to take care of some last-minute duties. Granted it was a small race – only 150 runners in the marathon and another 200 in the Half – but they did not have one single toilet at the start/finish line?
By 10am – the real 10am – it had warmed up significantly. I was now concerned about heat and switched from a long-sleeve T-shirt to a singlet at the last minute. The race started on time. The course was a 42 Km loop south out of the city almost to the Albanian border and back to the city center. After 2 Km and no distance markers I surmised that the markers were only located every 5K, which makes it harder to adjust your pace. I figured I was running a sub 8-minute pace. About that time a group of four Serb runners passed me. Because there was a stiff head wind I decided that it would be smarter/better to follow that group and draft off them even though they were running faster than I wanted to run than waste energy battling the wind on my own. The group pulled me past the 5K marker in 23:09. Damn, that’s a 4:38/Km (7:20/mile) pace – my Half Marathon race pace! I didn’t believe I could hold that pace but I figured that I would try to stay with them through the first half. We reached the Half in 1:39:38 – almost my race pace and much too fast for a marathon.
I still felt strong but did not believe I could hold that pace. But what to do? I was still in the same dilemma – run faster than I should and continue to draft off the group or slow down and waste energy by battling the head wind on my own? I decided – what the Hell? – stay with the group as long as I could. It would either be a fantastic race or it was going to get very ugly and painful over the last 10K! I had the feeling that the group was getting annoyed or pissed off at me because I was drafting all the time and not taking any turns at breaking the wind. So I shouted to them that I was thankful for their fast, smooth pace but I was having difficulty just trying to stay with them. That seemed to break the ice and one of the runners dropped back and started to talk to me.
“Where are you from”?
“America”.
“Oh Yeah – I read about you in the paper. How many marathons have you run”?
“214 today”.
“Didn’t you just run Belgrade last weekend”?
“Yes”
“How old are you”?
“59 – How old are you”?
“50” - Damn he’s in my age group (50 to 59)
This brief conversation seemed to gain me some respect and they no longer cared that I was drafting. Around 28K I got a burst of energy and surged to the front of the group. At that moment we were passing through a small village called Tuzi, near the Albanian border and I think all 2,000 inhabitants were lined up along both sides of the narrow road? Suddenly the crowd starting cheering and applauding loudly? One of the Serbs ran up beside me and said “ all that noise and cheering is for you”!
“Why” I asked?
“They are cheering for the American”!
“How do they know I am an American”?
“ You were on the local TV and there was a big article in the papers about you and your feats”!
“But how do they know I am ‘The American’ “?
“Oh – the papers published your race number”
Great! I hope all the natives are as friendly as these because I am running around the country with a huge number/bulls eye pinned to my chest and designating me as an American! Fortunately everyone was friendly and this scenario was repeated as we passed through a few more villages. I found that it was pumping me up and I wanted to pick up the pace some more. But I wisely decided that I would drop back and draft off the group until 35K. If I still felt good at 35K I would push as hard as I could for the last 7K because I knew that I was running my fastest race in many years. I figured that I would finish somewhere between 3:20 to 3:25?
We reached 35K in 2:48:10 and the group started to slow so I surged ahead. Fortunately one young Serb went with me. We urged each other on and if the wind got strong I would drop behind him and draft. I told him that he was younger and stronger than me and he didn’t seem to mind? At 40K I ran out of energy! But I was only 2K from one of my best finishes/races in years and I was not going to let exhaustion and pain stop me. My young Serb friend wanted to slow the pace down because he could see that I was in trouble/pain. But I urged him to hold the pace and I focused on staying with him as he dragged my sorry, tired, old ass across the finish line in 3:20:48! I immediately shook his hand and thanked him – I would never have finished in that time without his help.
Needless to say I was ecstatic about my time and performance – it was my fastest marathon since White Rock (Dallas, TX) in Dec/96! And I did it without asking the Maddog for help although I knew he was with me all the way. I was also pleased to learn that my friend Emmanuel had won the race in 2:14 (but no course record). Ramzi had to drop out because of a problem with his leg. I tried to find a results list but never did determine how I placed until I returned home and checked the web. My time was only good enough for 6th place – it’s tough to compete against those 50-year old youngsters!
Time to head back to the hotel to soak the old legs. Then my sports manager and I decided to walk downtown and do our 100th+ circuit of the downtown streets. There wasn’t much else to do in Podgorica!
As we did our continuous loops around the downtown area we searched for one of the best restaurants in the city for dinner. No way were we going to eat at our hotel again – even if it was paid for! We had a great dinner – steak, wine, dessert, coffee, liqueur and tip for $25. But we were glad that the trip was almost over. My sports manager commented that she felt like she was trapped and living in that movie ‘Groundhog Day’. “My God”, she cried “Every morning I wake up and I am still in Podgorica”! She also claimed that she was NOT going to the last four marathons/countries in Europe! She had seen enough of the Balkans and former Soviet countries.
Fortunately Monday morning came (but she still woke up in Podgorica!) and we were on our way HOME! We had an early flight back to Belgrade to catch a flight to LHR. There was some disappointing news when we arrived in Belgrade. Yugoslav Airlines (JAT) had cancelled the Monday flight to LHR. I had to find customer service. I believe that they were going to tell us we had to wait in Belgrade for a few days until the next flight was scheduled to LHR. But I forcefully explained that we had a dinner appointment in London that night and a connecting flight to the USA on Tue. So they booked us on Lufthansa via Dusseldorf to LHR. But we now had a 3-hour wait at the Belgrade airport and would arrive in London 4 hours later than planned.
While we were waiting at the airport Emmanuel and Ramzi walked by? They had decided to leave Podgorica and try to get home early. We had a very long and pleasant chat. They invited me to run a marathon in their home towns (Tunis and Nairobi). I invited them to stay with us if they visited the US. Then they asked me if I would consider taking them and a few other elite runners on as a manager and coach? Ummmm? That might be interesting and fun and it could help me pay for my trips to races all around the world? I’m still thinking about that suggestion/request.
We finally arrived in London at 5 pm – 4 hours late. I called one of my friends from the airport – explained the situation and asked them to meet us at our hotel. We barely had time to get to the hotel and have a quick shower before three running mates who live in the London area showed up to take us out on the town for the night. Since they know the city they took us to a ‘real’ pub close to the hotel. We enjoyed a wonderful evening – had lots of great beer, good food (I finally got my cottage pie) and lots of fun. My sports manager and I looked at each other and agreed “we deserve this after spending two weeks in the Balkans’!
But no matter how difficult and frustrating some of the times may have been ALL of the trip was interesting. And it certainly provided good training for our next international trip/marathon/adventure. Where’s that you say?
India – in Jan, 2004.
Stay tuned!
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Monday, October 20, 2003
TR Serbia
TRIP REPORT
UK (England, Scotland & Wales) & Serbia
10/06/03 to 10/20/03
Now where were we? Oh yes – after 4 days in Slovakia where we hardly heard or spoke English we were on our way to the land where they invented English! We arrived in London on Mon at 2pm and after a long tube ride arrived at our hotel next to the Marble Arch and Hyde Park around 4pm. We had booked tickets for a musical in the West End so had to rush to get ready. I was looking forward to going to an old pub and eating some great pub grub like cottage pie. So we headed over to Covent Gardens and started walking around to find a pub and dinner before the show. Big disappointment – after searching a 4-block radius in the West End and looking at dozens of pub menus we couldn’t find any real pub grub. I asked a couple of local blokes what happened and they explained that about 90% of the pubs had been bought out by one of the major breweries and they all offered the same beers and ‘plastic’ menus with fast junk food!
We had to settle for a small café near the theatre. Nicole had wanted to see the musical ‘Mama Mia’ ever since we lived there so I had managed to book tickets. The musical is written around the music of the Swedish group ‘Abba’ and it was OK but I wouldn’t pay another $160 to see it again.
The following day we planned to travel on to Manchester so I had to get up early to do a training run around Hyde Park. What a shock when I left the hotel! It was bitterly cold with a brisk wind. I had not expected such cold weather and had not packed any cold-weather running gear! People stared at me like I was crazy but I still ran a fast 10K around the park.
We arrived in Manchester late that afternoon and were met at the airport by our host and friend John Hubbard. John is from Dallas, TX but lives in Wilmslow, a small village south of Manchester. It reminded me a lot of Bishop’s Stortford where we lived during our year in England but Wilmslow is much more upscale. Many of the players from Manchester UTD live in the area. David Beckham and Virginia Spice still own a house there. John wanted to show me the trails he ran each day so I agreed to do another 10K run with him. After our run John took us to a pub called the ‘Bells of Peover’ for dinner. It is a 400-year old pub located in Lower Peover where Churchill and Eisenhower used to meet for dinner. It serves excellent gourmet food but not quite the pub grub we are used to. John also had some news for us – good and bad. The bad news was that he had to leave on an unexpected business trip on Thu and would not return before we left. The good news was that he was leaving us the keys for his house and Jaguar and we were to “make ourselves at home”.
The following day Nicole and went to the local supermarket to stock John’s cupboards. He never, ever cooks at home? So we made him a gourmet home-cooked meal and even froze some in doggie bags so he could have leftovers when he got back. After John left on Thu we took a train into Manchester to explore the city center. We had driven through Manchester several times but had never actually visited the city. It is quite nice and they have done a good job blending new buildings in with the old. The IRA blew up a whole city block in 1986 and they built a new shopping center from the rubble. But we still had another six days in Wilmslow – what should we do? We could stay at John’s and make day trips to the surrounding cities and districts or perhaps we should take John’s suggestion to drive to northern Scotland? Nicole called a friend in Inverness to see if he would be home and then we decided to make a weekend trip to Scotland. We left Fri morning and met our friend for dinner in Inverness. He had recommended a few hotels in downtown Inverness but when I drove into the city I realized that they were on the other side of the Ness River. I could see the bridges but after three fruitless circuits around the city we could not find a way to get to the bridges. In frustration I gave up, got a motel out by the motorway and called our friend and asked him to come and get us. He laughed and explained that only locals knew how to get access to the bridges. I believed him!!
The following morning we decided to head farther north since we had never traveled north of Inverness. There is lots of beautiful scenery along the north coast of Scotland – many castles sitting on rugged cliffs. By noon we arrived in Wick near the northern tip. I still hadn’t had any fish and chips so I found a local ‘chippy’ shop. Now I knew I was still in Scotland and the UK but when I asked the cute wee lass (about 17) at the counter for a “large order of fish and chips” she looked at me like I was from Mars and speaking Martian? And then she asked me to repeat the order – I think. Because I couldn’t understand one word she said. I believe we were both speaking English but we had to repeat everything at least three times and use some sign language before I finally got my order? And I thought I was good at discerning the Scottish dialect?
We continued our journey on to John O’Groates at the very northern tip of mainland Scotland. It was time for another decision – head back home or take a ferry over to the Orkney Islands? We found a tourist info center and checked out ferries, etc. There was a ferry at 3:45pm and the trip was only one hour. What the heck – we are this close and it is unlikely we will be coming back. Go for it! We caught the 3:45 ferry at Gill’s Bay and arrived in St Margaret’s Hope around 5pm. It was very dark by then and the road into Kirkwall was very narrow with no lights. I just followed the other traffic from the ferry hoping that they were going into the town? Luck was with us. Thirty minutes later we arrived at the harbor in Kirkwall which fortunately had two hotels. It was off-season and cold so the hotel was happy to rent us a nice room overlooking the harbor for 50 pounds.
Kirkwall with a huge population of 6,000 is the capital and administrative center of Orkney. It was founded in 1035 by Earl Rognvald Brusason. The name comes from the Old Norse, ‘Kirkjuvagar’ meaning ‘church-bay’. The original town is one of the best-preserved examples of an ancient Norse town. It was bitterly cold on the islands so we immediately decided that we would spend one day on the island and catch a ferry back in the late afternoon. That meant that I would have to get up very early on Sun to get a run in before we started our sightseeing. Yeah –Right! When I woke up and stuck my arm out the window at 6am it was about 30F with a brisk wind. No way I was running in that weather with only shorts and a T-shirt. Back to bed! After a hearty full-English breakfast we started our tour of the island. The tourist season is summer – not Oct – so there were no guided tours but we had some maps and tour guides. There are several Neolithic sites on the islands dating back to 3,000 BC. The Ring of Brodgar – similar to Stonehenge but larger; the Standing Stones of Stenness with the tallest megalith towering six meters high; Maeshowe, a prehistoric chambered cairn or tomb; and Skara Brae is a complete Neolithic village. There are many other sites as well as other tourist attractions to see on the islands but I strongly recommend that you visit in the summer when it is WARM! When we got out of the car at the first site –the Standing Stones- it was so cold and windy that we refused to get out again. We just drove by and observed them from the car! And definitely decided that we were catching a ferry and heading back home that afternoon.
After we arrived back on the mainland I thought about driving all the way home but we arrived in Stirling, Scotland around 7pm and it was dark and I just decided to pack the driving in for the day and get a hotel in Stirling. This would give me a chance to make another pilgrimage to the Wallace Monument and demand once again that they give me ‘MY’ monument and land. But they keep refusing??? We finally arrived back at John’s place in Wilmslow on Mon afternoon. On Tue we decided to make a day trip over to Chester, an old walled city with lots of charm and Victorian architecture. Since it is so close to Wales we finished the day with a short drive into Wales just so that we could truly say “that we had visited all of the UK on this trip”!
On Wed we stayed in Wilmslow and took advantage of John’s laundry. We had only packed about 10 days worth of clothes so it was necessary to clean everything for the next leg of the trip. We were now ready for the trip back to the Balkans.
We flew back to LHR to connect to Yugoslav Airlines to Belgrade. It was time to see if those discount tickets were real? Yep – they were real and we arrived in Belgrade with no problems at 5:30pm. My sports manager asked how we would get to the hotel and I responded that we would have to take a bus or taxi into the city as I had not made any arrangements. Thus we were surprised when we exited the customs area and saw a big sign with my name on it. A member of the race committee had brought a car and driver out to the airport to pick us up? Now – that’s service! The committee member was a fellow marathoner who had run a PR of 2:21 – not in my league? He spoke limited English but he did describe some of the course to me as we drove to our hotel located in the center of the ‘Old Town’. I had made the travel arrangements to allow us one day in Belgrade before the race and one day after. I had no information about the marathon other than the date and the time and I figured I would need a day to find out more information and get my race package. I certainly did not expect someone to meet us at the airport. And it only got better (or worse) depending upon one’s perspective? As soon as we arrived at the hotel our host introduced us to his daughter – a junior in high school who spoke very good English. She and her classmate were to be our guides/escorts during our stay in Belgrade?
As soon as I had checked in our guides took me over to the race registration and helped me register and get my race package because nobody at the registration desk spoke English. Then they informed me that they would pick us up at 8am the next day to escort us to the press conference. What the heck’s going on here?
Sure enough the next morning they were waiting in the lobby to take me to the press conference at city hall. I arrived along with several of the elite runners. I tried to take a seat in the back – but Oh No – they insisted that I sit at the table on the podium with the elite runners and dignitaries from the race committee and city hall? I was seated next to Ramzi Mehovachi, an elite runner from Tunisia. A translator was assigned to us for the press conference. So we sat and listened to all the dignitaries complement each other and the race and then they introduced all the elite runners and moi – the Maddog! They asked each of us to make a little speech and I had to think fast – I wasn’t prepared for this crap. I thanked the race committee and the city for their great hospitality, etc and stated that “ I did not have a chance to win the race tomorrow but I was making great progress on my goal to become the first runner in the world to complete a marathon in every country in Europe”. This BS seemed to please everyone? Then they embarrassed me some more by going around the table and asking all the athletes/runners for their PR. Most of the men were around 2:10 to 2:15; the women around 2:35. And finally the Maddog – 2:58. At least I was glad that I had run under 3 hours! After the formal conference the newspapers and TV asked us for interviews. I couldn’t wait for that embarrassing surprise event to conclude. What other surprises did they have in mind? But one good thing did come out of the conference. I met a Russian sportswriter who published a running magazine in Russia. During the interview and our conversation he confirmed that there were indeed ‘official’ marathons in Ukraine and Belarus. In fact he had a copy of his magazine with the race schedule for Ukraine for the 2nd half/03 and gave it to me (published in Russian). He also gave me his email address and promised that he would help me get information and entry into marathons in those two countries.
