One week of training is done for the Athens marathon and in order to keep myself honest and motivated, I’ll be publishing my weekly diary of all things marathon. Here’s what happened this week:
- Anti-austerity riots in Greece
- 6 miles in 57:01:06
Week 1: Athens Marathon Update
Pirates of the Caribbean: Search of the Lost Golf Ball
Golf is a game of etiquette, integrity, and order. Then your f*!king ball goes in the creek and all bets are off. After losing ball after ball after ball, I have found a game within a game i.e., searching for the lost ball. I’m not talking about walking around or driving aimlessly for that missing Titelist. I’m talking about taking off your shoes and socks and getting right in the creek.
I find myself letting others play through as I wade the creek, topless at times, searching for the treasure of Callaways. The Nike pieces of garbage I leave behind because no one, not even Tiger wants to deal with Nike golf gear. Today we hit the jackpot coming across little nooks and crannies filled with golf balls once thought to be lost forever. I didn’t take the time to count but judging by the picture, I’d say there are well over 30.
On the final hole, I put one in the creek and was tempted to go back in and venture for more. Alas, my sniffling nose and frosty air forced me to abandon this plan. The golf course giveth and it taketh away.
Virgin Business…Athens Afterthought
Who is TPOL kidding? Flying peasant class is for the birds. Actually the birds probably have a nicer time because they don’t have to go through TSA. While I do have my 20k AA flight on hold, I, as was the case in Mongolia, came up with a better way to go from point A to point B. Recently, I applied for a useless Delta Amex Platinum which gives 60k pesos after 2k spent. Those pesos are looking mighty attractive right now since I found a flight from the middle of nowhere to London for 62,500 + $5.60 in business on Virgin Atlantic. I can even wave to my parents as I pass through the D.
Athens Marathon: Step 1, The Flight to Greece
Wheels up! Even though I haven’t received confirmation of my marathon registration, I’ve going to go ahead and book my award flight. There are no great options for OneWorld flights to Athens so I had to be a bit creative and unfortunately come out-of-pocket to secure a reasonable flight. My three options are:
- Depart November 6th from Philadelphia to Madrid, Madrid to Athens in coach on Iberia arriving November 7th at 3PM, only hours before the gun goes off at 9AM on November 8th.
- Total cost: 20,000 AAdvantage Miles + taxes + AA calling on the phone fee which they won’t waive even if I complain because they’ll say that Iberia is bookable on AA.com. Looking on British, it shows fuel surcharges of $300 but I don’t think that would be the case if I booked through American.
- Depart November 5th from Denver to Munich in coach on US Airways arriving November 6th at 8:50AM. From there I could stay in Munich for a night or make the connection to Athens the same day. This would give me an extra day to recoup before the race.
- Total Cost 20,000 AAdvantage Miles + $5.60 + $101 for flight from MUC to ATH
- Delta from Montana for $2750 connection in MSP, JFK, and FCO.
Too Pale to Fly: A Ridiculous True Story
So a friend of mine posted this story on Facebook and I had to share it here. Per the Mirror, a girl looking to board an Etihad flight to Maldives was denied boarding initially because of her pale complexion. The gate attendant thought she must be ill to look like that. The best part is her father’s explanation of her skin tone: “We live in Scotland. She is a redhead and she has a pale complexion. That’s just the way she is.” Then when she finally received the go ahead to board, she ended up in Maldives without her luggage. Read the full story here.
Athens Marathon Registered! Trip Report Diary Begins
Today I registered for the marathon in Athens. I will be creating a Trip Report Diary on the whole process from the start of training, the booking of flights, the buying of performance enhancing drugs, until I cross the finish line and find my way home, hopefully as a first class champion. Who knows what will be in this diary. Perhaps I’ll include a Starbury crying bathtub scene as I lament my decision to sign up and publicize it. Before I get into all that, I still have to do the following:
- Review my Guide to Running a Marathon
- Book flights
- Find hotels
- Find somewhere to go after the race for R&R
- Create a new Trip Report entry
The Wi-Fi Is Coming, the wi-fi is coming!
a-live posts via trusted Blackberry are meant for when I’m on the go not when I live in third world places where it takes a week to install what better be dependable wi-fi. I probably could’ve gone to a coffee shop to steal some bandwidth but this town is where points enthusiasts go to die as virtually every mom and pop shop doesn’t take credit cards. In the last few weeks I’ve written more checks than I have in my entire life. Somehow out-of-state checks for $1.50 are more convenient than the 3 percent Amex charge for using a card. So tomorrow the wi-fi man is coming and TPOL will be back online full-time. Thanks for bearing with us as we experienced this longer than normal hold time. We appreciate your patience. A kind post will be written tomorrow.
Nothing Runs Like a Deer
Down under you have kangaroos. In the Mountain West, you have deer. And not just in the wild grazing. The deer are everywhere strutting their stuff like the land is theirs and humans are infringing on their domain, much like my post title does on a certain lawn care company.
Similar to the kangaroo who may look cute, deer pose a serious hazard to those that get in their way or vice versa. Take your eyes off the road for a minute in a mountain pass and you may find yourself Thelma and Louised off of a bluff.
It’s not just in the mountainous areas these prancing fools come out to play. As the picture below shows, this deer decided that the streets of downtown was more his style. Nothing runs like a deer or in this case walks like on.
Ibiza Vs. The Cubicle
Years ago I was I was shamefully escorted off of the premises at General Motors and went on an epic Euro trip adventure that took me to Ibiza. (The details are in my book.)
Years later my friend still works in Ibiza and runs a successful party boat company called Oceanbeat Ibiza.
Today he posts pictures of wild parties, all night ragers, and the beautiful Ibiza coastline.
On the other hand, my friend to whom I wrote the book is still emailing me about job openings that will land him in the arms of another ungrateful cubicle.
Stuck in the entrepreneurial torture chamber of a holding pattern, I have to ask the rhetorical question, who has it better, the office man or the beach bum (who probably makes more than the office man)?
Worst Part of Moving: No Wi-Fi
This post gets filed in the a-live section which is usually reserved for blogging while I’m on the road. I moved today from the woods to the forest and my Wi-Fi won’t be activated until Monday. Why does it take so long to activate Wi-Fi? Who are these magical technicians that are so busy but do five minutes of work when they finally do arrive? Why is there a disconnect fee, an activation fee, and an installation fee for air? Why am I paying so much for Wi-Fi? Why is there a annual contract? Why are there so many providers? Why won’t my stupid old box work with new provider? All this reminds me of a scene from Lethal Weapon 4. “They fuck you, they fuck you with the cellphones!” The only question I can answer is what am I supposed to do until Wi-Fi arrives. The answer is golf.
