2nd Inaugural 1/2-Mile Run/Walk

When I first got to Samtredia, things got off to an excellent start when President Saakashvili popped by to open a new stadium. My sitemate Ian, my friend Heidi and I were let into the compound, despite the fact that the other residents of Samtredia were crowded around the chain-link fence, restlessly awaiting their chance to see their own elected leader. Decoy cars arrived, and even a decoy helicopter and a decoy train before he set down in all the majesty of yet another helicopter. He cut a ribbon, some kids dance and sang, he shook our hand and said hello in English, the end. Also worth mentioning that we rudely shouted "Hello Saakashvili!" to get his attention, instead of using "President Saakashvili," or even "Mr. Saakshvili," an error I replay often in my mind. It ranks up there on the list of etiquette gaffes in Georgia with the time I asked the Estonian Ambassador if he was staying at the Peace Corps hostel.


That stadium became my saving grace when spring rolled around. After two failed attempts to go running in my neighborhood without happening across groups of unoccupied Georgian boys who want nothing more from life than to eat sunflower seeds and make fun of the foreigner, I tried running at the stadium. Once I gathered up the courage to make the 1.5-mile trek there alone-- since it's somewhat deflating to one's ego to go running whilst one's sitemate is lapping one once every two minutes-- I found the only corner of heaven where I could exercise in peace. Rare were the Georgian boys, which was my primary criteria, but it also helped that there was a running track in somewhat pristine condition. Even after the stadium manager decided that only football teams would be allowed inside the field and that I would have to run around the outside of the track, I still managed to show up once or twice a week, a winter's worth of cake and khachapuri bouncing steadily around and around.


On Saturday, I initiated the 2008 running season at 9:00 AM, having tried at a later hour a couple days earlier and run into a football game. I should mention briefly that I despise running and that I only do it as a surrogate exercise when a taekwondo school is not available. The taekwondo podcasts I downloaded help ("How to Do a Spinning Hook Kick"), but it's just not enough. Utilizing the technological wonder that I described in the last post, I pressed the play button and flew free into the wild blue yonder. One lap later, I was bent double huffing and puffing, but a few minutes after that I was again hitting the pavement and making my way around again. Five minutes later, I had finished the second lap and was feeling simultaneously accomplished and pathetic. This continued for the remainder of my allotted 1/2 hours of run time, during which I might have actually made it 1 mile.


The plan is to relive this vision three times a week at the stadium, rising in the early morning hours to get there before the Georgian boys awake and decide not to go to school. Ideally, this will make me presentable when the time comes for me to return to the US, and there will be a minimum of, "Oh... So, how's the food in Georgia?" from acquaintances. Will it succeed? It did somewhat last year, so precedence says yes. And if Georgian boys do happen to start swarming the stadium in the early morning hours, then maybe I'll be able to switch back to taekwondo...