My friendly escorts offered to take us sightseeing and shopping but I politely refused their offer. We needed some quiet time on our own. OK – they would meet us in the lobby at 7pm to take us to the pasta dinner – for elite runners and special guests only? I still couldn’t understand why I was getting all of this special attention. For some strange reason they thought 200+ marathons and 60+ countries deserved special treatment?
Belgrade and Serbia are not popular tourist destinations. There was actually a city tour but only once per week – on Sat at 10am. That was the same time as the marathon so my sports manger and I just bought a local travel guide and decided to do our own tour. Belgrade has a lot of history but most of it violent and wars so there is not much left of their history. The original city was established in 300BC as the Fortress Singidunum by the Celts. The current Belgrade Fortress – Kalemegdan – that sits on a bluff overlooking the confluence of the Sava and Danube Rivers dates back to the 17th century and is the focal point of the city. There are very few old, historical buildings in Belgrade. As we walked around we could still see some signs of the Nato bombings in 1999 – mostly in buildings located near the bridges over the Sava River. We were concerned about that and how we would be treated as Americans. But nobody seemed to notice or care. Belgrade is very cosmopolitan and most of the natives dress like Americans –jeans and running shoes. We fit right in.
We really didn’t want to go to the pasta dinner because the food always sucks but we didn’t want to be disrespectable either so we let our escorts lead us to the dinner in the National Museum. The food sucked as expected but I did meet some more important contacts. The Russian sportswriter introduced me to the Director of the Russian Sports Federation and explained what I was trying to do. He also offered his assistance. After the dinner I was told that I was supposed to go to a ‘technical’ meeting on the race at 9pm but I finally drew the line and told my escorts that I wouldn’t go. I wasn’t going to win the race so there was no need to attend! We were beginning to tire of all the ‘official’ events and demands on our time. The elite runners were getting their expenses paid and maybe even an appearance fee – the Maddog wasn’t getting paid and they were making too many demands on our time! However they did insist that they meet me at 10am on race morning to escort me the three blocks to the start line.
Saturday was M-day! The race started at 11am so I decided to get up early and eat a light breakfast. I ended up eating with all the Kenyans and noticed very clearly that this was all business and money to them. There was very little talk and no humor or smiles at the breakfast table. My escorts showed up to take me to the start line. Probably a good thing too. There were only 200 runners in the marathon and another 400 in the Half. Both races started together. But the real problem was the 5K fun run. There were more than 21,000 runners in that race. Thankfully it started 15 minutes later but there were thousands of runners – mostly kids- that we had to make our way through to get to the start line. My escorts came in handy because they were race volunteers and were able to get me through streets that had been cordoned off. Finally it was race time. I said goodbye to most of my new friends - the Kenyans and other elite runners and wished them all “Good Luck’. I knew that they would all be finished and sitting in a hot tub by the time I crossed the finish line!
The marathon started in the center of the Old Town. The first 8K were run through hilly streets in Old Town before the course crossed over the Sava River into New Belgrade. Then we ran two –16K loops through New Belgrade before returning to Old Town to finish in front of our hotel. I passed the Half in 1:42:44 – just under an 8 minute pace. I ran most of the race – up to 25K all by myself. At 25 K I caught up to a young Serb runner and we ran together for the next 10K until he started to fade. So I pushed on by myself again. I reached 40K in 3:17:49. I was hurting and tired but figured if I could just hold an 8-minute pace I could finish under 3:30. Only two minor problems. The last 2K were uphill from New Belgrade back into Old Town and the race organization had started to fall apart. There were few race volunteers left on the course and the course was not marked very well. At many intersections I had to ask a cop or spectator which way to go. And I wasn’t sure they understood me? I was sure happy when I reached the last corner and could see the finish line at the end of the street. I crossed the finish line in 3:28:41. That was good enough for 2nd place because the age groups were only 5 years (55-59).
After a nice long hot soak it was time for my last official function – an awards ceremony for the elite runners. This was where they handed out the actual prize money. We waited in the hotel lobby along with the Kenyans and other runners for our escorts. The mood was much different from breakfast. Kenyans had taken the top three places and prize money. They were in a much more festive mood. One of the Kenyans gave us his resume and school marks and asked us if we could help him find an Athletic Director at some college that might be interested in offering him a scholarship. A young male runner from Soweto, SA proposed to one of our escorts – begged her to marry him so he could move to Belgrade. I guess they will do anything to get out of their home countries? The awards ceremony turned out to be the most fruitful event of them all for me. The Russian Director introduced me to the Sports Directors from Belarus and Moldova. I learned that there is no official marathon in Moldova but there is a Half and an Ultra. I asked the Director if he would consider drawing a line across the course at 42K for me and a few other crazies. He said “email me with your request and we will consider it”. After that conversation the Russian Director took me aside and told me “you do not want to visit Moldova – the whole county is a dump”!
I also met an official from the Belgrade marathon who confirmed that there were official marathons in Bulgaria and Macedonia. Oh Goody! I had come on this trip thinking that I was finishing up all the official marathons/countries in Europe and now I had FOUR more! And in such lovely tourist destinations! It probably didn’t seem so bad at that time because I was drinking some local liqueur that smelled and tasted like kerosene but it sure had a great kick to it. Two was all I could handle on an empty stomach.
It was time to go to dinner – by ourselves. We found a nice restaurant that specialized in local food that was mostly grilled meats accompanied by greasy/fried side orders. We ordered the house special – a mixed grill that had every type of grilled meat imaginable. Dinner with a bottle of wine cost about $15. We had one more day left in Belgrade. Time to find an Internet café and send my usual race report and then we continued our tour around the Old Town. It was cold and raining (sure glad Sun wasn’t race day) so we spent most of the day watching TV and getting ready for our very early departure to Podgorica, Montenegro. Which is the topic of the next and final trip report.
Stay tuned!
UK (England, Scotland & Wales) & Serbia
10/06/03 to 10/20/03
Now where were we? Oh yes – after 4 days in Slovakia where we hardly heard or spoke English we were on our way to the land where they invented English! We arrived in London on Mon at 2pm and after a long tube ride arrived at our hotel next to the Marble Arch and Hyde Park around 4pm. We had booked tickets for a musical in the West End so had to rush to get ready. I was looking forward to going to an old pub and eating some great pub grub like cottage pie. So we headed over to Covent Gardens and started walking around to find a pub and dinner before the show. Big disappointment – after searching a 4-block radius in the West End and looking at dozens of pub menus we couldn’t find any real pub grub. I asked a couple of local blokes what happened and they explained that about 90% of the pubs had been bought out by one of the major breweries and they all offered the same beers and ‘plastic’ menus with fast junk food!
We had to settle for a small café near the theatre. Nicole had wanted to see the musical ‘Mama Mia’ ever since we lived there so I had managed to book tickets. The musical is written around the music of the Swedish group ‘Abba’ and it was OK but I wouldn’t pay another $160 to see it again.
The following day we planned to travel on to Manchester so I had to get up early to do a training run around Hyde Park. What a shock when I left the hotel! It was bitterly cold with a brisk wind. I had not expected such cold weather and had not packed any cold-weather running gear! People stared at me like I was crazy but I still ran a fast 10K around the park.
We arrived in Manchester late that afternoon and were met at the airport by our host and friend John Hubbard. John is from Dallas, TX but lives in Wilmslow, a small village south of Manchester. It reminded me a lot of Bishop’s Stortford where we lived during our year in England but Wilmslow is much more upscale. Many of the players from Manchester UTD live in the area. David Beckham and Virginia Spice still own a house there. John wanted to show me the trails he ran each day so I agreed to do another 10K run with him. After our run John took us to a pub called the ‘Bells of Peover’ for dinner. It is a 400-year old pub located in Lower Peover where Churchill and Eisenhower used to meet for dinner. It serves excellent gourmet food but not quite the pub grub we are used to. John also had some news for us – good and bad. The bad news was that he had to leave on an unexpected business trip on Thu and would not return before we left. The good news was that he was leaving us the keys for his house and Jaguar and we were to “make ourselves at home”.
The following day Nicole and went to the local supermarket to stock John’s cupboards. He never, ever cooks at home? So we made him a gourmet home-cooked meal and even froze some in doggie bags so he could have leftovers when he got back. After John left on Thu we took a train into Manchester to explore the city center. We had driven through Manchester several times but had never actually visited the city. It is quite nice and they have done a good job blending new buildings in with the old. The IRA blew up a whole city block in 1986 and they built a new shopping center from the rubble. But we still had another six days in Wilmslow – what should we do? We could stay at John’s and make day trips to the surrounding cities and districts or perhaps we should take John’s suggestion to drive to northern Scotland? Nicole called a friend in Inverness to see if he would be home and then we decided to make a weekend trip to Scotland. We left Fri morning and met our friend for dinner in Inverness. He had recommended a few hotels in downtown Inverness but when I drove into the city I realized that they were on the other side of the Ness River. I could see the bridges but after three fruitless circuits around the city we could not find a way to get to the bridges. In frustration I gave up, got a motel out by the motorway and called our friend and asked him to come and get us. He laughed and explained that only locals knew how to get access to the bridges. I believed him!!
The following morning we decided to head farther north since we had never traveled north of Inverness. There is lots of beautiful scenery along the north coast of Scotland – many castles sitting on rugged cliffs. By noon we arrived in Wick near the northern tip. I still hadn’t had any fish and chips so I found a local ‘chippy’ shop. Now I knew I was still in Scotland and the UK but when I asked the cute wee lass (about 17) at the counter for a “large order of fish and chips” she looked at me like I was from Mars and speaking Martian? And then she asked me to repeat the order – I think. Because I couldn’t understand one word she said. I believe we were both speaking English but we had to repeat everything at least three times and use some sign language before I finally got my order? And I thought I was good at discerning the Scottish dialect?
We continued our journey on to John O’Groates at the very northern tip of mainland Scotland. It was time for another decision – head back home or take a ferry over to the Orkney Islands? We found a tourist info center and checked out ferries, etc. There was a ferry at 3:45pm and the trip was only one hour. What the heck – we are this close and it is unlikely we will be coming back. Go for it! We caught the 3:45 ferry at Gill’s Bay and arrived in St Margaret’s Hope around 5pm. It was very dark by then and the road into Kirkwall was very narrow with no lights. I just followed the other traffic from the ferry hoping that they were going into the town? Luck was with us. Thirty minutes later we arrived at the harbor in Kirkwall which fortunately had two hotels. It was off-season and cold so the hotel was happy to rent us a nice room overlooking the harbor for 50 pounds.
Kirkwall with a huge population of 6,000 is the capital and administrative center of Orkney. It was founded in 1035 by Earl Rognvald Brusason. The name comes from the Old Norse, ‘Kirkjuvagar’ meaning ‘church-bay’. The original town is one of the best-preserved examples of an ancient Norse town. It was bitterly cold on the islands so we immediately decided that we would spend one day on the island and catch a ferry back in the late afternoon. That meant that I would have to get up very early on Sun to get a run in before we started our sightseeing. Yeah –Right! When I woke up and stuck my arm out the window at 6am it was about 30F with a brisk wind. No way I was running in that weather with only shorts and a T-shirt. Back to bed! After a hearty full-English breakfast we started our tour of the island. The tourist season is summer – not Oct – so there were no guided tours but we had some maps and tour guides. There are several Neolithic sites on the islands dating back to 3,000 BC. The Ring of Brodgar – similar to Stonehenge but larger; the Standing Stones of Stenness with the tallest megalith towering six meters high; Maeshowe, a prehistoric chambered cairn or tomb; and Skara Brae is a complete Neolithic village. There are many other sites as well as other tourist attractions to see on the islands but I strongly recommend that you visit in the summer when it is WARM! When we got out of the car at the first site –the Standing Stones- it was so cold and windy that we refused to get out again. We just drove by and observed them from the car! And definitely decided that we were catching a ferry and heading back home that afternoon.
After we arrived back on the mainland I thought about driving all the way home but we arrived in Stirling, Scotland around 7pm and it was dark and I just decided to pack the driving in for the day and get a hotel in Stirling. This would give me a chance to make another pilgrimage to the Wallace Monument and demand once again that they give me ‘MY’ monument and land. But they keep refusing??? We finally arrived back at John’s place in Wilmslow on Mon afternoon. On Tue we decided to make a day trip over to Chester, an old walled city with lots of charm and Victorian architecture. Since it is so close to Wales we finished the day with a short drive into Wales just so that we could truly say “that we had visited all of the UK on this trip”!
On Wed we stayed in Wilmslow and took advantage of John’s laundry. We had only packed about 10 days worth of clothes so it was necessary to clean everything for the next leg of the trip. We were now ready for the trip back to the Balkans.
We flew back to LHR to connect to Yugoslav Airlines to Belgrade. It was time to see if those discount tickets were real? Yep – they were real and we arrived in Belgrade with no problems at 5:30pm. My sports manager asked how we would get to the hotel and I responded that we would have to take a bus or taxi into the city as I had not made any arrangements. Thus we were surprised when we exited the customs area and saw a big sign with my name on it. A member of the race committee had brought a car and driver out to the airport to pick us up? Now – that’s service! The committee member was a fellow marathoner who had run a PR of 2:21 – not in my league? He spoke limited English but he did describe some of the course to me as we drove to our hotel located in the center of the ‘Old Town’. I had made the travel arrangements to allow us one day in Belgrade before the race and one day after. I had no information about the marathon other than the date and the time and I figured I would need a day to find out more information and get my race package. I certainly did not expect someone to meet us at the airport. And it only got better (or worse) depending upon one’s perspective? As soon as we arrived at the hotel our host introduced us to his daughter – a junior in high school who spoke very good English. She and her classmate were to be our guides/escorts during our stay in Belgrade?
As soon as I had checked in our guides took me over to the race registration and helped me register and get my race package because nobody at the registration desk spoke English. Then they informed me that they would pick us up at 8am the next day to escort us to the press conference. What the heck’s going on here?
Sure enough the next morning they were waiting in the lobby to take me to the press conference at city hall. I arrived along with several of the elite runners. I tried to take a seat in the back – but Oh No – they insisted that I sit at the table on the podium with the elite runners and dignitaries from the race committee and city hall? I was seated next to Ramzi Mehovachi, an elite runner from Tunisia. A translator was assigned to us for the press conference. So we sat and listened to all the dignitaries complement each other and the race and then they introduced all the elite runners and moi – the Maddog! They asked each of us to make a little speech and I had to think fast – I wasn’t prepared for this crap. I thanked the race committee and the city for their great hospitality, etc and stated that “ I did not have a chance to win the race tomorrow but I was making great progress on my goal to become the first runner in the world to complete a marathon in every country in Europe”. This BS seemed to please everyone? Then they embarrassed me some more by going around the table and asking all the athletes/runners for their PR. Most of the men were around 2:10 to 2:15; the women around 2:35. And finally the Maddog – 2:58. At least I was glad that I had run under 3 hours! After the formal conference the newspapers and TV asked us for interviews. I couldn’t wait for that embarrassing surprise event to conclude. What other surprises did they have in mind? But one good thing did come out of the conference. I met a Russian sportswriter who published a running magazine in Russia. During the interview and our conversation he confirmed that there were indeed ‘official’ marathons in Ukraine and Belarus. In fact he had a copy of his magazine with the race schedule for Ukraine for the 2nd half/03 and gave it to me (published in Russian). He also gave me his email address and promised that he would help me get information and entry into marathons in those two countries.
