Running The Marathon

For a long time, I've always wanted to run the marathon but always felt that 26 miles or 42 kilometres was way beyond my limits. How could I put my human body through such a strain and what type of damage was I likely to incur? Training was an issue. Finding the time to prepare for such an event seemed an impossibility and even if that time was found, how would I know I was ready?

There were more questions than answers but when I signed up for the marathon in Kosice back in May, after seeing a friend's marathon finishing post on Facebook, I knew there was no way out. It was time to tackle this beast and succeed or be broken.

My training schedule didn't quite go to plan. The target was two smallish 10k runs a week and one longer one. That was the goal but it didn't really work out so well. On average I managed two runs a week and only one 25k run before it was time to do the whole thing. You can imagine I had my doubts that I could do the extra 17k to complete the run.

Still, I had signed up so I had to at least give it a try.

All of the excitement and stress hindered my early progress as the large mass of people jogged quite slowly in the old town in Kosice. How was I going to 42 k? Just focus on the first 10 I told myself. I knew I could do that and even more than double that. I could do 25 but after that ... it was unknown territory.

The atmosphere in Kosice was fantastic with people lining the streets clapping and cheering the runners. It certainly helped to motivate me and so I ran to be with the pacemaker with the 4 hour finish time. As I needed to use the toilet I went a bit ahead and then indeed did my business. I kept the tempo up - under 5 minutes. I could manage it. It was my usual tempo. There were quite a lot of people but it had thinned out a little. With no music in my ears I was free to take a look around and absorb the sights. Some of the track was not so interesting - just roads and blocks

What was tough was seeing the half marathon runners finishing but knowing that I had another lap to go after 21km. It was so tempting to stop.

The second half was harder. This time I turned on the music in my headphones. Anything to keep my mind occupied and to stop it straying. Having other people around was a great help and now I was due to finish it at 3:30 as the pacemaker's flag stated. I was going beyond my usual limits but felt okay so why not? Everyone talks about a crisis and mine began at around the 35th kilometre. I knew that what was left wasn't much but it still had to be done. To go so far and stop was agony and was something I didn't want to do. The last two kilometres were the toughest by far. So close and yet ... not. All sorts of doubts told me to stop going, to take a seat and be proud of my achievement. 1k left and I don't know what was pushing me on. I was in a black hole. I could't think anymore but I couldn't let myself stop. Again I focussed on people around me and what I could to keep up. My mind wanted to go faster but it was not possible just like in that dream when you want to run faster.

The finishing line, a last sprint by some runners and that was it. It was done. I didn't have to run any longer. It was all over and my time was way faster than I had thought possible at 3 hours and 29 minuted.

When I finished I tried to stretch but my muscles were so stiff. Relief and excitement was what I felt. Finally i had done it. All the bad feelings evaporated when I crossed that line. I couldn't believe that I had done it. Such a long dream but finally true. I had finally done it.

Looking back, more training would have helped but I would recommend it to anyone who would like to have something to aim for and of course who loves running and who wants to push themselves a bit harder. What next? At the end of the run I thought to myself that there was no way I would put myself through that again, the pain, the longevity, the endurance and now but now I am thinking of Vienna.            

Watermelon Update

So I have watered and waited and this is what I have got (below). It's not exactly what you see in the shops and it shows the hard reality of trying to grow something especially when there are so many dry days here. There are also many pests to ward off such as rats and slugs. You can see the bite marks from something that was trying to destroy this piece of fruit but it failed. The other watermelons that survived were much smaller than this one. I had to pick them as the plants have already dried up.

I should add that my excitement at even growing one this big faded when I cut open the watermelon in the picture. It was not good as it was too dry.

At least there's consolation in the goodies below which we have also picked today. It makes up for the disappointment of yet another watermeloness year. 

The Treasures of the Land

Look at this little beauty! I am hoping that finally this year nature will give me a watermelon. Last year didn't work out due to the intense dryness of the summer but this year there is a chance. It's hot this year as well but there is rain on a weekly basis at least. Nature can be kind or just as cruel. Today I picked seven tomatoes and was so happy to finally see red tomatoes on our plants but when I looked at the bottom I saw that four of them were diseased and inedible. What causes this, I don't know but it affected some of our harvest last year as well. 

Sometimes this happens. You put a lot of work into growing something and if slugs don't eat them, something else possibly will or else it simply won't pollinate like one of our pumpkins last year. It produced many flowers, crawled about five metres, looked nice but ultimately produced nothing to eat. 

There's still a long way to go for this little one but it looks promising and it's not the only watermelon we have ...

When In Slovakia

It's been a while since I've posted anything here about anything at all but today feels like the right time to do it.

So, when it comes to the production of wine, the outcome has been pretty decent. I'm not suggesting for one second that this wine is pure or would be considered by wine connoisseurs to be anything worthy or fame or recognition, but for us it's a really pleasing result to what was a hell of a lot of hard work.

The white wine is generally not transparent. Only one demijohn contains clear liquid and the other two are cloudy for some reason. Perhaps it's because we didn't 'rack' them. This was a new word for me but basically it means siphoning from one container to another while trying to avoid getting tipsy in the process. Sucking from the pipe is necessary to get the liquid moving and sometimes it takes a few attempts and a few mouthfuls of wine as well.

One of the wines that we took was a bit smelly. It had a smelly egg smell but tasted fine. Supposedly it happens when there isn't enough aeration or it can be from having too much sulphur in the wine.

The red came out pretty well and is the most satisfactory one as it involved more work and there's something very majestic about seeing this juice of the gods flowing from bottle to glass.

The general feedback we've had has been pretty good which has also been very pleasing as we are certainly not objective at all.

The experience has been a very good one and while the grape vines are still asleep, I'm looking forward to the time when they burst into life and so will begin
another season of battling with the natural elements in order to give them the chance to produce this special fruit.

