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.
TRAINING
First of all, running for exercise is not a common practice in our region unless you’re part of an official sports team or running during PE class. In our town, it’s very rare to see anyone running outside of designated areas (of which we have too few) – soccer fields, gyms, or the sports palace.
As expected in a society with very traditional gender roles, exercising outdoors for girls and women is even more uncommon and not very inviting as it is not an accepted norm for females. Things are always changing, though, and I was happy to see 2 young women out jogging once when we were running. Nonetheless, as a woman every time I headed out for a run I attract even more than the usual attention.
I try to time my runs during the parts of the day when less people are out – early in the morning or pushim time, which falls around 2-4pm when people are eating lunch and relaxing at home. Even so, word spreads fast that you’re doing anything out of the ordinary. When I met with one of my teacher friends that lives on the other side of town shortly after starting to run regularly, she already knew Keith and I had been running together and who was running faster.
All our runs take us out of town and into more rural areas and villages. I often need to maneuver around donkeys, cows, herds of goats, dogs, and people heading in or out of town. The people I see on the road more often than not stare intently at me. When I greet the (typically) older women, their judgemental stares often turn to friendly curiosity. At the end of our interactions I think they’re still befuddled about why I would want to run so far and why I’m wearing shorts, but are generally positive and wish me well.
The kids are also curious and have joined in the running a couple times. In one instance about 3 miles into a 6 mile run, we were passing a small road leading to a village. A few boys that were barefoot or in plastic sandals started running behind us. They were easily keeping pace and soon were running in front of us. They were just having fun and not breaking a sweat, which really didn’t seem fair since we’d been training for a couple months and were most definitely sweating.
The running companion that stayed with me the longest was a black and white road dog. She joined me outside of town around mile 3 into a long weekend run. She very obviously recently had puppies, so I told her to stay where she was, but she didn’t like that idea and kept running with me. I was worried she might attract some other dogs along the way that weren’t quite so friendly, so I picked up a rock to run with. Unfortunately, people often throw rocks at dogs to keep them away, so miming throwing a rock can keep an aggressive dog at bay. Although I’ve found the vast majority of road dogs are passive if you respect their space, the most common advise I get from people in town about running is to beware of the dogs. Luckily during this run (and every other run too), I didn’t have any dog problems. My dog friend kept thinking we were going to turn into a village and I might take her to my house and give her a treat, but as this was a 20 mile run, we just kept going. She finally decided whatever I might give her wasn’t worth it and found someplace to go in a small village along the road. She left me at about mile 9 after she had run with me for something like 6 miles. I didn’t see her on my way back toward town, so I hope she found something good to eat and made her way back to her puppies.
Some of the other things I’ve enjoyed while running in Albania include:
- Seeing one of my friends while running that is always super generous about giving me produce from his stand. He also regularly asks me if I’ve ran that day when we see each other on my way to school.
- People being kind and concerned and asking me if I want a ride into town.
- Seeing a man riding a horse with an umbrella.
- Seeing the seasons change from summer to fall in the villages and mountains.
THE RACE!
We successfully completed the original marathon from the Marathon Stadium to the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens last Sunday! We ran at a casual pace (until the end) and finished in just under 5 hours.
A little tidbit of history – it’s because of the British that the marathon is 26.2 miles and not the shorter distance that was actually run by Pheidippides (I like this Footnoting History podcast that explains why). Thanks a lot, Brits. So for this extra bit, we ran around the burial mound where Athenians were buried after they won the Battle of Marathon.
In all there were about 18,000 people running. The most impressive of which was an older man running barefoot with full battle gear, including bronze helmet and shield. He really put us to shame. We didn’t get a photo of him, but I did get a photo of another impressive Greek running the whole way with his flag.
Much of the way was uphill, but it wasn’t near as steep as the roads we were running in Albania, so I felt pretty good. There were also lots of locals along the way, bravo-ing, circle dancing, and giving high fives, which made it easier to keep going. It was fun to be part of such a major event with deep historical roots. I think Keith’s favorite part was finding and collecting goo packets that people had dropped after kilometer 20. I’ve never had goo before, but it’s basically a super sweet flavored mix of sugar and amino acids you squirt in your mouth to give yourself a little extra energy. A bunch of other people were stocked with goo in their little running fanny packs, but in typical Keith Jacobi style we had just as much goo by scavenging the unopened packets provided by the race that other people had thrown on the road.
Traveling 7 hours starting at 5:00am the day after the race was not a great choice, but the rest of our Athens trip was very enjoyable. Before the race, most of it was spent trying as many foods as possible and catching up on the sites we missed while in Athens with our wonderful families over the summer.
The Ginger & The Jew 