My friendly escorts offered to take us sightseeing and shopping but I politely refused their offer. We needed some quiet time on our own. OK – they would meet us in the lobby at 7pm to take us to the pasta dinner – for elite runners and special guests only? I still couldn’t understand why I was getting all of this special attention. For some strange reason they thought 200+ marathons and 60+ countries deserved special treatment?
Belgrade and Serbia are not popular tourist destinations. There was actually a city tour but only once per week – on Sat at 10am. That was the same time as the marathon so my sports manger and I just bought a local travel guide and decided to do our own tour. Belgrade has a lot of history but most of it violent and wars so there is not much left of their history. The original city was established in 300BC as the Fortress Singidunum by the Celts. The current Belgrade Fortress – Kalemegdan – that sits on a bluff overlooking the confluence of the Sava and Danube Rivers dates back to the 17th century and is the focal point of the city. There are very few old, historical buildings in Belgrade. As we walked around we could still see some signs of the Nato bombings in 1999 – mostly in buildings located near the bridges over the Sava River. We were concerned about that and how we would be treated as Americans. But nobody seemed to notice or care. Belgrade is very cosmopolitan and most of the natives dress like Americans –jeans and running shoes. We fit right in.
We really didn’t want to go to the pasta dinner because the food always sucks but we didn’t want to be disrespectable either so we let our escorts lead us to the dinner in the National Museum. The food sucked as expected but I did meet some more important contacts. The Russian sportswriter introduced me to the Director of the Russian Sports Federation and explained what I was trying to do. He also offered his assistance. After the dinner I was told that I was supposed to go to a ‘technical’ meeting on the race at 9pm but I finally drew the line and told my escorts that I wouldn’t go. I wasn’t going to win the race so there was no need to attend! We were beginning to tire of all the ‘official’ events and demands on our time. The elite runners were getting their expenses paid and maybe even an appearance fee – the Maddog wasn’t getting paid and they were making too many demands on our time! However they did insist that they meet me at 10am on race morning to escort me the three blocks to the start line.
Saturday was M-day! The race started at 11am so I decided to get up early and eat a light breakfast. I ended up eating with all the Kenyans and noticed very clearly that this was all business and money to them. There was very little talk and no humor or smiles at the breakfast table. My escorts showed up to take me to the start line. Probably a good thing too. There were only 200 runners in the marathon and another 400 in the Half. Both races started together. But the real problem was the 5K fun run. There were more than 21,000 runners in that race. Thankfully it started 15 minutes later but there were thousands of runners – mostly kids- that we had to make our way through to get to the start line. My escorts came in handy because they were race volunteers and were able to get me through streets that had been cordoned off. Finally it was race time. I said goodbye to most of my new friends - the Kenyans and other elite runners and wished them all “Good Luck’. I knew that they would all be finished and sitting in a hot tub by the time I crossed the finish line!
The marathon started in the center of the Old Town. The first 8K were run through hilly streets in Old Town before the course crossed over the Sava River into New Belgrade. Then we ran two –16K loops through New Belgrade before returning to Old Town to finish in front of our hotel. I passed the Half in 1:42:44 – just under an 8 minute pace. I ran most of the race – up to 25K all by myself. At 25 K I caught up to a young Serb runner and we ran together for the next 10K until he started to fade. So I pushed on by myself again. I reached 40K in 3:17:49. I was hurting and tired but figured if I could just hold an 8-minute pace I could finish under 3:30. Only two minor problems. The last 2K were uphill from New Belgrade back into Old Town and the race organization had started to fall apart. There were few race volunteers left on the course and the course was not marked very well. At many intersections I had to ask a cop or spectator which way to go. And I wasn’t sure they understood me? I was sure happy when I reached the last corner and could see the finish line at the end of the street. I crossed the finish line in 3:28:41. That was good enough for 2nd place because the age groups were only 5 years (55-59).
After a nice long hot soak it was time for my last official function – an awards ceremony for the elite runners. This was where they handed out the actual prize money. We waited in the hotel lobby along with the Kenyans and other runners for our escorts. The mood was much different from breakfast. Kenyans had taken the top three places and prize money. They were in a much more festive mood. One of the Kenyans gave us his resume and school marks and asked us if we could help him find an Athletic Director at some college that might be interested in offering him a scholarship. A young male runner from Soweto, SA proposed to one of our escorts – begged her to marry him so he could move to Belgrade. I guess they will do anything to get out of their home countries? The awards ceremony turned out to be the most fruitful event of them all for me. The Russian Director introduced me to the Sports Directors from Belarus and Moldova. I learned that there is no official marathon in Moldova but there is a Half and an Ultra. I asked the Director if he would consider drawing a line across the course at 42K for me and a few other crazies. He said “email me with your request and we will consider it”. After that conversation the Russian Director took me aside and told me “you do not want to visit Moldova – the whole county is a dump”!
I also met an official from the Belgrade marathon who confirmed that there were official marathons in Bulgaria and Macedonia. Oh Goody! I had come on this trip thinking that I was finishing up all the official marathons/countries in Europe and now I had FOUR more! And in such lovely tourist destinations! It probably didn’t seem so bad at that time because I was drinking some local liqueur that smelled and tasted like kerosene but it sure had a great kick to it. Two was all I could handle on an empty stomach.
It was time to go to dinner – by ourselves. We found a nice restaurant that specialized in local food that was mostly grilled meats accompanied by greasy/fried side orders. We ordered the house special – a mixed grill that had every type of grilled meat imaginable. Dinner with a bottle of wine cost about $15. We had one more day left in Belgrade. Time to find an Internet café and send my usual race report and then we continued our tour around the Old Town. It was cold and raining (sure glad Sun wasn’t race day) so we spent most of the day watching TV and getting ready for our very early departure to Podgorica, Montenegro. Which is the topic of the next and final trip report.
Stay tuned!
Friday, October 17, 2003
TR Slovakia
TRIP REPORT
Germany, Slovakia and UK
10/01/03 to 10/16/03
Since my latest trip lasted 28 days and included 3 marathons and 8 countries in Europe I know that a single trip report would be too long so I intend to split it into three reports based around the marathons.
I will include a prologue with this first report as there is some preliminary information that is common to all three. So let’s get started.
The planning for this trip started last spring when I received news that the Belgrade Marathon, normally held in April, had been postponed to Oct due to political issues – the Iraq war and the assassination of the president of Serbia. When they announced that the race was tentatively rescheduled to Oct. it fit perfectly with my plan to go to Europe for the month of Oct to finish off the last two (now three) countries of Europe (or so I thought at the time?). Slowly – very slowly- over the summer I started to collect the necessary information to put the trip together. Trying to get information and then confirmation and entry into races in the smaller, third-world countries is very difficult if not impossible. They typically do not have web sites and if they do have an email contact they won’t/don’t respond to email. In most cases a letter sent by fax is the best solution.
By late summer I did have confirmation of the dates but the race directors refused to respond to my emails for entry forms and hotel information. I decided to go out on a limb and book the air travel and just show up and hope that I could find the race if that’s the way it turned out? In desperation I also sent the race directors another email outlining my racing credentials and explaining that I was trying to complete a goal of running a marathon in every country in Europe and needed their help. Little did I know that this would eventually come back to bite me?
I decided to cash in the last of my Delta miles to get to Europe but then I needed to buy tickets to travel around/within the Balkans. This proved to be a challenge since the only airline that could accommodate my proposed travel plans was Yugoslavia Airlines (JAT) and I had to locate a travel agency in Philadelphia to write the tickets for me. After much frustration I finally I had tickets to get us to all the required locations and --- miracles - of - miracles: a few days before we were set to leave I received emails from the race directors in Belgrade and Podgorica. The race director in Belgrade advised me that a hotel had been booked and a race package would be waiting at the hotel. The Podgorica director informed me that I was being “invited as a special guest” and the race committee would pay for the entry and hotel. Kosice actually had a real web site and had been the easiest to plan. I felt much more comfortable that I was actually going to accomplish my goal on this trip as I sat waiting for the first plane/leg of the trip.
Now the trip begins.
As usual with ‘free’ tickets we were routed halfway around the world/Europe to get to our first destination – Kosice, Slovakia. You don’t feel like you can complain because the tickets are ‘free’and you are flying first-class? In this case we were routed through Frankfurt, Germany with a nine-hour lay-over. Since neither of us had been to Frankfurt we decided to catch a train into the city center and explore the Old Town. Frankfurt was totally destroyed during WWII so the Old Town has been completely restored. It is quite small but very nice and looks like every other ‘old town’ in Europe. I think we are getting (or have gotten) ‘old towned’; ‘old churched’ and ‘old castled’ out??? But ignore my boredom and sarcasm – it is a nice city. The rest of the city is very modern skyscrapers – several of unique and interesting architecture that is in stark contrast to the old town. We enjoyed a nice lunch in the old town along with some great German beer – even tried the local apple wine but liked the beer better. After lunch we took a cruise on the Main River to enjoy the skyline of the city from a different perspective. Then it was time to head back to the airport and continue our journey via Prague to Kosice. Finally we arrived in Kosice at 11pm – some 30 hours after we left our home in FL.
I had wisely booked the flights to allow us two days to recover from jetlag so we had Fri and Sat to recover and explore the city before the race on Sun. I probably needed the two days for jetlag but we certainly didn’t need two days to explore Kosice. It is a small industrial city that dates back to the 11th century. The Old Town is small – stretching along one main street about a mile long with several old, interesting buildings such as St Elizabeth’s Cathedral (1508); St Michael’s Chapel (1330); Urban’s Tower (1628) and the East Slovak Theatre (1897). Some ruins from the original town ramparts (1290) still exist along with many more churches – but as I said we are ‘churched’ out! Slovakia does not get many tourists and there is little infrastructure for tourists. There were no city tours so we just bought a local guidebook and did our own walking tour of the old town. That took a half- day – now what do we do? We considered doing an excursion to the nearby wine country but since I wouldn’t be able to taste/enjoy the wines the day before the race that won’t work? I decided to see if I could find the race director or some runners from Ukraine or Belarus to ask them if they had information on marathons in those countries. No luck! I could not find one, single race volunteer or runner who spoke English. In fact – other than the desk staff at our hotel – very few people in the city spoke English. Not surprisingly I was the only American and runner from an English-speaking country entered in the marathon. Fortunately our hotel had satellite TV with BBC so at least we were able to hear some English and get some news. Whew! I might have had to talk to my sports manager for a few days and that would lead to nothing but trouble?
Normally I have a routine or tradition that I always follow before a marathon – Chinese food (rice) two days before the race and Italian (must be spaghetti) the night before. But this time I decided that since I wasn’t going to run/race hard I wanted to try the local/ethnic food on Thu night. So we spent a few hours strolling by restaurants in the old town looking for a good restaurant that served local fare. The local food is strong on grilled meats with a lot of fried side dishes. Dinner was good but very heavy – and relatively cheap – about $20 including a liter of local wine.
M-Day was approaching! The International Peace Marathon is the 2nd oldest marathon in the world (after Boston) and the oldest in Europe. This was the 73rd anniversary and thus it is treated somewhat like Boston by the Europeans. Many of the top runners run each year and there is good prize money even though it is a small race. There were only 400 runners in the marathon and about 600 in the Half. Yet there are banners and advertisements posted all over the city. The race gets prime time on TV and space on the front page of the paper – it is a huge/important national sports event for the country and the local citizens really support it. The start/finish line was right under our hotel room and I watched the army build bleachers at the finish line for the dignitaries and public – for 1,000 runners? The weather the day before the race sucked – cold and raining hard. I hoped that we would get better weather for the race?
Finally – Sunday morning – race day! The race started at 10am. It was cold and windy but the rain had stopped. The course was a half-marathon loop that started and finished in front of our hotel in old town. We foolish marathoners had to run two loops. As we started down the main street of old town there were thousands of supporters along the street to cheer us on. Unfortunately by 2K it started raining again and would never stop. I had planned to run an easy (8:15) pace but soon found myself following a couple that were running the Half and were running such a smooth, easy pace that I decided to stay with them. They pulled me across the half in 1:44:58 – right on an 8-min pace. After they peeled off to finish their race I started my 2nd loop and decided to slow down and reached 32K in 2:42:53. At that point I still felt OK so decided to pick up the pace over the last 10K to teach the old bod how to deal with pain and stress for the last 10K. I was also sick of running in the cold rain. I finally crossed the finish line in 3:31:30 – about 4 minutes faster than I had planned to run. I was pleased – especially since I had finished without any pains or injuries that would prevent me from running the next race in two weeks.
To demonstrate how good the competition was in that race – my 3:31 placed me 35th out of 65 runners in my age group (50 to 59). Most of the faster runners were babies – in their early 50s but still the competition was extremely tough/fast!
The tough part was over – time for a long, hot soak in a tub and then celebrate! But first we walked over to Marathon Square so that I could get a photo by the Marathon Monument. The city built a monument to the marathon and runners and every year the winners of the male and female races are added to the monument. If I could have only run 77 minutes faster my name would have been added this year? Well, everyone is entitled to dream aren’t they? Then we found another nice restaurant and enjoyed an excellent dinner of Chateaubriand. With wine, dessert, coffee/liquor and tip the bill was $25! Might as well enjoy good/cheap meals while we could because I knew we were heading for London and the UK next and you won’t get that dinner there for $20!
On Mon we had another strange routing back through Prague to London to begin the next leg of our journey – and the next trip report.
Talk to you again soon!
Germany, Slovakia and UK
10/01/03 to 10/16/03
Since my latest trip lasted 28 days and included 3 marathons and 8 countries in Europe I know that a single trip report would be too long so I intend to split it into three reports based around the marathons.
I will include a prologue with this first report as there is some preliminary information that is common to all three. So let’s get started.
The planning for this trip started last spring when I received news that the Belgrade Marathon, normally held in April, had been postponed to Oct due to political issues – the Iraq war and the assassination of the president of Serbia. When they announced that the race was tentatively rescheduled to Oct. it fit perfectly with my plan to go to Europe for the month of Oct to finish off the last two (now three) countries of Europe (or so I thought at the time?). Slowly – very slowly- over the summer I started to collect the necessary information to put the trip together. Trying to get information and then confirmation and entry into races in the smaller, third-world countries is very difficult if not impossible. They typically do not have web sites and if they do have an email contact they won’t/don’t respond to email. In most cases a letter sent by fax is the best solution.
By late summer I did have confirmation of the dates but the race directors refused to respond to my emails for entry forms and hotel information. I decided to go out on a limb and book the air travel and just show up and hope that I could find the race if that’s the way it turned out? In desperation I also sent the race directors another email outlining my racing credentials and explaining that I was trying to complete a goal of running a marathon in every country in Europe and needed their help. Little did I know that this would eventually come back to bite me?
I decided to cash in the last of my Delta miles to get to Europe but then I needed to buy tickets to travel around/within the Balkans. This proved to be a challenge since the only airline that could accommodate my proposed travel plans was Yugoslavia Airlines (JAT) and I had to locate a travel agency in Philadelphia to write the tickets for me. After much frustration I finally I had tickets to get us to all the required locations and --- miracles - of - miracles: a few days before we were set to leave I received emails from the race directors in Belgrade and Podgorica. The race director in Belgrade advised me that a hotel had been booked and a race package would be waiting at the hotel. The Podgorica director informed me that I was being “invited as a special guest” and the race committee would pay for the entry and hotel. Kosice actually had a real web site and had been the easiest to plan. I felt much more comfortable that I was actually going to accomplish my goal on this trip as I sat waiting for the first plane/leg of the trip.
Now the trip begins.
