“A man who has been through bitter experiences and traveled far enjoys even his sufferings after a time”

The G:  “A man who has been through bitter experiences and traveled far enjoys even his sufferings after a time.”  Who better to start us off on a post about marathon running than the famed ancient Greek author Homer with a quote from The Odyssey?

Well if we’re going to run a marathon, we might as well run the original – this was Keith’s idea before we even left for Albania.  We decided our second year of Peace Corps was the year to do it, so we’ve been training for the original marathon (from Marathon to Athens, Greece) since July.  We have been running 4 times per week, 2 short runs, 1 medium run, and 1 long run.  We’re surrounded by mountains, so our runs our very beautiful but there’s always several major hills to contend with.  Running has allowed us to see more of the area and have some interesting interactions with people.