This past weekend

On Sunday I ran the 8th annual Sarajevo Half Marathon, it was my second half marathon of the year. The first one being at the beginning of March. The conditions were quite different and I had a summer of training as opposed to a winter of training before it. I only managed to get a number the evening before the race. The temperature at the start was around 15 C and morning Sun for the 9am start, However the humidity was 90%. With 800+ starters it was the biggest field for the race so far. Shortly after the start you go up to what was the 1984 winter Olympic village and actually get to run about 2/3 of the track of the Olympic stadium. As the race went on  the temperature rose a little the Sun got stronger and the humidity drop just a few points to around 87% Early on a kind of teamed up with a few runners that stayed pretty close throughout the race and in the last 5 km began to run with one who runner who kept me moving to the finish line. It turned out we had a mutual friend and so conversation kept us occupied. So we finished together in 2:31:23. Which I think is around 8 minutes faster than in March on a little tougher course, but then all races are different

Oh yeah and it was International Peace Day so I ran in this shirt :)

Half Marathon

On the first weekend of March I went with some friends to Nish. Serbia. This is my fourth year in a row that I have gone to run the Half Marathon there. Each year I am getting slower, but of course each year I am getting older :). It rained during the whole race, just a steady rain nothing really heavy. My time was 2:39, which is my slowest outside of an Ultra Marathon. However it is the first time I have run as a 60 year old, so a personal best in that age group. Anyone who knows me from this blog knows that I am just happy to run and hopefully finish.
On March 30 I joined the Oneness Home Peace run in Bosnia and Hercegovina, driving with a friend to Trebinje where the International team had entered from Montenegro. We stayed with the team for 3 days which included some very important meetings in Sarajevo, one with a member of the Presidency and the other head of the OHR. We will join the team again in the middle of April for 4 days in Slovenia.

Happy Running

3 years for the second time

I made my annual trip Christmas trip over to the UK and it was milder but rainier than in Sarajevo. My sister lives in a village that has a lot of farms nearby, so it is a nice place to run. Though sometimes the wind and  rain can be a bit of a bother. I returned to Sarajevo on January 8 and the weather here was now quite mild for the middle of winter. There were some foggy days but no rain, so again it was nice to run in the mornings.
On the morning of January 14 I went out for a run and on completing it I also completed 3 years without missing a day. It is the second longest period of time I have gone without missing a day of running. I am two thirds of the way to my longest streak ever, so we will see how things go :)