Wine Time

This is just a short one to show a bit of the process of making wine. We've been pretty lucky that we have a decent harvest but now we have to use it.

We are very lucky that all the equipment is already there and just needs some cleaning.

Picking the grapes is not the hard part, removing the good ones from the vines is.








First we crush them in a mill type device and then it's time for pressing to drain as much juice as you can from the grapes.

The juice is so good that I was tempted not to bottle it at all but to enjoy the delights of freshly pressed grape juice.

We disinfected the demijohn with sulphur, which should not be breathed in. Unfortunately we got a bit of it and were coughing for afterwards.

The juice is then poured into the demijohn and now we wait, for a couple of days at least until it's time to relocate the juice to another demijohn and leave the sediment behind.

It's a fascinating process and there's still a lot to learn but I'm eager.

Cycling in Morava

I didn't know anything about the region of Morava (Moravia in English) but was pleasantly surprised by the great number of castles and interesting small towns that are there. I was also impressed by the biking infrastructure that exists there, not only the bike paths but the restaurants and camp sites built next to the bike routes.

Starting from Skalica in Slovakia, we rode as far as Petrov. We were very unprepared without a map or a plan at all. Skalica is a very nice town but unfortunately we never got to try the famous pastry "Trdelnik" as we arrived a bit too late.
We rode until we reached the Bat'a Canal which was built by the famous shoemaker Tomáš Bat'a, hence the name. It connects some of the towns in this region and was built when water transport was the most effective form.  For about one euro we camped in Petrov and managed to get a map of the region.

 The next day we set out on a trail alongside the canal and passed through some attractive towns such as Strážnice and Veseli nad Moravou. The curiously named Stare Mesto was quite disappointing in comparison with the other towns. In Uherský Ostroh we just had a quick stop to have an embarrassing picture taken of ourselves which you can see below.

We managed to find a place to camp at Spytihnév for free. It was ideal as there was a pit stop for cyclists with a restaurant and a bar. There were also paid toilets and shower facilities which was heaven after such a hot and sweaty day. The worst thing for me was using sun cream on my freckled Irish skin to prevent sunburn. Either I use it and don't get burned but have to feel all that slime on my skin or I fry. I chose the former option.

In Napajedla there is quite a nice castle worth visiting. We had a tour guide in Czech with Yulia translating for me. It was a bit short but there were some interesting things to see. Kroměříž is a city I could definitely return to. Architecturally there is a lot to see. Unfortunately we didn't have too much time. We had Yulia's bike stand replaced in a bike shop. The guys there also pumped up my wheels and fixed my speedometer for no extra charge. After that I ate fried cheese once more. In a total of six days of traveling I ate fried cheese 4 days and the other two days we cooked our own food using our small gas stove. The vegetarian options are pretty limited so I'd recommend cooking your own food if you are of the veggie only kind.

 We'd heard a lot about Zliň, the home of Tomáš Bat'a's famous shoe company but we were very disappointed when we finally made it there. It took us such a long time to reach it as the bike route was much longer than the road for cars and meant we had to do a loop before we reached the city. We didn't find anything interesting there, except for an industrial city so we took a train back to Otrokovice and spend another night at the free campsite in Spytihnév.

The next day we had to go back all along the route we had just travelled upon in order to get to the south of Morava. Hodonin was our aim and we reached the outskirts of it in the evening. It was another hot day and the chance to cool down in the evening was very welcome. We stayed in a very interesting campsite which was all for ourselves and contained fruit trees and wigwams. The nearby bar was interesting with their own brewed beer. Polotmavý or half-dark beer is amazing in Czech.

Onwards to Lednice via Hodonin and Břeclav. Lednice is quite a touristy spot but it's easy to see why. The impressive castle and massive garden surrounding it is well worth visiting and we could easily have spent a day there. Instead we only had the evening as it took us some time to reach the city and the campsite. This was previously owned by the Liechtenstein family who were forced out of the region in World War II and then set up their own country which exists today. In the evening we were treated to a folk festival with musicians not only from Czech but also from Hungary, Slovakia and Poland.

Mikulov is only ten kilometres or so from Lednice and boasts equally impressive history and architecture. As this is a rich wine producing region, there is even a museum in the castle dedicated to this. The wine barrel in the picture to the right dates from 1643 and has a capacity of 101,400 litres.

After Mikulov we went to Valtice but the road there was horribly busy and not for biking at all. I don't know if we took a wrong turn but I was just so happy to get off the main road. This castle is equally impressive even though it is not as clean or as well restored as a lot of other castles in the region. We spent the last night enjoying a good bottle of red wine in the campsite before crashing in the tent.

One more thing we saw on the way home was this castle in the picture below - Januv Hrad. It was not open so we just took a walk around it before heading back to Břeclav and the train back to Bratislava via Kutý. 6 days was just about enough time to see a lot in this region. We were very lucky with sunny weather every day and no accidents on the bikes. There's lots of culture and interesting sites to visit and by bike I always feel you get to see a bit more.

 

Preparing For the Grapes

 These pictures were actually taken two weeks ago when we finally went into the basement and cleaned everything in there. As you can see there was a lot of stuff there including these massive wine demijohns which we were informed have a capacity of 50 litres.
Thankfully there was no sign of the rats who had been there previously but the smell down there wasn't the greatest. The mould on the walls was also not very good for the air down there.
Some of the wood had to be replaced as it was rotten.

Finding a wine press was a pleasing sight as we have all the tools now to prepare wine. It's been a good seasons for grapes as it's been very dry. There's just one more month until harvest time but some of the grapes are already ripe. Wine making is an art and my expectations are not so high for the first batch as I really don't know anything about how to make it but I am looking forward to trying it.