As usual with ‘free’ tickets we were routed halfway around the world/Europe to get to our first destination – Kosice, Slovakia. You don’t feel like you can complain because the tickets are ‘free’and you are flying first-class? In this case we were routed through Frankfurt, Germany with a nine-hour lay-over. Since neither of us had been to Frankfurt we decided to catch a train into the city center and explore the Old Town. Frankfurt was totally destroyed during WWII so the Old Town has been completely restored. It is quite small but very nice and looks like every other ‘old town’ in Europe. I think we are getting (or have gotten) ‘old towned’; ‘old churched’ and ‘old castled’ out??? But ignore my boredom and sarcasm – it is a nice city. The rest of the city is very modern skyscrapers – several of unique and interesting architecture that is in stark contrast to the old town. We enjoyed a nice lunch in the old town along with some great German beer – even tried the local apple wine but liked the beer better. After lunch we took a cruise on the Main River to enjoy the skyline of the city from a different perspective. Then it was time to head back to the airport and continue our journey via Prague to Kosice. Finally we arrived in Kosice at 11pm – some 30 hours after we left our home in FL.
I had wisely booked the flights to allow us two days to recover from jetlag so we had Fri and Sat to recover and explore the city before the race on Sun. I probably needed the two days for jetlag but we certainly didn’t need two days to explore Kosice. It is a small industrial city that dates back to the 11th century. The Old Town is small – stretching along one main street about a mile long with several old, interesting buildings such as St Elizabeth’s Cathedral (1508); St Michael’s Chapel (1330); Urban’s Tower (1628) and the East Slovak Theatre (1897). Some ruins from the original town ramparts (1290) still exist along with many more churches – but as I said we are ‘churched’ out! Slovakia does not get many tourists and there is little infrastructure for tourists. There were no city tours so we just bought a local guidebook and did our own walking tour of the old town. That took a half- day – now what do we do? We considered doing an excursion to the nearby wine country but since I wouldn’t be able to taste/enjoy the wines the day before the race that won’t work? I decided to see if I could find the race director or some runners from Ukraine or Belarus to ask them if they had information on marathons in those countries. No luck! I could not find one, single race volunteer or runner who spoke English. In fact – other than the desk staff at our hotel – very few people in the city spoke English. Not surprisingly I was the only American and runner from an English-speaking country entered in the marathon. Fortunately our hotel had satellite TV with BBC so at least we were able to hear some English and get some news. Whew! I might have had to talk to my sports manager for a few days and that would lead to nothing but trouble?
Normally I have a routine or tradition that I always follow before a marathon – Chinese food (rice) two days before the race and Italian (must be spaghetti) the night before. But this time I decided that since I wasn’t going to run/race hard I wanted to try the local/ethnic food on Thu night. So we spent a few hours strolling by restaurants in the old town looking for a good restaurant that served local fare. The local food is strong on grilled meats with a lot of fried side dishes. Dinner was good but very heavy – and relatively cheap – about $20 including a liter of local wine.
M-Day was approaching! The International Peace Marathon is the 2nd oldest marathon in the world (after Boston) and the oldest in Europe. This was the 73rd anniversary and thus it is treated somewhat like Boston by the Europeans. Many of the top runners run each year and there is good prize money even though it is a small race. There were only 400 runners in the marathon and about 600 in the Half. Yet there are banners and advertisements posted all over the city. The race gets prime time on TV and space on the front page of the paper – it is a huge/important national sports event for the country and the local citizens really support it. The start/finish line was right under our hotel room and I watched the army build bleachers at the finish line for the dignitaries and public – for 1,000 runners? The weather the day before the race sucked – cold and raining hard. I hoped that we would get better weather for the race?
Finally – Sunday morning – race day! The race started at 10am. It was cold and windy but the rain had stopped. The course was a half-marathon loop that started and finished in front of our hotel in old town. We foolish marathoners had to run two loops. As we started down the main street of old town there were thousands of supporters along the street to cheer us on. Unfortunately by 2K it started raining again and would never stop. I had planned to run an easy (8:15) pace but soon found myself following a couple that were running the Half and were running such a smooth, easy pace that I decided to stay with them. They pulled me across the half in 1:44:58 – right on an 8-min pace. After they peeled off to finish their race I started my 2nd loop and decided to slow down and reached 32K in 2:42:53. At that point I still felt OK so decided to pick up the pace over the last 10K to teach the old bod how to deal with pain and stress for the last 10K. I was also sick of running in the cold rain. I finally crossed the finish line in 3:31:30 – about 4 minutes faster than I had planned to run. I was pleased – especially since I had finished without any pains or injuries that would prevent me from running the next race in two weeks.
To demonstrate how good the competition was in that race – my 3:31 placed me 35th out of 65 runners in my age group (50 to 59). Most of the faster runners were babies – in their early 50s but still the competition was extremely tough/fast!
The tough part was over – time for a long, hot soak in a tub and then celebrate! But first we walked over to Marathon Square so that I could get a photo by the Marathon Monument. The city built a monument to the marathon and runners and every year the winners of the male and female races are added to the monument. If I could have only run 77 minutes faster my name would have been added this year? Well, everyone is entitled to dream aren’t they? Then we found another nice restaurant and enjoyed an excellent dinner of Chateaubriand. With wine, dessert, coffee/liquor and tip the bill was $25! Might as well enjoy good/cheap meals while we could because I knew we were heading for London and the UK next and you won’t get that dinner there for $20!
On Mon we had another strange routing back through Prague to London to begin the next leg of our journey – and the next trip report.
Talk to you again soon!
Tuesday, September 02, 2003
TR Lithuania
TRIP REPORT
POLAND, LITHUANIA & CZECH REPUBLIC
8/24 – 9/2/03
This trip was decided during the last marathon trip to Latvia in May when my new running friend, Gunars, from Riga confirmed that a marathon would be held in Panevezys, Lithuania on Aug 30/03. Since I needed a marathon in Lithuania to cross that country off my ‘European’ list and it fit into my schedule I confirmed that I would run it!
That was the easy part.
My sports manager was not too keen on making the trip until I suggested that we could route through Poland since she had never been to Poland and wanted to visit. Now I had to put together an itinerary. Fortunately Delta worked with me to let us route through Poland but we also had to route through Prague, Czech Republic since that is the hub for their partner airline Czech Air. It was crazy routing with many extra stops and layovers so I decided (thankfully) to book First Class using air miles left from my business days. The next problem was trying to get registered for the race because the race director was not nearly as responsive and cooperative as Gunars was in Riga. The final problem was trying to book hotels in Lithuania. Most of the hotels do not yet have web sites and even those that list email addresses don’t respond to email. So I had to resort to faxes to finally book our hotels and we were ready.
After three legs/flights beginning from Denver at 9am on Sun we arrived in Paris at 9am Mon – only 17 hours later! After a 7-hour layover in the Air France lounge (why can’t they put 3-cushion sofas in the damn lounges instead of those short 2-seaters - ever try sleeping on a 2-seater?) we were finally off to Warsaw. Only 26 hours to get to our destination – about 30 hours if you include car time to/from the airports! And y’all thought international travel was fun??? Although we were both very tired and jet lagged we forced ourselves to walk around the hotel area, eat dinner and stay up until about 10pm – and then we crashed and slept for 12 hours! Almost felt like we were on local time when we ate a late breakfast.
Now it was time to play tourist and see the city. We booked our customary city tour to learn the layout of the city and visit tourist highlights such as Old Town, Royal Castle, the Old Town Square and Barbican, the Royal Park with the Water Palace and Chopin’s Monument and lastly the old Jewish Ghetto. Warsaw was almost completely destroyed by bombing in WWII so all the historical sites have been reconstructed. There is a lot of history in this city that dates back to 1294.
After the tour we figured out the city metro and returned to Old Town to explore some more and look for a good restaurant to celebrate our 36th anniversary. We found a nice restaurant that specialized in local fare but alas they didn’t serve booze – and there was no way I was celebrating an anniversary without booze! So we found another restaurant that only served wild game and had an excellent dinner with a bottle of good wine – for $30! Too early to quit celebrating so we hit some bars and tried some shooters with local vodka. Good idea at the time – bad idea the next morning when I had to get up to do a long training run. I hadn’t run since Sat in the mountains and I HAD to run! I found my way over to the Royal Park and ran an easy 10 miles to flush the poison out of my system.
Our routing required that we route back through Prague to get to Vilnius so we had to take a late afternoon flight out of Warsaw and stay over a night in Prague. That worked OK because we stayed near the airport and I was able to do an early 5-mile run before we departed for Vilnius on Thursday. This would have to be my last run since the race was on Saturday. We arrived in Vilnius in mid-afternoon and began to explore the city. Our hotel was conveniently located on the edge of the Old Town so we were close to all the bars and restaurants – and tourist sites.
Lithuania was the first of the former Soviet states in the Baltics to declare independence (1989) and although it has the largest population it seems that they have made the least progress towards capitalism. The Old Town of Vilnius is the largest old town in the Baltics but is also the least restored and set up for tourism. However they have many major restoration projects in process in preparation for their 1000th anniversary in 2009!
Normally I start my carbo-loading a few days before a race but I wanted to try/taste Lithuanian food so we found a restaurant noted for its local cuisine and enjoyed a nice dinner. The local cuisine is heavy on meats and potato dishes. A good meal with a bottle of wine cost about $20 for two!
On Friday we again took our customary city tour to explore the city and learn more about the history of the city and country. Much of the city and Old Town were destroyed during the war but there were also many buildings that escaped major damage- especially the churches. Many date back to the 16th century. Most of the original fortifications of the Old Town have been destroyed except for the ‘Gates of Dawn’. In 1671 a chapel was built into the gates to house a holy image of the Virgin Mary and none of the conquering nations – not even Lenin, Stalin and Hitler had the courage to order the gates and the image destroyed. There are lots of legends and fables surrounding the Gates of Dawn and the crown jewels of Lithuania. Legend states that anyone putting the crown on his head without just cause will die within one year and one day. A Nazi SS general ignored the legend and wore the crown and also put it on the head of his young son. The boy was killed in a car accident one month later and the general was assassinated seven months later? I guess one shouldn’t fool with Lithuanian legends?
As usual after the city tour we explored the Old Town on our own. It is only about one square mile and almost all the tourist sites are within or on the edges of the old town so you can walk to everything. It was also time to start carbo-loading so I had a pizza for lunch and pasta for dinner. Lots of Italian restaurants in Vilnius?? I was also surprised to find that many people did not speak English in Vilnius. Typically in the service industry the people –especially the younger people – speak English. This was not as common in Lithuania as it was in the other Baltic countries? But I have learned to get around the language problem with sign language and numbers so it wasn’t a big problem.
Saturday was M-day but the race was being held in Panevezys – about 120Km north of Vilnius so we decided to catch an express bus to Panevezys at 11am that would arrive in the city about 1pm. This would give me about four hours to find the race registration area and pick up my race package before the 5pm start of the race. It rained all morning and all day during the drive. “Goody” I thought, “this sure is going to be fun”! As the bus arrived in the main City Square we noticed some runners (with race numbers) running around the city? Surely they can’t be warming up this early and in the pouring rain? Turns out that they were finishing up a DOUBLE Iron Man Triathlon that had started on Friday – the winner finished in 27 hours! And you thought I was crazy?
We checked into our hotel and I set out to look for the marathon registration desk. I quickly realized that after I left our hotel nobody else in the city spoke English! Nobody could understand or help me find the race director or any marathon/race volunteer. My information stated that the race registration would be held in the City Square from 11am to 2pm but there was nothing that looked like a race desk and nobody was picking up race numbers? I even went to another hotel located on the square – an old hotel built by the Soviets - to ask for help. Not one person in the hotel spoke English. I was now getting concerned! So I walked over to the finish line for the Triathlon and started asking those race officials. Nada! But finally I found a volunteer who spoke English and he was able to advise me to come back at 3pm. It was almost 2pm so I decided to explore the city and find something to eat. It took a whole 30 minutes to complete a walking tour and visit all 15 sites recommended by the local tourist office (another person who spoke English by the way). Then I did something I have never done before a marathon – I ate a pizza three hours before the race! I wasn’t sure what effect it would have but I was hungry since I am not used to starting a marathon at 5pm.
After 3 pm I went back to the finish line and did find a registration desk. Fortunately that one English speaking volunteer was there to help me get my race number and chip. And at the same time my running friend from Riga, Latvia ( gunars Akergergs) also arrived looking for his number. He was able to provide much-needed information about the start of the race and the course. He even gave the race director shit for not providing more assistance to foreign racers. But at least I had my race number and chip and where to be at 5pm. Fortunately the rain let up by the time my sports manger and I walked over to the start line at 4:30pm. Turns out there were only about 50 runners in the marathon even though it was the national championship race for the country. I was the only runner NOT from Lithuania or Latvia! Also turns out that there were several others events/activities going on at the same time as the marathon since it was the start of their celebrations for the 500th anniversary of Panevezys.
I was glad that Gunars was also at the start line because I did not understand ONE word or instruction that was given at the start? 5pm – the gun shoots and we are off! The course was a 3 Km loop that started and finished in the main City Square called Laisves (Freedom) Square. The first .5 Km was a short uphill before the start/finish. The next 1 Km was a gradual downhill and then the course became flat as it ran through a park along the Nevezis River back to the short uphill and the start/finish line. I thought I would get very bored but the course was actually OK. Because of all the other celebrations going on in Laisves Square a band stage had been set up on the finish line and one of the major local bands played throughout the whole race. Even though there were only fifty runners in the marathon there were several hundred spectators enjoying the band and other events so that every time we came past the finish line we had lots of supporters cheering us on! By the end of the first loop I found myself running with a young male runner from Riga whose English was much better than my Latvian and we chatted for awhile. He claimed that his wife was the Latvian female marathon champion but she was injured and couldn’t run so was supporting him. We were running a sub 5 min/km pace which I figured was a bit too fast but I decided to stay with him. As we finished our 5th lap she ran out on the course shouting and screaming at him. I didn’t understand one word but guessed that she was telling him that he was running over his head and to slow down because he immediately slowed down and I never saw him again. However she continued to cheer me on every time I passed the finish line. Which is more than I can say about my sports manager. After the race started and she collected my warm-ups she returned to the hotel which was located on the Nevezis River and overlooked the course. So she sat in a nice warm, dry room and watched me go by every 15 minutes while she sipped Crown Royal?? Maybe I should interview Ms Latvian marathon champion for the job?
I managed to hold a sub 5 minute/Km (8 min/mile) pace through the 1st Half as I crossed the Half in 1:41:26. I still felt good but did not believe that I could hold that pace through the 2nd half because I had not done enough speed work at the high altitude of Summit County. So I slowed the pace down to 5 minute/Km and hoped that I could hold that pace for another 21 Km? If so I would still break 3:30 which was better than I expected or hoped for. When I finished my 12th loop (36 Km) in 2:56:48 I knew that a sub 3:30 was in the bag as long as I didn’t crash. I had lots of energy but my legs were starting to tighten and my left hamstring was really bothering me. But sub 3:30s are not easy to achieve any more for us old farts and I was not willing to let one slip away. So I continued to push and ignore the pain until I crossed the finish line in 3:27:25. I was very pleased with this time. I do not know where this time placed me in my age group and I will probably never find out?
My sports manager must have been counting my laps past the hotel room (or maybe she heard that another person was interested in her job) because she was waiting at the finish line to cheer me on and give me my warm-ups. Maybe I’ll keep her???
And now for another first in marathons. I normally can’t eat or even look at food for two or three hours after a marathon but we knew that the hotel restaurant closed at 11pm so I had to rush back to the room, shower and eat dinner. The eating part was OK but my legs started to cramp during dinner because I hadn’t soaked them long enough in hot water.
But the last of the Baltic countries was now crossed off my list.
On Sunday we had to rise early to catch another express bus at 7:20am back to Vilnius because we wanted to take another tour to Trakai. Trakai is a very picturesque town standing on a peninsula surrounded by five lakes, about 28 Km south of Vilnius. It was a former capital of Lithuania in the 14th century and has some very spectacular castles that have been restored. It was an interesting tour.
Then back to Vilnius for our last night and another great dinner before we left for Prague on Monday.
