-->
SEPTEMBER 18, 2012
If two days in Athens is about 1½ days too long, then 2 days
on the island of Santorini is about 1½ weeks too short. There were all sorts of beaches and churches
that were worth more time, but we had to catch a flight out.
 |
| Is this the Delta house? |
Back in Athens we rented a car and headed north.
As an endurance sport coach I made the
requisite drive on the original marathon course with a quick pit stop at the
marathon museum.
As the story goes, Greece won the battle of Marathon and sent Pheidippides running back the 26.2 miles to tell the
Athenians.
Upon arrival in Athens, he
shared the news of victory and promptly died, thus executing the best pacing
strategy in the history of endurance sports.
I only wish he left behind a Garmin file for the rest of us coaches to
analyze. But I digress.
 |
| Meteora |
To understand the amount of stress required to get out of
Athens and land in Lamia that night, you’d really have to be there. To paint a picture, there were times near the
city I would compare the road and traffic to the Jersey Turnpike, if said
turnpike had no painted lines or speed limits (actually, there was a speed
limit and people routinely doubled the max speed). Other times it was like driving Hwy 1 through
Marin, if Hwy 1 also had no painted lines, speed limits or guardrails.
At one point between Lamia and Kastoria we had to make the
call whether or not to turn back and reroute or drive through a flock of
sheep.
Fortunately, the herder saw us
coming and commanded the dogs to drive the flock out of the way.
It was pretty fascinating to watch.
No comments:
Post a Comment