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Our tour group Apostolos had a party and awards ceremony for us. They set us up in a very nice banquet room in the hotel. They invited in a group of Greek dancers, who entertained us and attempted to teach us advanced Greek dance steps. It seemed to be very much enjoyed– even by a bunch of marathoners with tired legs !

We were “wreathed” and given a small antique reproduction jar (with a running them of course). All got their picture taken with Jeff Galloway ! Everyone had a really great time.

Here are the pictures:

Apostolos Awards

On Tuesday our agenda included an island cruise. This included three islands.
The weather had other plans however. The evening before after getting off the bus, I noticed I could hear the surf pounding after we got off the bus. The sea was not visible from the hotel. It was a short walk across the street. I walked down there and found a bunch of guys in wet suits packing up after a day of surfing ! I was thinking, “Uh oh, it is going to be a rough ride tomorrow !”.

We got on our cruise boat, and within the protected port it did not seem too bad. We finally got under way late after the boat was loaded up with other tourists. We took turns learning about island touring options, and there were sessions in English, Spanish, and Chinese.

We got going and after spending some time drinking coffee on the top deck I camped out at a table on the dining level. This was fully enclosed and protected from the wind. By this time we were on the open ocean and the cruiser was getting tossed around a bit. I was getting bored and decided to get out on the top deck again. Walking up to the bow, the wind was howling ! Marcela and Nancy were up there hanging onto the rail, but not too successfully ! I got the video camera going and watched them get blown around. It was really funny ! The boat hit some sort of swell and started rocking violently. Deck chairs starting sliding and falling over. Some of the people sitting in chairs on the top deck fall backwards out of their chairs. The boat made a hard turn out of the wind.

Not too long after, there was an announcement that we were turning back. We would skip the first two islands, and return to the third which we had already passed. Disappointing of course, but besides the rough weather I think we were getting behind schedule with the slow going into the wind.

According to reports from the dining level, there were two large crashes from the galley as a large number of plates crashed to the floor when the large swell hit.

We got back to the third island, and after a struggle got the boat docked. We got out and got on a bus for a short tour of the island. What a cool little island with rolling hills and great views. We stopped at a beautiful Greek Orthodox church and took a short tour inside. This church is also a tribute to Saint Niktorius. The woodwork inside was incredible !

We got back on the ship after a bit of touring the local town, and they served up lunch. It was good, but after they got some Karaoke type stuff going, it was back to the top deck. It was a much smoother cruise home and we got to watch the sun set as we made it back to port.

It was disappointing we missed the first two islands. It was still interesting, and I think it was well worth dealing with the initial bad weather. Here is an album of pictures from the cruise:

Greek Island Cruise

These pictures are from our Monday post-marathon tour of Athens:

The Agora and Temple of Zeus

Link to Images

Rain ! It was raining hard when we got up on Sunday morning. Greece is a very dry country.

There was a torch lighting at the start, but we missed it. There is a close-up picture of the torch in the album.

The start was orderly and well done. I took pictures of the elites starting, and then looped back through the start.

I caught up to Jeff Galloway and the one-minute run, one-minute walk group. We made our way past the Marathon battle monument.

There were some interesting points on the early part of the course with nice views of the hills and even some wineries.

Water, “isotonic drinks”, and gels were available very frequently on the course. The water was in full bottles ! So you grabbed a bottle, took a couple of swigs and tossed it. There were firemen or medics with some sort of cooling spray, and you could get sprayed down to your heart’s content.

Crowd support was not intense, but there were a few locals cheering us on. We were in the back-of-the-pack, so some of their enthusiasm may have worn off by the time we passed.

I had the privilege of running with Jeff Galloway for quite a ways. We had a good talk about marathon running and training. At 34 kilometers I said goodbye to Jeff and began walking and waited for the Florida gang to catch up. They were only a few minutes behind.

Gold caught up with me and we did some calculations, and figured we would finish a bit after 5 hours. We were doing well and had arrived in central Athens.

The last section of the course was interesting, with the last stretch a downhill section lined with orange trees (loaded with oranges) into the 1896 Olympic stadium.

The stadium finish was really cool. There was a good crowd in the stadium cheering on the finishers. The finish amenities were as good as anything I have seen, with medals, beverages, and a bag of stuff presented to each finisher.

We met the tour group Apostolos which provided some additional stuff and took custom pictures.

They got us out of there on buses, and we got back to the hotel and collapsed.

Pictures:

Athens Marathon

We toured the Greek Temples of the Acropolis. What a magnificent view !
The temples are massive. I never understood what incredible engineering and artistic accomplishments these structures were.

We enjoyed fantastically beautiful weather, dry and sunny with a few clouds to make the photos more interesting.

The tour company set up a meeting to distribute the race stuff (numbers, chips, t-shirts and the usual assorted junk). Jeff Galloway pitched his philosophy on training and running marathons. It’s far different than anything I have tried, so I will think about applying his ideas to my running.

Everyone is excited and ready for the race to begin.

Here are the pictures from today:

Athens Saturday

It was another exciting day in Greece. We got up early and ran 30 minutes with Jeff Galloway. We had breakfast, and then got on the bus for a trip to view the monument of the Battle at Marathon. This is the start of the marathon. We drove the course. I slept through most of that.
We arrived in Athens and got turned… loose to go shopping. We had lunch at a nice outdoor restaurant. I had a great little fish called a “silver dorande”.
We visited the marathon expo, which was surprisingly good for a relatively small event.

Pictures:
Friday in Athens

We’re here ! It was a long journey.
We’re getting an orientation from the tour company.
Here are a few pictures from Zurich and Athens:

Athens Thursday

Greece today ! It’s hard to believe the day has arrived.

Check back here for reports and pictures over the next week.