Our final evening in Europe was spent in Prague where we visited the Old Town and splurged on a dinner at a gourmet seafood restaurant. It cost $50 which is a very expensive meal in Prague but it was a nice change from all the red meat that is the norm in Lithuania.
Finally it was time to go home! Prague to Paris to NYC to Cincinnati to Denver. Thirty hours later we arrived home! My mind knew it was home – but my body still felt like it was back in Vilnius. That is always the tough part about these international trips.
I am trying not to remember that we have to do this all over again in one month when we have to go back to Europe to run the final three countries!!!
Stay tuned!!
POLAND, LITHUANIA & CZECH REPUBLIC
8/24 – 9/2/03
This trip was decided during the last marathon trip to Latvia in May when my new running friend, Gunars, from Riga confirmed that a marathon would be held in Panevezys, Lithuania on Aug 30/03. Since I needed a marathon in Lithuania to cross that country off my ‘European’ list and it fit into my schedule I confirmed that I would run it!
That was the easy part.
My sports manager was not too keen on making the trip until I suggested that we could route through Poland since she had never been to Poland and wanted to visit. Now I had to put together an itinerary. Fortunately Delta worked with me to let us route through Poland but we also had to route through Prague, Czech Republic since that is the hub for their partner airline Czech Air. It was crazy routing with many extra stops and layovers so I decided (thankfully) to book First Class using air miles left from my business days. The next problem was trying to get registered for the race because the race director was not nearly as responsive and cooperative as Gunars was in Riga. The final problem was trying to book hotels in Lithuania. Most of the hotels do not yet have web sites and even those that list email addresses don’t respond to email. So I had to resort to faxes to finally book our hotels and we were ready.
After three legs/flights beginning from Denver at 9am on Sun we arrived in Paris at 9am Mon – only 17 hours later! After a 7-hour layover in the Air France lounge (why can’t they put 3-cushion sofas in the damn lounges instead of those short 2-seaters - ever try sleeping on a 2-seater?) we were finally off to Warsaw. Only 26 hours to get to our destination – about 30 hours if you include car time to/from the airports! And y’all thought international travel was fun??? Although we were both very tired and jet lagged we forced ourselves to walk around the hotel area, eat dinner and stay up until about 10pm – and then we crashed and slept for 12 hours! Almost felt like we were on local time when we ate a late breakfast.
Now it was time to play tourist and see the city. We booked our customary city tour to learn the layout of the city and visit tourist highlights such as Old Town, Royal Castle, the Old Town Square and Barbican, the Royal Park with the Water Palace and Chopin’s Monument and lastly the old Jewish Ghetto. Warsaw was almost completely destroyed by bombing in WWII so all the historical sites have been reconstructed. There is a lot of history in this city that dates back to 1294.
After the tour we figured out the city metro and returned to Old Town to explore some more and look for a good restaurant to celebrate our 36th anniversary. We found a nice restaurant that specialized in local fare but alas they didn’t serve booze – and there was no way I was celebrating an anniversary without booze! So we found another restaurant that only served wild game and had an excellent dinner with a bottle of good wine – for $30! Too early to quit celebrating so we hit some bars and tried some shooters with local vodka. Good idea at the time – bad idea the next morning when I had to get up to do a long training run. I hadn’t run since Sat in the mountains and I HAD to run! I found my way over to the Royal Park and ran an easy 10 miles to flush the poison out of my system.
Our routing required that we route back through Prague to get to Vilnius so we had to take a late afternoon flight out of Warsaw and stay over a night in Prague. That worked OK because we stayed near the airport and I was able to do an early 5-mile run before we departed for Vilnius on Thursday. This would have to be my last run since the race was on Saturday. We arrived in Vilnius in mid-afternoon and began to explore the city. Our hotel was conveniently located on the edge of the Old Town so we were close to all the bars and restaurants – and tourist sites.
Lithuania was the first of the former Soviet states in the Baltics to declare independence (1989) and although it has the largest population it seems that they have made the least progress towards capitalism. The Old Town of Vilnius is the largest old town in the Baltics but is also the least restored and set up for tourism. However they have many major restoration projects in process in preparation for their 1000th anniversary in 2009!
Normally I start my carbo-loading a few days before a race but I wanted to try/taste Lithuanian food so we found a restaurant noted for its local cuisine and enjoyed a nice dinner. The local cuisine is heavy on meats and potato dishes. A good meal with a bottle of wine cost about $20 for two!
On Friday we again took our customary city tour to explore the city and learn more about the history of the city and country. Much of the city and Old Town were destroyed during the war but there were also many buildings that escaped major damage- especially the churches. Many date back to the 16th century. Most of the original fortifications of the Old Town have been destroyed except for the ‘Gates of Dawn’. In 1671 a chapel was built into the gates to house a holy image of the Virgin Mary and none of the conquering nations – not even Lenin, Stalin and Hitler had the courage to order the gates and the image destroyed. There are lots of legends and fables surrounding the Gates of Dawn and the crown jewels of Lithuania. Legend states that anyone putting the crown on his head without just cause will die within one year and one day. A Nazi SS general ignored the legend and wore the crown and also put it on the head of his young son. The boy was killed in a car accident one month later and the general was assassinated seven months later? I guess one shouldn’t fool with Lithuanian legends?
As usual after the city tour we explored the Old Town on our own. It is only about one square mile and almost all the tourist sites are within or on the edges of the old town so you can walk to everything. It was also time to start carbo-loading so I had a pizza for lunch and pasta for dinner. Lots of Italian restaurants in Vilnius?? I was also surprised to find that many people did not speak English in Vilnius. Typically in the service industry the people –especially the younger people – speak English. This was not as common in Lithuania as it was in the other Baltic countries? But I have learned to get around the language problem with sign language and numbers so it wasn’t a big problem.
Saturday was M-day but the race was being held in Panevezys – about 120Km north of Vilnius so we decided to catch an express bus to Panevezys at 11am that would arrive in the city about 1pm. This would give me about four hours to find the race registration area and pick up my race package before the 5pm start of the race. It rained all morning and all day during the drive. “Goody” I thought, “this sure is going to be fun”! As the bus arrived in the main City Square we noticed some runners (with race numbers) running around the city? Surely they can’t be warming up this early and in the pouring rain? Turns out that they were finishing up a DOUBLE Iron Man Triathlon that had started on Friday – the winner finished in 27 hours! And you thought I was crazy?
We checked into our hotel and I set out to look for the marathon registration desk. I quickly realized that after I left our hotel nobody else in the city spoke English! Nobody could understand or help me find the race director or any marathon/race volunteer. My information stated that the race registration would be held in the City Square from 11am to 2pm but there was nothing that looked like a race desk and nobody was picking up race numbers? I even went to another hotel located on the square – an old hotel built by the Soviets - to ask for help. Not one person in the hotel spoke English. I was now getting concerned! So I walked over to the finish line for the Triathlon and started asking those race officials. Nada! But finally I found a volunteer who spoke English and he was able to advise me to come back at 3pm. It was almost 2pm so I decided to explore the city and find something to eat. It took a whole 30 minutes to complete a walking tour and visit all 15 sites recommended by the local tourist office (another person who spoke English by the way). Then I did something I have never done before a marathon – I ate a pizza three hours before the race! I wasn’t sure what effect it would have but I was hungry since I am not used to starting a marathon at 5pm.
After 3 pm I went back to the finish line and did find a registration desk. Fortunately that one English speaking volunteer was there to help me get my race number and chip. And at the same time my running friend from Riga, Latvia ( gunars Akergergs) also arrived looking for his number. He was able to provide much-needed information about the start of the race and the course. He even gave the race director shit for not providing more assistance to foreign racers. But at least I had my race number and chip and where to be at 5pm. Fortunately the rain let up by the time my sports manger and I walked over to the start line at 4:30pm. Turns out there were only about 50 runners in the marathon even though it was the national championship race for the country. I was the only runner NOT from Lithuania or Latvia! Also turns out that there were several others events/activities going on at the same time as the marathon since it was the start of their celebrations for the 500th anniversary of Panevezys.
I was glad that Gunars was also at the start line because I did not understand ONE word or instruction that was given at the start? 5pm – the gun shoots and we are off! The course was a 3 Km loop that started and finished in the main City Square called Laisves (Freedom) Square. The first .5 Km was a short uphill before the start/finish. The next 1 Km was a gradual downhill and then the course became flat as it ran through a park along the Nevezis River back to the short uphill and the start/finish line. I thought I would get very bored but the course was actually OK. Because of all the other celebrations going on in Laisves Square a band stage had been set up on the finish line and one of the major local bands played throughout the whole race. Even though there were only fifty runners in the marathon there were several hundred spectators enjoying the band and other events so that every time we came past the finish line we had lots of supporters cheering us on! By the end of the first loop I found myself running with a young male runner from Riga whose English was much better than my Latvian and we chatted for awhile. He claimed that his wife was the Latvian female marathon champion but she was injured and couldn’t run so was supporting him. We were running a sub 5 min/km pace which I figured was a bit too fast but I decided to stay with him. As we finished our 5th lap she ran out on the course shouting and screaming at him. I didn’t understand one word but guessed that she was telling him that he was running over his head and to slow down because he immediately slowed down and I never saw him again. However she continued to cheer me on every time I passed the finish line. Which is more than I can say about my sports manager. After the race started and she collected my warm-ups she returned to the hotel which was located on the Nevezis River and overlooked the course. So she sat in a nice warm, dry room and watched me go by every 15 minutes while she sipped Crown Royal?? Maybe I should interview Ms Latvian marathon champion for the job?
I managed to hold a sub 5 minute/Km (8 min/mile) pace through the 1st Half as I crossed the Half in 1:41:26. I still felt good but did not believe that I could hold that pace through the 2nd half because I had not done enough speed work at the high altitude of Summit County. So I slowed the pace down to 5 minute/Km and hoped that I could hold that pace for another 21 Km? If so I would still break 3:30 which was better than I expected or hoped for. When I finished my 12th loop (36 Km) in 2:56:48 I knew that a sub 3:30 was in the bag as long as I didn’t crash. I had lots of energy but my legs were starting to tighten and my left hamstring was really bothering me. But sub 3:30s are not easy to achieve any more for us old farts and I was not willing to let one slip away. So I continued to push and ignore the pain until I crossed the finish line in 3:27:25. I was very pleased with this time. I do not know where this time placed me in my age group and I will probably never find out?
My sports manager must have been counting my laps past the hotel room (or maybe she heard that another person was interested in her job) because she was waiting at the finish line to cheer me on and give me my warm-ups. Maybe I’ll keep her???
And now for another first in marathons. I normally can’t eat or even look at food for two or three hours after a marathon but we knew that the hotel restaurant closed at 11pm so I had to rush back to the room, shower and eat dinner. The eating part was OK but my legs started to cramp during dinner because I hadn’t soaked them long enough in hot water.
But the last of the Baltic countries was now crossed off my list.
On Sunday we had to rise early to catch another express bus at 7:20am back to Vilnius because we wanted to take another tour to Trakai. Trakai is a very picturesque town standing on a peninsula surrounded by five lakes, about 28 Km south of Vilnius. It was a former capital of Lithuania in the 14th century and has some very spectacular castles that have been restored. It was an interesting tour.
Then back to Vilnius for our last night and another great dinner before we left for Prague on Monday.
Our final evening in Europe was spent in Prague where we visited the Old Town and splurged on a dinner at a gourmet seafood restaurant. It cost $50 which is a very expensive meal in Prague but it was a nice change from all the red meat that is the norm in Lithuania.
Finally it was time to go home! Prague to Paris to NYC to Cincinnati to Denver. Thirty hours later we arrived home! My mind knew it was home – but my body still felt like it was back in Vilnius. That is always the tough part about these international trips.
I am trying not to remember that we have to do this all over again in one month when we have to go back to Europe to run the final three countries!!!
Stay tuned!!
Saturday, August 16, 2003
A Night on the Mountain
Survival shelter made from pine branches Holy Cross MountainAn Adventure Story
A Night on the Mountain
08/16/03
After a nice steak dinner washed down with a few Colorado microbrews last night I collapsed into bed at 6 pm and slept for a straight fourteen hours! Now I am rested and ready to tell my story about 'The Night on the Mountain'.
The adventure started Monday morning when I arose early and drove over by Vail to run/hike the Mount of the Holy Cross (14,005 ft) -one of the more rugged and tougher of Colorado's fifty-four Fourteeners. After driving 8 miles into the Sawatch Range on a 4X4 road I reached the Halfmoon Trailhead (10,320 ft) at 8am. The Halfmoon Trail is a 6-mile hike and a 5,625 vertical feet climb to the summit of Holy Cross. I figured it would take me about 7hours to make the return trip.
The trail climbs 1320 vertical feet over the first 1.7 miles to the top of Halfmoon Pass and then drops 1,000 feet to East Cross Creek. I was able to run most of that section of the trail. After crossing the creek the trail climbs up the east side of the mountain and emerges from the tree line about 11,600ft. At that point the trail ends and it is necessary to hike/climb on talus or large rocks along the north ridge of the mountain until that ridge merges with the upper part of the peak at 13,400 ft. A few sections of the route are scary as you have to peer down into many of the rugged and steep couloirs that the mountain is noted for. It was difficult climbing and thank goodness that some volunteers had built rock pillars or posts to indicate the correct route/path to follow up to the top of Angelica Couloir at 13,700 ft. From there it was a steep, tough climb to the summit. I reached the peak at 12 pm - 4 hours of tough climbing!
I figured it was going to take another 4 hours for the return trip because the climb back down through the talus would be just as difficult or more than the climb up? So after a quick snack and a few pictures at the summit I started back down. I had met two young men at the top but they had come up the south side of the mountain so I had the whole mountain to myself again as I started the descent down the north ridge to the east side of the mountain back to Halfmoon trail. And I made my first mistake of theday/trip. I had my GPS with me but failed to 'mark' my trail and tell the GPS to 'track back' on the trail.
I was sure that I knew the way back down and would not need the GPS. I had no problem climbing back down to the top of Angelica Couloir and on to the top of the north ridge. But at that point I made my second mistake. Instead of staying on the top of the ridge where I had to look down into the couloirs and dizzying heights I decided to veer off the west side of the ridge and follow it down. However by the time I reached the tree line I realized that I had strayed about 1/4 mile west of the ridge. That meant that I now had to traverse 1/4 mile of talus to reach the ridge. Although the GPS could not steer me back to the actual trail I had ascended I decided to use the compass feature to verify that I was heading back to the east side because I had become disoriented. However the batteries had died and the GPS was useless! So I set off in what I considered the east direction. But now I had a bigger problem. A violent thunderstorm and rain quickly moved over the mountain and I wanted off that mountain fast. As I neared what I figured was the ridge on the east side of the mountain I found a trail. It was not the Halfmoon trail but it did go down the mountain so I decided to follow it and hope that I could traverse across to the proper trail. Only after I had descended about 500 vertical feet did I realize that I was on a false trail and was actually descending a couloir.Too late to turn back. I could see East Cross Creek at the bottom of the mountain so I made the decision to continue the descent to the Creek and then hope that I could follow the Creek around to the east side of the mountain and find the Halfmoon trail where it crossed the Creek?
It turned out to be a real bad decision. The descent down the couloir was a nightmare. Very steep and a few sections of solid rock cliffs that I had to scale down. It took me over 2 hours to make that descent but finally I was down and unhurt!
Now reality and bad news started to confront me.
There were no trails on this side of the mountain and the terrain along East Cross Creek was impassable. Steep cliffs on the north side of Holy Cross jutted down into the creek on both sides of this small section of the creek blocking all routes out. I was trapped on this section of the mountain! After a brief moment of panic/anxiety training took over -thankfully. It was raining, there was lightning and it was now 6 pm and I knew that I was spending the night on the mountain! There was not enough daylight left to hike off the mountain safely even if I had known the way. Once I accepted that fact/reality it was time to act!
