Art La Flamme

I had the good fortune last weekend to lead 26 others on an 800 kilometer adventure across Romania, to take part in the Timişoara Marathon and the Dracula Half-marathon.? Talk about high adventure.

When I had arrived in Romania, one of the bosses here (important enough to influence things), told me to find a marathon in our area, to put together a team, and to go run.? He had heard that I had just run my first marathon, and he himself is an avid runner (and all around fitness fanatic).?

Sounds easy, huh?

At first I thought we would just be going to Bucharest, the capital, as there was talk of a marathon there in early October. That panned out when the organizers cancelled it for this year.? Too bad ? Bucharest was only a couple of hours away by bus, and was a much easier thing to sell.? I mean, come on ? it?s two or three hours away.? We?d be there and back in a day.? Shoot, we make shopping trips there on the weekend, just to go to a mall.

But by the time that I heard of the race being cancelled, I had already sold the idea to my bosses, already started to organize runners, and already started to train folks.? In for a penny, in for a pound.? That?s when I downshifted and started to plan for Timişoara.

The Timişoara marathon is in it?s eighth year of operation.? It was started by a guy who just likes to run.? He also organizes a triathlon, though I don?t know the last time they put one on.? His efforts were bolstered when a few others joined his cause, to include a German living in the city who had worked, for some time, as an organizer for groups taking vacations to go run races in foreign locations.? At its height, it?s had as many as 800 runners, they say.?

But here was the scope of my problems:

• I had no approval to do any of this.
• I had no money to pay for any of this.
• This wasn?t part of the original plan of things to go in Romania, so I found myself competing with just about everything.
• Oh, and did I mention the 800 km??

It took some work, but I think it came out OK.? With time and effort, I supported the effort to get the generals on board with our doing this.? I worked the paperwork to get the lawyers to OK our having the military pay for the bus to move us there and back.? Individually, we?d have to pay for our own food and hotels, as well as the entrance fee for the race itself, but still, in the end, we got the green light to go.

As I had done with the marathon in Luxembourg, we ended up at the Best Western hotel.? And as with Luxembourg, it was awesome.? They gave us a great rate, were flexible with us on check in and check out times, and the accommodations themselves were fantastic.?

We departed on Friday night after dinner.? The chow hall let us in a few minutes ahead of opening, so we would not have to face the long lines and so that we could leave as scheduled.? They also packed to boxed meals for us, tailored to pre-race diet needs ? carbs, bananas, etc.? That was an awesome bonus.? The old man ? our commander ? and the Sergeant Major, plus a few others, came to see us off, which was great.

The drive was long.? We stopped every two hours or so, to swap out drivers, and we made pretty good time for the first 2/3 of the drive.? But once we hit Sibiu, we ran into problems ? construction and detours marked the path from there to Timişoara.? In the end, we made the 800 kilometer drive in about 16 hours. Yes, that?s 50 km/h, about 30 miles per hour.? Yikes.?

Upon arrival (we were early, if you can believe it), the hotel was nice enough to let us check in and we all pretty much collapsed.? In the early afternoon, we headed up to the race start site, and checked in.? We also linked up with our two liaison officers, from the local Army hospital ? part of my plan for how to take care of anyone who might sustain a serious injury during the run.?

The night was pretty low key ? I had dinner with 7 others, at a local Italian place, and had a good chat with one of the race organizers.? We even managed to find the token Irish Pub.?

I have to add ? Timişoara is a nice city.? Very beautiful, and the people were warm and receptive to us being there.? And thank heavens so many of them speak English and / or German!

Sunday, we got up and headed for the race.? There was press there ? TV and newspaper ? who wanted to interview us, but we arrived less than 20 minutes before the actual race and were a bit more focused on stretching and getting ready than on talking and answering questions.? Had we had more time, it would have been nice to have done both.?

The run itself was OK.? I?d been battling shin splints for about 6 weeks, so I ran just the half marathon.? The half was one lap, the full was two.? The heart of the city is very nice and clean, and from there were looped around and headed out towards the edge of town.? There were water points, manned by local kids and stocked with water, fruit, and in some cases, sports drinks, though I think the water points were too few and too far between.? Thankfully, we had none of the problems that Chicago and the Army Ten Miler had.?

Like I said, we had 10 run the half and 14 run the full.? Not bad at all.? Our ?running club? had the most entrants this year ? which earned us a trophy at the end.? A great many of our runners were doing this for the first time ? half and full marathon.? One gal, who trained up for this by running more frequently, had never run anything longer than 6 miles, and she did 13.1 miles.? One guy had, just a few months ago, failed to run 1.5 miles in something like 18 minutes, and here he was running 13.1.? Two guys set out to run the half marathon and decided to do the full ? and succeeded.? Me, I?ve run 13.1 mile runs probably not less than a dozen times while here in Romania, and a few of those with painful legs, so my achievement wasn?t all that it could be.? But still, I felt like a proud father to have had so many do so much.

And, I should add, do it with little repercussions.? I think there were three of us that did the half instead of the full, due to nagging injuries.? One guy was given an IV after he finished, just as good measure ? he was looking a little rougher than the others, and, well, we had two of our own Army medics along for just such conditions.? Lots of Motrin, sure, but it was a generally injury-free event ? testament, I think, to all of the hard work and training that folks put into preparing for this. A decent way to measure the success of our preparations, I should think.

And, after the race, I had the honor of helping to present the awards.? Why?? Who the hell knows.? Maybe it was because we were the Americans.? I don?t know.? Anyway, it was the lead organizer for the event, the konsul from the German consulate in Timişoara, and me, handing out trophies and prize money and bottles of wine.? One of my runners took third in the women?s full marathon ? good enough for a trophy and some cash and other goodies.? And, as I mentioned, they handed me a trophy and some other niceties, for ?the team.?

Which, I promptly took to the Irish Pub, where I filled the trophy with beer and passed it around.? Not a bad way to celebrate a successful day.

The next morning, we were up and fed and on the bus, rolling, but about 0900.? We drove back to Sibiu, arriving about 3 or 4 hours later than planned.? We were met by military police escorts at the edge of town who, with lights flashing, escorts us to the Land Forces Academy, their West Point, where we had a great visit and tour.? Afterwards, we headed across to the old part of town / altstadt, to a small restaurant, where we feasted like kings.? Oh, man ? the food was good.? After a hearty meal, we were given a guided tour of the center of Sibiu by a small group of plainclothes MP?s from the area, who seemed to know everything about everything in their city.? It was a great and wonderful way to see what I think is one of the prettiest small cities in all of Europe (and easy to see why it is one of UNESCO’s two Cultural Capitals for Europe this year).?

And, with that, we got back on the bus and started the long drive back to the base.? We got it around 0400, and most just headed off to sleep the day away (I had to work, of course).? Lots of aches and pains, especially after so long of a drive, but well worth it.?

I have started to work on my shins.? It looks like I have a chance to go to Florence in late November, to run the Florence Marathon while on a business trip.? Hopefully, my legs will be in better shape.? I need to order some new gear ? my running backpack just about exploded on this trip, which I guess is fair after all of the miles I have put it through.? I would like to get one more marathon in this year, being that I have worked so hard to get into decent enough shape to run another one.? I?m not interested in breaking some record time or beating my previous time; I just want to know that I can suffer through it again.? More to follow, I guess?.

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