500 Days

This morning in Sarajevo was a little cool, but dry. On my current running streak I have now completed 500 days. When I was here in October/ November there was  smoke in the air from fires to keep houses and such warm, so I did notice some slight breathing problems, but now in the Spring everything is much better, I have to look at the chance to run a race somewhere I am kind of still settling in as far as that is concerned.

In Bosnia

I am managing to maintain my running streak. I traveled by bus overnight to Sarajevo where I will be living for a while. When went out for a run a few hours after my arrival I noticed some quite painful tightness in my lower back on the left side and this was repeated this morning when I also ran. It was similar to what I experienced  when I was here in October last year, I persisted in running every day then and it went away so I fully expect it to do the same this time. I am 10 days from completing 500 days having just completed 16 months at the beginning of the week.
On Tuesday some friends of mine finished the Unix 6 day race in Hungary, with my friends Wolfgang Schwerk and Andrea Accorsi finishing 1st and 3rd in the Man's edition and Monica Barchetti ( Andreas wife ) wining the woman's race. Congratulations to them all.

Marathon friend

Last week a friend of mine from the Ukraine ran 2:39:20 in the Utrecht marathon, it was a personal best for her and she finished second among the women. I first met her and her brother 3 years ago and 2 years ago she came to Ljubljana and finished 10th in the city marathon, with a time of 2:46. Last November she ran 2:43 finishing 3rd in the Podgorica marathon in Montenegro. I talk with her from time to time and she tells me how things are going in her training and also smaller races that she does, usually in Poland. Because of her improved times she is now being invited to races with expenses being paid, which is a big improvement..

Half Marathon

After a 12 hour overnight bus ride and around 26 hours recovery, I ran a 2:29:08 Half Marathon last Sunday. As a multiday runner I am always a little torn between wanting to run a shorter race faster and getting more time on my feet for training purposes. Last year I ran 2:29:36 in cold conditions. This year the temperature was a comfortable 6C on a bright sunny morning, run on a loop that was just over 1km long, in a nice park in Nish, Serbia. I started my year with this race last year and after 414 days of running have used it to start my racing year again.

Another milestone.

Yesterday I reached another milestone in my current running streak. 400 days is where I am at now. For a week I have had a persistent cough, but it does not seem to bother me when I am running. It does sometimes rear it's ugly head when I finish. We are also getting temperatures above freezing these days, so hopefully I can shake it out soon.

First snow

It is February and we finally have some snow on the ground, well there was snow yesterday when I went out to run, but it was still kinda wet and blowing around. This morning it is still -7C there is no wind and the snow makes crunchy sounds as you run on it. There is only about 1cm of snow, but it looks like it will stay around for a while.

Cold Mornings

There have been some quite cold mornings here in Ljubljana since I got back fro the UK, where it was quite mild. This morning was the coldest so far, with the digital temperature gauge flashing -7C. There was also a strong wind which of course makes it feel much colder. Through my years in New York I have probably run on colder days in windier conditions, but it has been a while and I need to get used it.