Χαλανδρι Running

We got up before the sun this morning and took the Metro out to Χαλανδρι (latinized as Halandri or Chalandri) to run some races. I ran the 10K and Maxwell, Zara and Cara ran the 5K. On the walk from the subway station to St. Nicolaos Square in the center of Χαλανδρι we were treated to a variety of local plantlife. We saw grapevines hanging on trees bearing fat, delicious green grapes. We saw olive trees and lime trees. I plucked a ripe fig from a tree the kids got to taste their first fig. Just like Fig Newtons intoned Maxwell. There were bright red rose hips and beautiful flowers. I was certainly glad we opted to walk rather than wait for a bus.

My race started at 9 AM and consisted of two loops of the 5K course. Χαλανδρι is a nice suburb of Athens, but I really felt like it could have been California except for the Greek writing everywhere. I felt a little off when I started the race because my training has not been so good as of late and we fêted Dionysus last night within view of the Parthenon. But it didn't take long for me to fall into a rhythm. Maxwell & Zara left Cara behind pretty quitely, by Maxwell stayed with his sister to push her to a PR. The final results: