Training for the Vienna Half Marathon

So, for the past two months I have been training to run the Vienna Half Marathon. I always kind of hated running, but this semester we met two girls who run Marathons, and one of my boatmates decided she would too. The idea entered my head, so I thought to try running again and see what happened. The first long run I did was 6 km, which is about 4 miles. Funny, before this I always thought I could never possibly run more than 2 miles. It's kind of surprising how things chance when you tell yourself that your limit is much higher than you thought it should be.

Anyhow, I ran on the treadmill since it's supposedly better for your joints. After the first month though, my shins started to hurt. It turned out that I had bought a pair of children's shoes--when I had bought my sneakers, I asked for my size and they said that they had nothing that small. My shoe size however, is really not very little at all, it's a 37, which is a very common size, I think. Anyhow, I asked them to show me anything they had in a 37, so I guess one of them was a child's shoe, and I ended up buying that. Children's shoes are meant to support children, who weigh significantly less than I do ;) I ended up going to a running store and buying a new pair of sneakers, which made a huge difference for me.

My friend introduced me to goo, which is, essentially, a sugary goo that gives you a burst of energy. When I first tried it, I had trouble swallowing it because it tasted like chemicals, even though it is vanilla flavored. Once I did have the first sip, I was able to down the rest, since my body seemed to really crave the salts and other vitamins in it. Usually when I run, the first 10-15 minutes is very difficult. Then I'll be okay for about 45 more minutes, before I begin to get tired. If I take a goo though, I feel tired for another 15 minutes while it kicks in, and then really great for another 25-30 minutes, and then start to tire, but by then I know that I'm about to finish and I feel excellent for the remainder. Hopefully that will work on the actual day :) Luckily, my friend brought plenty of these from America, since the gels in Amsterdam taste really bad (even more like chemicals). I usually have to take the goo with water though, since it's so sticky.

I find eating a lot of carbs the night before helps me, and it also helps me to run on a fairly empty stomach. I normally don't eat a lot of carbs since I don't particularly like bread, potatoes, or rice (I like pasta, but don't eat it very often), and that supposedly is really good for carb loading, since your body learns to function without carbs, so it's extra happy when you load it with carbs :D I usually eat pasta for dinner, and then have a roll or just a slice of bread in the morning, wait about an hour, and then I run very well.

The longest run that I did during my training was 18 km, and the total length of the half marathon is 21 km. We took a very early flight to Vienna (7:00 am), which was good because I had a chance to get used to waking up super early. The half marathon will start at 9:00 am. We went to go pick up our numbers, there was a really fun fair of sports stuff. I bought a sports jacket with zippers on sale, that was pink. We also got a goody bag with sports drinks, foods, and random things like shower gel, toothpaste, snap bracelet and a balloon. Apparently a lot of marathons give out free T-shirts, but this one did not. You could buy them (they were bright orange and 25 euros), but I didn't bother. We also had to rent a chip, which logs your time as you run through the start and finish line, with updates every 5 km to check your average speed. If you want, you can also set it up so that a text goes out to people every 5 km that you run.

I'm at my hotel now, and going to sleep early so that I won't be tired tomorrow.

Greek Food

Ice cream and chocolate

Carrot and cabbage salad

Cheese staganaki (fried cheese)

Moussaka, grilled vegetables, and lima beans

Gyros

Greek food is amazing and deserves its own entry. In all of Europe, I think Spanish food might still be my favorite, but Greek food is a close second. Unlike Spanish food, Greek food has a lot of options for vegetarians. My biggest and greatest discovery in Athens was Moussaka, which looks like lasagna but is made with a layer of potatoes, eggplant, minced beef, and what I think is mashed potatoes and cheese blended together. It was amazing. The first night in Greece, I had Moussaka and a Greek salad. The produce here is so fresh, as is the cheese. I have never been a huge fan of salads, but Greek salads are so fresh, and drenched with aromatic olive oil. I also had a lamb gyro. The tsatziki sauce is nothing like tsatziki sauce in the states. In Greece, the sauce is so fresh that you can taste the individual components—the tartness of the yogurt, the spiciness of raw garlic, and the refreshing cucumber together makes it difficult to dislike anything that is smothered in tsatziki. The pita bread is often sprinkled with sesame seeds, and is warm, chewy, and delicious on its own, let alone wrapped around meat, tomatoes, and lettuce (that is slathered with tsatziki and spices).

