THIS IS WARSAW!!!! (...marathon, in pictures)

Our first full day in Poland was dominated by my running of the Warsaw Marathon.

Running in a foreign place is a great way to get a taste for the "off the beaten track" parts of the city. The start of the race was in a historic-looking neighborhood...

...but soon the scenery got quite drab (communist influences throughout) so was not the best for keeping my mind distracted. Fortunately, there were quite a few characters in the race to keep me amused.

Near the start of the race I was just behind Krzysztof Drabik (www.speedbar.pl/), a "Cocktail"-esque performance bartender who juggled his water bottles the entire race. (A bit hard to see in the photo that he's juggling; looks like he's just holding a beer.)

The big stars of the race were Spartanie Dziecion (www.facebook.com/SpartanieDzieciom), a group raising money for disabled children by running dressed up like "The 300" Spartans, complete with spears and shields, running the entire race in military formation.

Unfortunately, this team totally screwed up my pace since I discovered that it is physically impossible to run next to men in military uniform and NOT match their pace, even if it's faster than you like to run. Eventually I stopped and took a walking break to let them pull ahead...

...only to have them let me catch up as they set up a "spear tunnel" for us to run through:

The wheels fell off for me at the 25 km mark and I slowed considerably, letting the Spartans and just about everyone else in the race pull well ahead. There were not many left on the course by the time I finished, thirty minutes behind my previous personal worst.

The above picture is the definition of the expression "I'm so far behind I feel like I'm in first place".

(Events of Sept 25, 2016.)