Thankfully I had two weeks of survival training in the Canadian Rockies forty years ago when I was in the military - and it all came back to me clearly! First action - take stock of what supplies I had. I had worn only a T-shirt and shorts on the hike but thankfully I had carried in a rain jacket and gloves. However everything was thoroughly soaked. The rest of my emergency kit consisted of one power bar for food and a Swiss army knife.That was it! The first survival priority is warmth and shelter. So I hiked for a short time to locate a high rocky outcrop on the edge of the forest and creek. The forest would provide protection from the rain and wind and the rock was high and dry. Unfortunately I didn't have any matches/lighter so a much needed and desired fire was out of the question. Thus a shelter was critical! I had less than two hours of daylight left to build my new home so I set to work immediately. Since I had no axe I gathered dead trees and limbs from the forest to build the frame of a lean-to which I placed against a huge rock and a tree. Then I used my trusty knife to cut large branches from pine trees and place them on the roof and sides of the frame. This would provide protection from the rain and wind. Then I gathered moss from the forest floor and rotten wood from old fallen logs to build a bed in my shelter. This would keep me off the cold, hard and wet rock. I made it even more comfy by cutting several small, soft branches from pine trees and stacking two or three layers on top of the moss/bark. Then I cut several more large branches so that I could cover myself with pine branches to provide another layer of protection and insulation. My final preparation was to cut down a small aspen and make a spear. I knew there was wildlife along the creek from animal trails and droppings and I wanted some kind of protection if needed. It was 8 pm, dark and raining when I finally crawled into the Wallace-Holy Cross Hilton and pulled an old tree stump and pine tree across the entrance. I was in bed for the night and had no intention of emerging until sunrise!
I allowed myself to eat half of the power bar because I knew I would need nutrition/energy to stay warm. Within a few minutes of being sedentary I started to shiver and realized that my wet clothes were stealing my body heat so I stripped and wrung out as much water as possible and then had to put the old, wet clothes back on. Everything except my hiking socks, which were so heavy and wet that I figured my feet, would stay warmer without the socks.Finally I pulled two or three layers of pine branches over me and settled down for the night. I figured I had 10 hours until sunrise to rest, analyze my predicament and come up with a solution.
I knew that it was going to be a very uncomfortable and miserable night -but I wasn't in danger of dieing! The temps, even at 10,500 feet are not cold enough at this time of the year to freeze. But I was concerned about the amount of body heat and energy that I would lose to the cold temps and what toll that would take on my body. I knew that my wife now realized that something had happened on the mountain and I wasn't coming home that night. She would be worried and would contact the police and mountain rescue. Of course they couldn't do anything until daylight. Now that I was settled in and more relaxed I pictured the mountain and map over and over again in my mind to understandwhat had happened and where I was on the mountain. I decided that I had only two options:
1) I could stay where I was until a search & rescue team came to my rescue. The problem with this solution was that I figured that I had descended down the north side of Holy Cross where there are no trails in or out because the terrain is so steep and treacherous. A rescue team would never think of looking there until they had exhausted all the obvious sections of the mountain. I could be stuck in my location for another two or three days! That would extract a terrible toll on my body without food and adequate clothing. I doubted that I would even have the strength/energy by then to hike out and they would have to bring in a helicopter to lift me out. This was not a desirable option.
2) I had to find a safe and not-too-difficult route to climb back up the north side of Holy Cross to the summit. From there I could find the proper trail down the mountain or wait for other hikers or a rescue team to arrive and show me the way down. This was the only viable option!
Now I only had to wait another nine hours to put my plan into action. It was a very long and miserable nine hours. But without my shelter and preparations it would have been pure Hell! I didn't sleep much and by 1 am the temps had dropped into the mid 30s and I had to start doing isometric exercises and massaging my bare legs to keep my body warm. I even attempted meditation to lower my pulse rate in an effort to use less energy.Thank goodness for the Times Indigo watch that I was wearing. It allowed me to track the time in the dark so I knew how much longer I had to hold on and wait for sunrise.
Finally at 6 am the first rays of sunrise started to peak over the mountain and I gathered my things and left the shelter. I ate another 1/4 of my power bar and reluctantly filled my camelback with water from the East Cross Creek. All the guidebooks warn you not to drink water from the mountain streams (unless you treat it) but I had no choice. I had run out of water coming down the north side and I needed water. My legs were starting to cramp from the cold and dehydration. My muscles needed water and I figured that I would just have to deal with the ramifications/consequences later.
I then hiked along the creek in both directions while I surveyed the north face of Holy Cross and looked for the best possible route back up that mountain. It was not good! There were steep cliffs everywhere and I could hardly believe that I had made it down that couloir without a fall or injury? Finally I decided that the East Ridge offered the best route. The tree lines eemed to rise more gradually than any other route and there didn't seem to be as many rock/cliff sections.
My mind was set. I headed across and up the north face towards that East Ridge. There were no trails and the terrain was treacherous but I had made a good choice. By criss-crossing over the ridge I was able to avoid all but two sections of cliffs which I had to scale. And the trees actually helped me by using the branches as ropes to pull myself up the steep terrain. After two grueling and exhausting hours I finally reached the treeline on the East Ridge around 12,000 feet and luckily (or was it miraculously) I stumbled across a well-maintained trail. Was it the Halfmoon Trail? No matter– it was obviously a well-traveled trail and I decided immediately that I was following that trail down the mountain. It would eventually lead to a trailhead and to people, cars and safety! Within 30 minutes I met the first hiker coming up the mountain and he confirmed, “Yes, this is the Halfmoon Trail”! Hallelujah! I now was 100% confident that I was getting off this damn mountain safely and ALIVE!
But the ordeal was not over yet. Another 30 minutes later I reached East Cross Creek at 10,600 feet. A quick look north and west confirmed what I had already determined - it was impossible to hike to this crossing along the creek. But now I had another difficult challenge. I had to climb the 1000 vertical feet of Halfmoon Trail back up the other side to the top of Halfmoon Pass. My legs were mush! They were totally exhausted and cramped from the cold and demanding climb up the north face of Holy Cross. But like many of my marathons in the past I just told myself to do it –one slow, excruciating step at a time! I met a lot of hikers coming down the pass (where were all those hikers the day before when I needed them) but no rescue team? And finally one long, painful hour later I crested the top of Halfmoon Pass (11,640 ft). I was almost out! Only 1.7 miles and 1300 vertical feet of descent and I would back at my car! That was the only thought that kept me going – my legs were finished - so cramped that each step was painful. I met several more hikers on the descent but still no rescue team?
At 10am – four grueling and painful hours after I had left the lovely, palacial Wallace-Holy Cross Hilton, I was really off the mountain. Fortunately I had left a quart of high-energy drink in the car and I immediately downed the whole quart to replenish both my liquids and much-needed nutrients. I discovered a note on the car from a sheriff so I knew that Nicole had called in the crisis/problem. Just as I was leaving the trailhead the sheriff drove back in to check if I was still on the mountain. If I had not returned there they were preparing to launch a search and rescue team to start the search. Fortunately he was able to call it off and even agred to call Nicole to inform her that I was off the mountain safely and on my way home.
All I could think of on the long drive home was my hot tub! After apologizing to Nicole for putting her through Hell I intended to sink into the tub and stay there until every molecule of my body was warm again and my sore, cramped muscles were soothed and relaxed. And that is exactly what Idid!
While I was submerged in that glorious hot water I relived the past 24 hours and reflected on what I had learned from this adventure:
1) I will never go into the mountains again (even for a supposedly short day trip) without a complete emergency kit. Warm clothes and rain gear for my whole body, an emergency foil/solar blanket, waterproof matches, more food and tablets for disinfecting water and of course my trusty Swiss knife.
2) I am certain that I would still be on that mountain right now if I was not in such good physical condition. I would never have had the endurance and mental toughness required to hike back up the north face of HolyCross to find my own way out.
So all those marathons, hikes and maniacal training that I do saved me a lot of pain and discomfort and maybe even saved my life! I will never stop running marathons or even hiking 14ers and most certainly I will NEVER, NEVER stop keeping myself in peak physical condition all the time!
I hope that some of you may learn something useful from this adventure. I know that certainly have!
Sunday, July 06, 2003
Race Report - Leadville Trail Marathon
Leadville Trail Marathon
July 5/03
Well, most of the July 4th weekend went off as planned.We went to the Drifters concert on Fri night and they were great. As they promised "we could understand every word they sang" and I even knew every song they sang!The fireworks display over Lake Dillon afterwards was fantastic.Sat night we went to the Lovin Spoonful concert and they were also great.Now let me see - there was something else planned for this weekend. Oh yeah - it's like childbirth - your mind tends to forget painful experiences so that you won't stop yourself from doing it again! There was the Leadville Trail marathon - and it was a bitch - an ABSOLUTE BITCH!In retrospect I now realize that I made a serious tactical error in my training for the race. None of the 70+ mile weeks with 21-mile hikes into the mountains included runs or hikes above 12,000 ft and it cost me dearly in pain and suffering! Where do I start to relate this story before my brain erases it forever from my memory?Let's start on Fri when I picked up my race package at race HQ in Leadville. I talked to the race director because I wanted answers to some questions such as:1) Should I wear trail shoes since much of the course was on 4X4 roads? A -Yes2) Do I need to carry water with me since there were water/aid stations every 3 to 4 miles? A - Yes and that recommendation may have saved my life!3) Should I carry warm clothes i.e. jacket, gloves, etc with me since the weather was forcast to be very warm? A - YesSo I showed up at the start line the next morning with both a survival pack and a waist belt with only a water bottle. The temp was a high 51 F already at 8am and forecast to reach the low 80s so I decided not to carry the survival kit/pack because of the weight and it is cumbersome to run with. But I did strap on my waist pack with water bottle.The race started in Leadville at 10,200 ft and climbed out of the town on paved and dirt roads into the Mosquito Mountains. The first 1 1/2 miles were paved and dirt roads and I was able to run them. Then the course turned on to a 4X4 road - very steep and rocky. I quickly established MY ground rules for the race. If a road or trail had a slope of 10% or less I would run it - above 10% I walk! I started walking, along with the pack I was with, at 2 miles!The course climbed quickly on very steep and rocky 4X4 roads and trails to the top of Ball Mountain (12,000+ ft) at mile 4. Then we did a loop UP and Down and around Ball Mtn. I quickly realized that were were NO flat sections to this course! Turned out that maybe there was a total of maybe 1 mile of flat in the whole race - the other 25 miles were UP and Down! Of those 25 miles maybe 8 miles had a slope of 10% or less - the remainder had a slope greater than 10%. The average was probably 20 to 30% but there were many sections with a slope of 45+%.During the loop around Ball Mtn I didn't have any serious problems with altitude other than sucking for air especially on the uphill sections. At the end of that 1st loop I reached a water station at 7.5 miles - time 1:35. The next 2.5 miles were all downhill on a dirt mining road that was in good shape so I was able to haul ass and reach the water station at 10 miles in just under 2 hours. Not bad time - averaging 12 minute miles. If I could hold that pace I would finish in 5:12 - much faster than my goal of 6 hours! Yeah right! Wishful dreaming!For now we had dropped down to the low point of the course - below 10,000 ft and the next 3 miles climbed 3,000+ vertical ft to the top of Mosquito Pass. I managed to run less than 1/4 mile of that 3-mile section! It was a friggin tortuous nightmare! After I climbed above 12,000ft altitude sickness set in. My usual symptoms of altitude sickness are difficulty breathing and stomach cramps - only this time the stomach cramps were much more severe than normal! Several times I was forced to stop and double or bend over which seemed to relieve the pain somewhat and help my breathing. Some good Samaritans/runners became concerned and asked if they could help but I knew the only cure was to get my sorry, sick ass down off the mountain! And that was not an option. With only 1 1/2 miles and 1000+ vertical feet to go to the top I was not about to give up! So I struggled on painfully in what seemed excruciating slow motion. 'One step at a time' I kept reminding myself!Strangely, when I reached about 13,000 ft the symptoms eased a little and I was able to pick up the pace and ten minutes later I reached the summit of Mosquito Pass at 13,188 ft. It had taken me 70 minutes to climb 3 miles! Time - 3:10!I felt so shitty and was still in so much pain that I don't even remember looking at the view from the summit. I just refilled my water bottle, gulped down a carbo gel and cup of water and headed back down the mountain. I was very concerned about the trip back down the pass because the trail was very steep (45+ % slope) and the footing was rocky and loose. So I was using my legs as brakes to keep my speed in control and sure enough within the first 1/2 mile my left leg cramped and locked up! I tried to find a stretch to alleviate the cramp/pain but nothing worked so I had to lay down on the trail and massage the leg for 3 or 4 minutes to get the muscles to relax. As I was laying there an old-timer came by and suggested that I might be dehydrated and needed to drink more water. I thought that I had been very careful to that point because I was drinking at every water station and had been drinking about half of my 16oz water bottle between stations. But at that point I was willing to try anything to prevent further cramps/problems so I started drinking my whole water bottle between stations and I never had any more problems.I made it back down to the water station at 10/16 miles in 43 minutes - time 3:53! The altitude sickness was gone but my legs felt like they had been beaten to pulp! I remembered that I had reached that water station in 2 hours. Now I had to do the reverse loop in the same two hours to achieve my goal of sub-6 hours! But the next 2.5 miles of the course were the good mining road - except now I had to climb the 2.5 miles. I didn't believe that a sub 6-hrs was possible? But if you don't try you will never succeed. So I took off and ran most of that 2.5 mile road back up to the top of Ball Mtn. Then reverse the loop around Ball Mtn and arrive back at the water station at 22 miles in 5:18. I now had 42 minutes to run the last 4 miles.I knew that 3 of those 4 miles were now downhill and there was one mile uphill but the biggest problem was that miles 22 to 23.5 were downhill on a very steep and rocky trail. If I wanted to achieve my goal of a sub-6 hr race I would have to haul ass on the downhill sections. That meant a big risk of falling and injuring myself especially on the trail section. And I had not fallen so far in the race. I decided to fall in behind a group of good trail runners so that I could watch the path they took down the trail and reduce my risk. It worked! I stayed on their ass all the way down that trail and averaged under a 10 minute pace. After a tough 1-mile uphill section we finally reached the last 1 1/2 miles of dirt and paved roads downhill and back to the finish line in town. At that point I handed the race over to Maddog and he dropped the pace to sub-8s and dragged my tired, sorry ass across the finish line in 5:55:54!I had achieved my pre-race goal but I was not happy with my race performance! Other than the sub 6-hr finish the only positive credit I could give myself was the fact that I had finished my first-ever trail marathon/race without a fall!But the Maddog was really upset! He was totally embarassed and disgusted with my performance! He says that he is embarassed and frustrated that he is trapped in such a sorry-ass, decripit, piece-of-shit old body! He is determined that he will drag my out-of-shape body up into the mountains to run and hike 13ers and 14ers and beat that p-o-s body into shape or kill it and leave it on some trail at 14,000 ft! and I must say that I have to agree with him. There is no room for wimps, sissies and p-o-s old bodies in this game/sport. Time to get serious. No more soft/fun hikes into the mountains. Time to begin Maddog's 'Kick Ass - Take No Names, High Altitude Training Camp' and get in shape! Anyone care to sign up? The camp starts on July 15 when we get back from Canada.