I’ve always thought that baklava is too sweet, but I liked it here. I walked into a baklava store that sold types of baklava like gourmet chocolate stores would sell truffles—they are lined in trays behind a glass counter, with flavors like walnut, pistaccio, caramel, milk chocolate, vanilla…with different shapes and garnishing. I only had a pistaccio one, and I do regret not trying more before I left.

During my second day in Greece, I had grilled lamb for lunch, which was also amazingly tender. Arielle ordered greek yogurt with honey, which I like much more than normal yogurt. It is much creamier and a bit more sour. That night, we walked down a small alley and up a bunch of stairs with tavernas. Two neighboring restaurant owners got into a fight over us. The first one claimed to be the oldest tavern in Athens. His neighbor claimed the same thing, and insisted that “everything my neighbor says is a lie.” We ended up going to the one that was very slightly cheaper (by 50 cents) and had a fixed menu. Fixed menus in Greece, like those in Spain, are such a good deal. Usually they come with a salad, main course, and dessert (or multiple courses). We had fried calamari (which I always like), stuffed grape leaves (I’m not a fan, too sour), fried cheese (also just ok), and Greek salad (very good).

For brunch the next day, I had spinach pie, which was also delicious. Coffee in Athens is also very good, with my new discovery being cappuccino freddo, which is iced cappuccino. I tried Greek coffee, which is very grainy and bitter, and not to my liking. I had moussaka again that evening, and resolved to find a recipe for it at home.

Since I heard, from multiple sources, that the best gyros are in Monistiraki, I went there. I had a pork gyro, and then kebabs, which are made from a mix of beef and lamb. The kebabs, along with a cabbage and carrot salad, were spectacular and cheap. These gyros to go are around 2 euros. I love watching them slice the meat from the huge, rotating spit (is it called a spit?). That night, I tried lima beans in sauce (which was very good), and walnut pie, which was just ok. Before dinner however, I went to an amazing chocolate/ice cream café. There, we got ice cream in the middle of thick chocolate that was kind of like a pudding. It was sprinkled with toffee, candy stars, and covered with caramel. To be honest, it was not as amazing as it looked, but the café had a very impressive menu. On my last day in Greece, I had moussaka again, and a giant heart shaped donut that was both covered with and filled with chocolate. Basically, the highlight of my Athens trip was the food (with moussaka and gyros in the lead).

On a side note, Swiss air is great—the food is delicious, and does not seem to have a lot of preservatives based on the ingredients; everything tastes really fresh.

Athens, Greece

Temple of Zeus

National Archeological Museum
View of the Acropolis from the Agora

Temple to Athena in the Acropolis compound

Dog in National Gardens

We arrived in Athens after a very early flight. Our hostel was not so close to the city center, but it was close to the metro so it was easy for us to hop on and get almost anywhere. On the first day, we went to walk around Plaka, a very charming area that is probably mostly for tourists. The stores there sold souvenirs and other items that Greece is supposedly famous for, like olive oil, natural sea sponges, metal helmets, and tacky looking pottery. Close to Plaka is Syntagma Square, and a nice shopping district. Everything is cheaper in Greece than in Amsterdam, so I ended up buying some dresses and a hat. I would say that the highlight of our trip was the food, which deserves its own blog entry separate from the substantive things that we did in Greece.

On the second day, we tried to go to the National Archealogical Museum, supposedly one of the best museums in the world. Unfortunately, they close at 3, so we ended up doing more shopping. We got to explore the central market, and bought some dried fruit (more info in the food section). Basically, the second day was a bit of a bust, aside from the great food that we ate.

