Awesome !!! Awesome !!! Awesome!!!
It was a beautiful, amazing experience to mingle with the Runners‘ energy and joy for fitness and challenge to herald the news of GOOD TIDINGS of Fitness, Love and Peace around us (despite some inhumane turmoil around other countries now).
My delight and excitement were at a peak to be a 5K Finisher in my FIRST 5Km Run outside of my native land and chosen homeland, the Philippines and the USA, respectively.
Despite the odds of my quite stiff Left Knee, I faced the Thessaloniki, Greece Run Challenge this year, fulfilling a dream come true: joining the grace of the rich history of Greece/Macedonia, its beautiful people who helped me and my husband Albin all the way to move around Thessaloniki with ease, and the bottom line of simply FunRunning to count our blessings.
That was an unforgettable blessing to experience the Kindness of the Marathon/Runs’ cool ORGANIZERS, the immeasurable help of VOLUNTEERS, the spontaneous warmth of Runners and people around me (and my husband) who guided us for a very pleasant, brief stay in Thessaloniki.
The Road Tracks especially the Coastal Road (Nikis Avenue) were easy to handle but appeared VERY VERY SPECIAL to end at the Marathon’s Finish Line, the Statue of Alexander the Great, the Common Finish Line for ALL the Runners..
Overall Run Experience in three words: AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME !!!
I want to come back to try the Full Marathon Challenge, God-willing… in the near Future.
The 5Km as my Favorite Distance, Thessaloniki’s Tracks (City roads, Coastal road) were safe and great. The Security, the Spectators, the Welcomers, and the Volunteers simply gave me and the other Runners a lot of boost to finish the Run. The coastal road gave us the cool breeze of the Thermaic Gulf (Aegean Sea) on a midday Sun.
It’s a beautiful thing that the Organizers include and respect other Run Distances like 10K, 5K, and 1K (for young students).
Being 65 at this time with healthy body and spirit, RUNNING 5K is not only a challenge. RUNNING itself serves as an INSPIRATION. It is an Inspiration to Welcome our sound body and mind while we are still able and willing to move around.
More so, RUNNING is one OPPORTUNITY to explore every path that we take… from here, to there, to everywhere …This OPPORTUNITY, however, is not forever.
One CUTE notable experience: The Bananas ran out at my arrival time past the Finish Line at 1:54 PM, after receiving my Finisher’s Medal. Not a problem at all; I still got the water bottle and the 7-Vitamins tetra-pack drinks; also, the wife of One 5K Finisher handed me one big Banana on the outside of the barricaded Finish Line near the Statue of Alexander the Great; at random, another person handed me one more banana for my husband.
Another CUTE Testimony: my pleasure to meet Very Kind people like them; they are like HEROES feeding strangers like us; similarly, the BANANAS are akin to HEROES to feed and hydrate Runners like me.