July 5/03
Well, most of the July 4th weekend went off as planned.We went to the Drifters concert on Fri night and they were great. As they promised "we could understand every word they sang" and I even knew every song they sang!The fireworks display over Lake Dillon afterwards was fantastic.Sat night we went to the Lovin Spoonful concert and they were also great.Now let me see - there was something else planned for this weekend. Oh yeah - it's like childbirth - your mind tends to forget painful experiences so that you won't stop yourself from doing it again! There was the Leadville Trail marathon - and it was a bitch - an ABSOLUTE BITCH!In retrospect I now realize that I made a serious tactical error in my training for the race. None of the 70+ mile weeks with 21-mile hikes into the mountains included runs or hikes above 12,000 ft and it cost me dearly in pain and suffering! Where do I start to relate this story before my brain erases it forever from my memory?Let's start on Fri when I picked up my race package at race HQ in Leadville. I talked to the race director because I wanted answers to some questions such as:1) Should I wear trail shoes since much of the course was on 4X4 roads? A -Yes2) Do I need to carry water with me since there were water/aid stations every 3 to 4 miles? A - Yes and that recommendation may have saved my life!3) Should I carry warm clothes i.e. jacket, gloves, etc with me since the weather was forcast to be very warm? A - YesSo I showed up at the start line the next morning with both a survival pack and a waist belt with only a water bottle. The temp was a high 51 F already at 8am and forecast to reach the low 80s so I decided not to carry the survival kit/pack because of the weight and it is cumbersome to run with. But I did strap on my waist pack with water bottle.The race started in Leadville at 10,200 ft and climbed out of the town on paved and dirt roads into the Mosquito Mountains. The first 1 1/2 miles were paved and dirt roads and I was able to run them. Then the course turned on to a 4X4 road - very steep and rocky. I quickly established MY ground rules for the race. If a road or trail had a slope of 10% or less I would run it - above 10% I walk! I started walking, along with the pack I was with, at 2 miles!The course climbed quickly on very steep and rocky 4X4 roads and trails to the top of Ball Mountain (12,000+ ft) at mile 4. Then we did a loop UP and Down and around Ball Mtn. I quickly realized that were were NO flat sections to this course! Turned out that maybe there was a total of maybe 1 mile of flat in the whole race - the other 25 miles were UP and Down! Of those 25 miles maybe 8 miles had a slope of 10% or less - the remainder had a slope greater than 10%. The average was probably 20 to 30% but there were many sections with a slope of 45+%.During the loop around Ball Mtn I didn't have any serious problems with altitude other than sucking for air especially on the uphill sections. At the end of that 1st loop I reached a water station at 7.5 miles - time 1:35. The next 2.5 miles were all downhill on a dirt mining road that was in good shape so I was able to haul ass and reach the water station at 10 miles in just under 2 hours. Not bad time - averaging 12 minute miles. If I could hold that pace I would finish in 5:12 - much faster than my goal of 6 hours! Yeah right! Wishful dreaming!For now we had dropped down to the low point of the course - below 10,000 ft and the next 3 miles climbed 3,000+ vertical ft to the top of Mosquito Pass. I managed to run less than 1/4 mile of that 3-mile section! It was a friggin tortuous nightmare! After I climbed above 12,000ft altitude sickness set in. My usual symptoms of altitude sickness are difficulty breathing and stomach cramps - only this time the stomach cramps were much more severe than normal! Several times I was forced to stop and double or bend over which seemed to relieve the pain somewhat and help my breathing. Some good Samaritans/runners became concerned and asked if they could help but I knew the only cure was to get my sorry, sick ass down off the mountain! And that was not an option. With only 1 1/2 miles and 1000+ vertical feet to go to the top I was not about to give up! So I struggled on painfully in what seemed excruciating slow motion. 'One step at a time' I kept reminding myself!Strangely, when I reached about 13,000 ft the symptoms eased a little and I was able to pick up the pace and ten minutes later I reached the summit of Mosquito Pass at 13,188 ft. It had taken me 70 minutes to climb 3 miles! Time - 3:10!I felt so shitty and was still in so much pain that I don't even remember looking at the view from the summit. I just refilled my water bottle, gulped down a carbo gel and cup of water and headed back down the mountain. I was very concerned about the trip back down the pass because the trail was very steep (45+ % slope) and the footing was rocky and loose. So I was using my legs as brakes to keep my speed in control and sure enough within the first 1/2 mile my left leg cramped and locked up! I tried to find a stretch to alleviate the cramp/pain but nothing worked so I had to lay down on the trail and massage the leg for 3 or 4 minutes to get the muscles to relax. As I was laying there an old-timer came by and suggested that I might be dehydrated and needed to drink more water. I thought that I had been very careful to that point because I was drinking at every water station and had been drinking about half of my 16oz water bottle between stations. But at that point I was willing to try anything to prevent further cramps/problems so I started drinking my whole water bottle between stations and I never had any more problems.I made it back down to the water station at 10/16 miles in 43 minutes - time 3:53! The altitude sickness was gone but my legs felt like they had been beaten to pulp! I remembered that I had reached that water station in 2 hours. Now I had to do the reverse loop in the same two hours to achieve my goal of sub-6 hours! But the next 2.5 miles of the course were the good mining road - except now I had to climb the 2.5 miles. I didn't believe that a sub 6-hrs was possible? But if you don't try you will never succeed. So I took off and ran most of that 2.5 mile road back up to the top of Ball Mtn. Then reverse the loop around Ball Mtn and arrive back at the water station at 22 miles in 5:18. I now had 42 minutes to run the last 4 miles.I knew that 3 of those 4 miles were now downhill and there was one mile uphill but the biggest problem was that miles 22 to 23.5 were downhill on a very steep and rocky trail. If I wanted to achieve my goal of a sub-6 hr race I would have to haul ass on the downhill sections. That meant a big risk of falling and injuring myself especially on the trail section. And I had not fallen so far in the race. I decided to fall in behind a group of good trail runners so that I could watch the path they took down the trail and reduce my risk. It worked! I stayed on their ass all the way down that trail and averaged under a 10 minute pace. After a tough 1-mile uphill section we finally reached the last 1 1/2 miles of dirt and paved roads downhill and back to the finish line in town. At that point I handed the race over to Maddog and he dropped the pace to sub-8s and dragged my tired, sorry ass across the finish line in 5:55:54!I had achieved my pre-race goal but I was not happy with my race performance! Other than the sub 6-hr finish the only positive credit I could give myself was the fact that I had finished my first-ever trail marathon/race without a fall!But the Maddog was really upset! He was totally embarassed and disgusted with my performance! He says that he is embarassed and frustrated that he is trapped in such a sorry-ass, decripit, piece-of-shit old body! He is determined that he will drag my out-of-shape body up into the mountains to run and hike 13ers and 14ers and beat that p-o-s body into shape or kill it and leave it on some trail at 14,000 ft! and I must say that I have to agree with him. There is no room for wimps, sissies and p-o-s old bodies in this game/sport. Time to get serious. No more soft/fun hikes into the mountains. Time to begin Maddog's 'Kick Ass - Take No Names, High Altitude Training Camp' and get in shape! Anyone care to sign up? The camp starts on July 15 when we get back from Canada.
Wednesday, May 21, 2003
TR Latvia
TRIP REPORT
LATVIA & UK
5/14 – 5/20/03
Latvia? Where is Latvia? Good question! It is on the Baltic Sea across from Sweden. It is bound on the north by Estonia, on the south by Lithuania and the east by Russia and Belarus. Now for the story.
This is one marathon/trip that certainly had a lot of activity/frustration/history/memories even before the trip started. So where do I start to tell the story?
Maybe back as far as four years ago when we were living in the UK and I was actively pursuing my goal of running a marathon in every country in Europe. I really loved the Baltic countries and was trying to run/finish them all before we left the UK. I had completed all the Baltic countries except Latvia and Lithuania and no matter how hard I tried I could not find ‘official’ marathons in those two countries. There were all kinds of rumors and stories of marathons but I could never locate one and thus I had to leave those two countries uncompleted when we returned to the USA. I continued my search for marathons in both countries over the next three years and had almost given up when I had a stroke of luck!
Last December when I was running the Barbados marathon I met a fellow runner/friend from Sweden who insisted that there was a marathon in Latvia. We were discussing this mythical marathon while waiting for a bus to the start line at 4am when a runner from Latvia approached us and confirmed that, yes indeed, there was a marathon in Riga, Latvia and it was normally held in May. I got names and email addresses to contact and the search was on again. I was fortunate to email a fellow runner in Riga (Gunars Akerbergs) who understood English and agreed to help me. By late January Gunars had confirmed that the 13th International Riga Marathon would be run on May 17/03! Gunars also promised to help me locate a marathon in Lithuania since he normally runs one there each year! Believe me, without all his efforts and assistance this trip/race would never have happened.
While I was awaiting confirmation of the marathon I asked some fellow runners/ friends to join me since I knew that they also wanted to run a marathon in Latvia. Our final group was comprised of two Yanks and four Brits – or in case Big Dave reads this I had better correct that to read – 2 Yanks, 3 Brits and 1 Englishman. Big Dave (when you see the photos you will easily identify him as someone not to mess with) insists that he is ‘English’ – not ‘British’. No matter – Gunars adopted this mangy, crazy group of runners as his ‘family’ and he provided invaluable assistance such as submitting our entry forms and recommending a hotel. By February a plan/agenda was in place with much credit to our friend/runner Roger in London who put the final travel plans together for the group. We would meet in London and travel on to Riga together and share rooms since my sports manager was not going with me.
Although I had hoped/planned to cut back on the number of marathons I would run this year I still planned to train hard up to Latvia and then cut back over the summer. But as we know disaster/fate struck in the early spring. My hamstring problems got worse to the point that I couldn’t run/train and then a wee, medical mishap (yeah, I know – self imposed) occurred in March. I really thought that I had screwed up big time at that point and became concerned – almost depressed - that I would miss Latvia after all the trouble I had gone through to find and set it up? But then I decided that if I couldn’t run it, I would walk it – but I would finish it - and began the long road back.
So now the story jumps to the current time frame and a very tired Maddog arrives in London Heathrow after sixteen hours of journey (car, flight and airport time). Unfortunately I had an 8-hour layover in London and considered traveling into London on the tube to visit one of my friends and maybe crash for a few hours. But he wisely pointed out that it would take so long to get through immigration/customs and travel time on the tube that I would only get a few hours of sleep. So I decided to use my AA – Platinum card to get into the BA Lounge, find a nice long couch and crash there for a few hours. I actually managed to get about two hours of sleep/rest. The European airport lounges are much better than ours – they provide snacks and booze free so I decided to sample a few (well – many) beers and wines so I was quite relaxed and mellow by the time I headed to the BA gate to meet my group of friends. We finally arrived at our hotel in the ‘Old City’ of Riga around midnight. After checking in the group wanted to explore the old city and try a few Latvian beers. By now I was 29 hours into the journey – it was 5pm my body time and I had had maybe two hours sleep? But what the Hell! I trailed along for the first beer and then excused myself because I figured I was ready to sleep. If only! When I hit the pillow my body relaxed and was ready but the nasty old mind suddenly figured out it was only 6pm (body time) and it wasn’t ready to close down yet. So I laid there all night counting Latvian sheep and listening to my roommate snore. I was really missing my sports manager by now! Finally about 5:30am (local time) or 10:30pm (body time) - when I should have been able to sleep – I gave up, got dressed and explored the streets of the old city. Damn it was cold! Low 30s (F) and a wet mist/rain. Am I having fun yet! Damn right I’m not. Nobody said that international travel was all fun and glamour. But I did enjoy the architecture and history of the old city.
The ‘Old City’ was established in 1201 and the fortifications date back to the 13th century. Most of the old city has been restored since the days of communism. The Riga Castle dates back to 1209 but the restored castle and many of the old restored churches date back to the 16th century. The streets are all narrow, cobblestones and the city has wisely closed the old city off to most vehicular traffic so the streets are essentially pedestrian malls. There are several hotels, bars, restaurants and clubs in the old city and everything is within walking distance. It is very similar to Tallinn, Estonia which I have visited but my friends were quite surprised by how much the city had been restored and how clean and safe it was. And like Estonia, it is a cheap tourist destination. Other than hotels which are expensive everywhere in Europe, everything else was cheap. A good dinner costs about $5 US, a liter of beer – 1 Lat ($1.75 US). Most people in the service industry (hotels, bars, etc) speak English so it is easy to communicate and it is safe to walk around. I can’t understand why more tourists don’t take advantage of this cheap and very interesting, historical part of the world?
After my early morning self-guided tour of the old city I met the group and we set off to explore the city and find the race registration and our host Gunars. But first we had to ask a young boy how to pay for and use the city bus/transport system. He graciously taught the old foreign farts how to get around the city and we were off! We found the registration desk at a stadium and were pleasantly surprised to discover that the race organization had comped all of us; i.e. they would not accept the required entry fee for the race. They were pleased to have foreign runners enter their race. Then we found our host/friend Gunars and invited him for coffee so that we could thank him for all his assistance. As mentioned earlier Gunars had continued to research marathons in Lithuania and had obtained information and entry forms for the 2nd Panevezys International Marathon 0n August 30/03. Anyone want to join me because I am going!
The rest of the day we spent touring and then we had an early pasta dinner and I retired to bed with the hope of finally getting some sleep because my body seemed to be in a time warp. Thank goodness I was successful and slept for a wonderful, restful nine hours.
Saturday was M-Day. The race started at 12pm (noon) which is typical for many European races. I was concerned about traffic control (had forgot to ask Gunars about that) since it was a small race – only 118 runners. Most of the runners were from Latvia and Lithuania –only two runners from Germany, one from Poland and then our group of six from the US and UK. There was one slight problem for our group – there was a time limit of 5 hours for the race and Big Dave who has run 500+ marathons needs 5 to 6 hours to finish. The solution was for him to start the race ‘unofficially’ one hour early. Thus we all accompanied him to the start line at 10am for a team photo and then we cheered him off at 11am. Another runner, Cliff (from Waco, TX) decided to join him since he wasn’t feeling well and figured he could use the extra time also. The rest of the group waited for the official start at 12pm. The race started in front of the Freedom Monument on the edge of the old city and finished at a stadium in the new city. Fortunately the weather had improved – it was mid 40sF and sunny at the start. The only negative was a strong headwind blowing from the north off the Baltic Sea.
I took off at a 5min/km (8 min/mile) pace and was surprised when the youngest of the UK runners (another Dave) caught up to me at 1Km and stated that he wanted to run with me as long as he could. We slowed our pace down to 5:10 to 5:20/km which is the range I wanted and ran very consistently for the first 8 to 10Km as the course wound out of the city and around Lake Kisezers north of the city. The streets were completely closed down for the race/course which really surprised me. They had plenty of volunteers and police along the course to control traffic and provide directions. In fact there were more police on the course than runners – amazing for only 118 runners? Water stations were provided every 5km which is enough when it is not hot. After the first 5km, distance markers were only provided every 5km which can make it difficult to manage your pace properly. We passed Big Dave and Cliff around 8km and at that point the headwind started to become nasty so I taught Dave how to take turns blocking the wind and letting your partner draft. Dave stayed with me till about16km and then he started to fade and drop back and I had to push on by myself. We had been following a female runner with silver-gray hair whom looked like she was in the 50 or 60s age group and I had been quite impressed at how smooth, easy and fast she ran. I decided that I should be able to pass her but it took me till the water station at 20km to do it. She finished about 5 minutes behind me which is a damn good time for a veteran woman.
I crossed the Half in 1:50. I thought about trying to break 3:40 but that would mean negative splits and at that point my body was telling me it didn’t have negative splits in it for that day. So I decided to just continue my pace and stick with the plan to finish around 3:45. Around 18 miles I experienced a short stabbing pain in my left hamstring and immediately became alarmed –“Oh no – not that crap/problem again?”
But I eased off for a few minutes and it didn’t happen again?
Around 30K we turned off a country road and headed back into the city on a six-lane boulevard. We ran on that road for about 3 km and instead of using cones to block off a traffic lane they had police officers located every 100 meters to control traffic? I couldn’t believe it? Not only that - about 50% of the Riga police officers are female –very young and very, very pretty. Playboy could easily do a complete issue on the ‘cops of Riga’ – and I would certainly buy a copy! Finally I turned off that busy road and reached 35km as the course ran along a park. Time was 3:05 and I was starting to tire and there wasn’t much spring left in the legs. Now I became concerned that I would even meet my goal?