Day three was when we actually went to see monuments. First thing in the morning, we walked through the National Gardens. One thing distinct about Greece is the number of stray dogs. The stray dogs are large, and also appear rather well fed. You see them lying all over the city—in a bed of flowers, in the middle of stairs, sometimes right beside a busy freeway. Perhaps everyone feeds the dogs leftovers. They seem well behaved, except with bikers. Two times we saw dogs barking at bikers, even running after them. Although, the first biker might have thrown a stone at them, so it might have been self defense. According to Ella, who had visited Greece before its huge economic collapse, Athens became more run down. Previously, the government would take stray dogs, spay and neuter them and vaccinate them, and then release them only the streets again with a bright red and blue collar (they did not want to euthanize them). Unfortunately, the poverty is more apparent in Greece than most other nations, except perhaps Italy. There are several homeless people, in particular children who approach people and play instruments (specifically the accordion) for money. Many of these children are under 10 years old, and they walk around begging for money.

After we walked through the park, we stopped by some food display, and then headed towards the Temple of Zeus and Hadrian’s Arch. The Temple of Zeus was not as impressive as I thought it would be, considering Zeus is the head of Olympus and all the other Gods. It was just a few pillars—perhaps it was much nicer in its heyday, but still nothing compared to the Pantheon. The Pantheon was built for Athena, the namesake of Athens. The story, which I actually read as a child, is that both Athena, goddess of wisdom and battle, and Poseidon, god of the sea, both wanted the city named after them. They took turns demonstrating their powers. While Poseidon struck his triton in the ground and caused a river to flow forth, the water was salty and not very useful. Athena however, created the olive tree, which could be used as food and oil. Therefore, she won the contest J Anyhow, as Ella would say, “Athena is quite a big deal in Athens.” The Pantheon is very cool to see, but must have been even more amazing when it was first completed. According to a movie that we watched in the Acropolis museum, the Pantheon was painted, and covered with carvings and statues which have since fallen off or have been removed for purposes of preservation. We also saw a stadium. After seeing the Acropolis, we returned to our hostel to dress up for dinner. That night, we went to a bar on top of a hotel, from which we had a magnificent view of the Acropolis, lit up.

The next day, we thought about going to an island, so we got up very early to go to Piraeus, the port. Unforutnately, the green line was partially closed, so we ended up having to spend a lot of time going back and forth on the metro to get to where the line was running. Piraeus is quite dirty and shabby, and the ferry tickets to Hydra, the island that we had been thinking of going, was 55 euros. Instead, some of us returned to Athens. Back in the city, we explored Monistiraki, famous for its gyros, and walked through the flea market and a crafts market. I had bought a pair of Greek sandals the first day, but there were many leather goods sellers. The sandal I bought were hand made, and I was able to bargain for them. They are not that comfortable though…anyhow, we discovered that the area close to the Ancient Agora was very lively and filled with restaurants. During our last day in Greece, we returned to that area, and walked into the Agora and up to the Temple of Hephastus, the God of iron working.

Overall, I enjoyed the trip, but Athens is not one of my favorite cities. Indeed, it is full of history, but it is rather dirty and polluted. The people on the other hand, ranged from being extremely friendly, to being very rude. There didn’t seem to be much in between. Since we did not like our hostel, we wanted to switch to a nicer hotel. Upon walking in and asking if there was a room available, the man at the desk said no, and suggested that we try the dirty hostel next door. We looked up the hotel online, and found that it actually had many rooms available. We’re not quite sure why he turned us away. Restaurants can be quite aggressive about getting your business, and men harass women a lot more. I wanted to buy a leather purse, and the guy selling the purses told me how much he loved Asian woman, and unbuttoned his shirt to show me a tattoo that he had gotten over his heart of a Chinese character (he called it a Japanese character actually, but I suppose it was Kanji). That was awkward, and he didn’t really give me a great discount either, so I backed away from the store and scuttled back to my friends. The weather was not very good, except on the first and last day. I had been hoping to lie in the sun with a bathing suit, but it was not warm enough for that. One day, I do hope to return and visit the Greek Islands.