I tried to hang on and hold my pace till 40Km. I reached 40km in 3:32.30. I figured that I needed to drop the pace to 5min/km to break 3:45 but didn’t think the old legs had that speed/energy left in them. I needed HELP. So I called on the Maddog whom you know is very competitive and has no regard/respect for pain; i.e. crazy! He dropped the pace to 5/5:05 and dragged my sorry, tired ass through the last 2.2km. As the course approached 42km I was climbing the last hill and could see the stadium. All I could think was if I had to run one or two laps inside the stadium I wouldn’t make it! You can’t believe how happy I was to discover the finish line at the entrance to the track and I crossed it in 3:43:42!
I considered waiting around for the rest of the group but my legs started to tighten up and become sore and I knew that I had to get them into a hot bath as soon as possible so I headed back to the hotel alone. I had my bath, shower- wrote my postcards and was sitting in the hotel bar having a beer when the rest of the group returned to the hotel. They joined me later and we headed out for dinner to sample some local Latvian food and beer. The dinner was excellent and very cheap even with caviar and Latvian champagne included!
The following morning the group decided to take a train to Jurmala, the largest Baltic spa-town located on the Baltic Sea about 20 km from Riga. A round trip ticket on the train was 1 lat ($1.75US). There is a lovely sandy beach, about 32km long. We walked a few miles along the beach and through some of the shopping/entertainment areas. Unfortunately the weather was too cold for swimmers and more sadly nude sunbathers! So we decided to return to Riga for our farewell dinner. However on the return train ride we barely avoided a messy/ international incident with two Russians. They claimed to be ex-sailors and were drunker than skunks since they had been fishing and drinking vodka all morning. They took a liking to Big Dave’s tattoos and decided to become best friends.
However they became offended when we refused to drink their rot-gut vodka from the bottle that they had been slobbering in all day. We took a diplomatic approach and explained that we were athletes and didn’t drink but there were a few moments when I thought it might come to fisticuffs before we reached Riga? Fortunately they were forced to get off after two or three stops and diplomacy persevered! That is – diplomacy on our part. I have a better understanding of how deep the hatred is between Latvians and Russians when the Russians stood up in a train car in the middle of Latvia and declared “Latvians are shit - Russians are the best”! The Latvian train conductor indicated that she was calling the police to have them thrown in jail. And I understood most of the argument/discussion even though all the heated conversation was in Russian/Latvian!
We left the following morning to return to London. My ticket/routing required an overnight stay so I was fortunate that a good friend from the group (Tad) whom I have run many international marathons with agreed to put me up for a night at his place. He has a nice house in the Vauxhall district a few blocks from the Thames River. We left his place about 3pm to go pub-hopping around London. He took me to places I had never seen before (and most likely could never find again) around London and we finished the evening with a great dinner of fish and chips – what else??
Now I am back home and fortunately the jet lag on the return leg hasn’t seemed to have affected me as badly as the outgoing leg of the trip?
But even with that jet lag I still enjoyed the trip and the marathon. I am looking forward to visiting Lithuania in August – but not the long trip. I was hoping to tie that marathon in with a few others in the fall. But now it appears that I will have to make two more trips to Europe this year to accomplish my goal of finishing Europe this year! A short (ugh) trip to Lithuania in August and a month-long trip to the Balkans in October.
Stay tuned – and of course y’all are invited to join me????
LATVIA & UK
5/14 – 5/20/03
Latvia? Where is Latvia? Good question! It is on the Baltic Sea across from Sweden. It is bound on the north by Estonia, on the south by Lithuania and the east by Russia and Belarus. Now for the story.
This is one marathon/trip that certainly had a lot of activity/frustration/history/memories even before the trip started. So where do I start to tell the story?
Maybe back as far as four years ago when we were living in the UK and I was actively pursuing my goal of running a marathon in every country in Europe. I really loved the Baltic countries and was trying to run/finish them all before we left the UK. I had completed all the Baltic countries except Latvia and Lithuania and no matter how hard I tried I could not find ‘official’ marathons in those two countries. There were all kinds of rumors and stories of marathons but I could never locate one and thus I had to leave those two countries uncompleted when we returned to the USA. I continued my search for marathons in both countries over the next three years and had almost given up when I had a stroke of luck!
Last December when I was running the Barbados marathon I met a fellow runner/friend from Sweden who insisted that there was a marathon in Latvia. We were discussing this mythical marathon while waiting for a bus to the start line at 4am when a runner from Latvia approached us and confirmed that, yes indeed, there was a marathon in Riga, Latvia and it was normally held in May. I got names and email addresses to contact and the search was on again. I was fortunate to email a fellow runner in Riga (Gunars Akerbergs) who understood English and agreed to help me. By late January Gunars had confirmed that the 13th International Riga Marathon would be run on May 17/03! Gunars also promised to help me locate a marathon in Lithuania since he normally runs one there each year! Believe me, without all his efforts and assistance this trip/race would never have happened.
While I was awaiting confirmation of the marathon I asked some fellow runners/ friends to join me since I knew that they also wanted to run a marathon in Latvia. Our final group was comprised of two Yanks and four Brits – or in case Big Dave reads this I had better correct that to read – 2 Yanks, 3 Brits and 1 Englishman. Big Dave (when you see the photos you will easily identify him as someone not to mess with) insists that he is ‘English’ – not ‘British’. No matter – Gunars adopted this mangy, crazy group of runners as his ‘family’ and he provided invaluable assistance such as submitting our entry forms and recommending a hotel. By February a plan/agenda was in place with much credit to our friend/runner Roger in London who put the final travel plans together for the group. We would meet in London and travel on to Riga together and share rooms since my sports manager was not going with me.
Although I had hoped/planned to cut back on the number of marathons I would run this year I still planned to train hard up to Latvia and then cut back over the summer. But as we know disaster/fate struck in the early spring. My hamstring problems got worse to the point that I couldn’t run/train and then a wee, medical mishap (yeah, I know – self imposed) occurred in March. I really thought that I had screwed up big time at that point and became concerned – almost depressed - that I would miss Latvia after all the trouble I had gone through to find and set it up? But then I decided that if I couldn’t run it, I would walk it – but I would finish it - and began the long road back.
So now the story jumps to the current time frame and a very tired Maddog arrives in London Heathrow after sixteen hours of journey (car, flight and airport time). Unfortunately I had an 8-hour layover in London and considered traveling into London on the tube to visit one of my friends and maybe crash for a few hours. But he wisely pointed out that it would take so long to get through immigration/customs and travel time on the tube that I would only get a few hours of sleep. So I decided to use my AA – Platinum card to get into the BA Lounge, find a nice long couch and crash there for a few hours. I actually managed to get about two hours of sleep/rest. The European airport lounges are much better than ours – they provide snacks and booze free so I decided to sample a few (well – many) beers and wines so I was quite relaxed and mellow by the time I headed to the BA gate to meet my group of friends. We finally arrived at our hotel in the ‘Old City’ of Riga around midnight. After checking in the group wanted to explore the old city and try a few Latvian beers. By now I was 29 hours into the journey – it was 5pm my body time and I had had maybe two hours sleep? But what the Hell! I trailed along for the first beer and then excused myself because I figured I was ready to sleep. If only! When I hit the pillow my body relaxed and was ready but the nasty old mind suddenly figured out it was only 6pm (body time) and it wasn’t ready to close down yet. So I laid there all night counting Latvian sheep and listening to my roommate snore. I was really missing my sports manager by now! Finally about 5:30am (local time) or 10:30pm (body time) - when I should have been able to sleep – I gave up, got dressed and explored the streets of the old city. Damn it was cold! Low 30s (F) and a wet mist/rain. Am I having fun yet! Damn right I’m not. Nobody said that international travel was all fun and glamour. But I did enjoy the architecture and history of the old city.
The ‘Old City’ was established in 1201 and the fortifications date back to the 13th century. Most of the old city has been restored since the days of communism. The Riga Castle dates back to 1209 but the restored castle and many of the old restored churches date back to the 16th century. The streets are all narrow, cobblestones and the city has wisely closed the old city off to most vehicular traffic so the streets are essentially pedestrian malls. There are several hotels, bars, restaurants and clubs in the old city and everything is within walking distance. It is very similar to Tallinn, Estonia which I have visited but my friends were quite surprised by how much the city had been restored and how clean and safe it was. And like Estonia, it is a cheap tourist destination. Other than hotels which are expensive everywhere in Europe, everything else was cheap. A good dinner costs about $5 US, a liter of beer – 1 Lat ($1.75 US). Most people in the service industry (hotels, bars, etc) speak English so it is easy to communicate and it is safe to walk around. I can’t understand why more tourists don’t take advantage of this cheap and very interesting, historical part of the world?
After my early morning self-guided tour of the old city I met the group and we set off to explore the city and find the race registration and our host Gunars. But first we had to ask a young boy how to pay for and use the city bus/transport system. He graciously taught the old foreign farts how to get around the city and we were off! We found the registration desk at a stadium and were pleasantly surprised to discover that the race organization had comped all of us; i.e. they would not accept the required entry fee for the race. They were pleased to have foreign runners enter their race. Then we found our host/friend Gunars and invited him for coffee so that we could thank him for all his assistance. As mentioned earlier Gunars had continued to research marathons in Lithuania and had obtained information and entry forms for the 2nd Panevezys International Marathon 0n August 30/03. Anyone want to join me because I am going!
The rest of the day we spent touring and then we had an early pasta dinner and I retired to bed with the hope of finally getting some sleep because my body seemed to be in a time warp. Thank goodness I was successful and slept for a wonderful, restful nine hours.
Saturday was M-Day. The race started at 12pm (noon) which is typical for many European races. I was concerned about traffic control (had forgot to ask Gunars about that) since it was a small race – only 118 runners. Most of the runners were from Latvia and Lithuania –only two runners from Germany, one from Poland and then our group of six from the US and UK. There was one slight problem for our group – there was a time limit of 5 hours for the race and Big Dave who has run 500+ marathons needs 5 to 6 hours to finish. The solution was for him to start the race ‘unofficially’ one hour early. Thus we all accompanied him to the start line at 10am for a team photo and then we cheered him off at 11am. Another runner, Cliff (from Waco, TX) decided to join him since he wasn’t feeling well and figured he could use the extra time also. The rest of the group waited for the official start at 12pm. The race started in front of the Freedom Monument on the edge of the old city and finished at a stadium in the new city. Fortunately the weather had improved – it was mid 40sF and sunny at the start. The only negative was a strong headwind blowing from the north off the Baltic Sea.
I took off at a 5min/km (8 min/mile) pace and was surprised when the youngest of the UK runners (another Dave) caught up to me at 1Km and stated that he wanted to run with me as long as he could. We slowed our pace down to 5:10 to 5:20/km which is the range I wanted and ran very consistently for the first 8 to 10Km as the course wound out of the city and around Lake Kisezers north of the city. The streets were completely closed down for the race/course which really surprised me. They had plenty of volunteers and police along the course to control traffic and provide directions. In fact there were more police on the course than runners – amazing for only 118 runners? Water stations were provided every 5km which is enough when it is not hot. After the first 5km, distance markers were only provided every 5km which can make it difficult to manage your pace properly. We passed Big Dave and Cliff around 8km and at that point the headwind started to become nasty so I taught Dave how to take turns blocking the wind and letting your partner draft. Dave stayed with me till about16km and then he started to fade and drop back and I had to push on by myself. We had been following a female runner with silver-gray hair whom looked like she was in the 50 or 60s age group and I had been quite impressed at how smooth, easy and fast she ran. I decided that I should be able to pass her but it took me till the water station at 20km to do it. She finished about 5 minutes behind me which is a damn good time for a veteran woman.
I crossed the Half in 1:50. I thought about trying to break 3:40 but that would mean negative splits and at that point my body was telling me it didn’t have negative splits in it for that day. So I decided to just continue my pace and stick with the plan to finish around 3:45. Around 18 miles I experienced a short stabbing pain in my left hamstring and immediately became alarmed –“Oh no – not that crap/problem again?”
But I eased off for a few minutes and it didn’t happen again?
Around 30K we turned off a country road and headed back into the city on a six-lane boulevard. We ran on that road for about 3 km and instead of using cones to block off a traffic lane they had police officers located every 100 meters to control traffic? I couldn’t believe it? Not only that - about 50% of the Riga police officers are female –very young and very, very pretty. Playboy could easily do a complete issue on the ‘cops of Riga’ – and I would certainly buy a copy! Finally I turned off that busy road and reached 35km as the course ran along a park. Time was 3:05 and I was starting to tire and there wasn’t much spring left in the legs. Now I became concerned that I would even meet my goal?
I tried to hang on and hold my pace till 40Km. I reached 40km in 3:32.30. I figured that I needed to drop the pace to 5min/km to break 3:45 but didn’t think the old legs had that speed/energy left in them. I needed HELP. So I called on the Maddog whom you know is very competitive and has no regard/respect for pain; i.e. crazy! He dropped the pace to 5/5:05 and dragged my sorry, tired ass through the last 2.2km. As the course approached 42km I was climbing the last hill and could see the stadium. All I could think was if I had to run one or two laps inside the stadium I wouldn’t make it! You can’t believe how happy I was to discover the finish line at the entrance to the track and I crossed it in 3:43:42!
I considered waiting around for the rest of the group but my legs started to tighten up and become sore and I knew that I had to get them into a hot bath as soon as possible so I headed back to the hotel alone. I had my bath, shower- wrote my postcards and was sitting in the hotel bar having a beer when the rest of the group returned to the hotel. They joined me later and we headed out for dinner to sample some local Latvian food and beer. The dinner was excellent and very cheap even with caviar and Latvian champagne included!
The following morning the group decided to take a train to Jurmala, the largest Baltic spa-town located on the Baltic Sea about 20 km from Riga. A round trip ticket on the train was 1 lat ($1.75US). There is a lovely sandy beach, about 32km long. We walked a few miles along the beach and through some of the shopping/entertainment areas. Unfortunately the weather was too cold for swimmers and more sadly nude sunbathers! So we decided to return to Riga for our farewell dinner. However on the return train ride we barely avoided a messy/ international incident with two Russians. They claimed to be ex-sailors and were drunker than skunks since they had been fishing and drinking vodka all morning. They took a liking to Big Dave’s tattoos and decided to become best friends.
However they became offended when we refused to drink their rot-gut vodka from the bottle that they had been slobbering in all day. We took a diplomatic approach and explained that we were athletes and didn’t drink but there were a few moments when I thought it might come to fisticuffs before we reached Riga? Fortunately they were forced to get off after two or three stops and diplomacy persevered! That is – diplomacy on our part. I have a better understanding of how deep the hatred is between Latvians and Russians when the Russians stood up in a train car in the middle of Latvia and declared “Latvians are shit - Russians are the best”! The Latvian train conductor indicated that she was calling the police to have them thrown in jail. And I understood most of the argument/discussion even though all the heated conversation was in Russian/Latvian!
We left the following morning to return to London. My ticket/routing required an overnight stay so I was fortunate that a good friend from the group (Tad) whom I have run many international marathons with agreed to put me up for a night at his place. He has a nice house in the Vauxhall district a few blocks from the Thames River. We left his place about 3pm to go pub-hopping around London. He took me to places I had never seen before (and most likely could never find again) around London and we finished the evening with a great dinner of fish and chips – what else??
Now I am back home and fortunately the jet lag on the return leg hasn’t seemed to have affected me as badly as the outgoing leg of the trip?
But even with that jet lag I still enjoyed the trip and the marathon. I am looking forward to visiting Lithuania in August – but not the long trip. I was hoping to tie that marathon in with a few others in the fall. But now it appears that I will have to make two more trips to Europe this year to accomplish my goal of finishing Europe this year! A short (ugh) trip to Lithuania in August and a month-long trip to the Balkans in October.
Stay tuned – and of course y’all are invited to join me????
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