Race Report: Buenos Aires Marathon

Two and a half years ago, I traveled to Antarctica with Marathon Tours & Travel.  Our itinerary included three days in Buenos Aires before flying to Ushuaia to board our ship.  I ran a marathon in Antarctica, but I didn’t run a marathon during my time in Argentina.

Six months ago, a friend of mine did that same trip to run the Antarctica Marathon.  When I saw her photos from Buenos Aires, it reminded me how much I liked that city.  That was the motivation I needed to go back to Buenos Aires to run a marathon there.

Before I could register for the race, I needed to get a medical certificate signed by my doctor.  I’ve done other marathons in countries that required a medical certificate, but you didn’t need to provide the certificate until packet pickup.  In Argentina, you need to upload a copy of your medical certificate as part of the registration process.  I checked to see how soon I could get a doctor appointment.  As luck would have it, I was able to get an appointment that same day.

When I was here with Marathon Tours & Travel, we stayed at a hotel in the Puerto Madero waterfront area.  I loved that neighborhood, but hotels there are expensive.  Also, it’s a long distance from where the marathon starts and finishes.  This time, I stayed at a hotel that was outside that neighborhood, but still close enough that I could easily walk there.  I was a little closer to where the race starts, and the rate was much more affordable.

Thursday, September 18

When I fly overseas for a race, I usually arrive at least three days before the race.  For a Sunday race, I’ll typically leave on Wednesday and arrive on Thursday.  Since I had been to Buenos Aires before, I decided to leave on Thursday instead.  That would give me enough time, provided I didn’t have any major flight delays.  Naturally, I did.

I was on my flight to Atlanta when I found out that my flight from Atlanta to Buenos Aires was going to be delayed.  It was originally scheduled to depart at 11:00 PM.  When I got to Atlanta, they were saying it wouldn’t leave until 12:30 AM.  Later, they pushed it back to 1:55 AM.  After I had been waiting in the Atlanta airport for three hours, they finally announced that the flight wouldn’t leave until 8:00 AM Friday morning.  It would’ve been nice to know that a few hours earlier.

I checked into a hotel for the night, but I didn’t get there until midnight.  I tried to get to sleep, but I was too wound up to relax.  I had been avoiding caffeine since leaving Minneapolis, but I still felt like I had 10 cups of coffee.

Friday, September 19

I kept trying to sleep until 4:30.  Then I had to get up to get back to the airport.  I wanted to allow plenty of time to get through security.  It can take much longer in Atlanta than it does in Minneapolis.

When I tried to go through security, I had a new problem.  TSA wouldn’t let me through, because my boarding pass had the wrong date.  I went to the Delta counter, where they told me my boarding pass was good, but I couldn’t use TSA pre-check.  They said I would need to use the general boarding lane.  I have Clear, so I asked if there was a lane for Clear without pre-check, and if I could use that lane.   There was, and I could, but it was on the other side of the terminal.  I eventually got through using that lane.

While I was eating breakfast in the airport, I learned that my flight was delayed another hour to 9:00.  I didn’t know why it kept getting delayed, so I had to wonder if there would be more delays.  Sure enough, they delayed it 9:40 AM, then 11:00 AM, then noon, then 12:30, then 1:00, and finally 1:46.  They were nickel and diming me to death.  If I knew the full extent of the delay sooner, I wouldn’t have needed to get to the airport so early.  Instead, I got no sleep, and I was waiting in the airport for hours, seemingly without end.

After we finally boarded, the pilot announced that the weather along our route had changed since the cargo was loaded, and they would need to rearrange the cargo to distribute the weight differently.  He said it would take 15-20 minutes.  It took two hours!  When we finally pulled away form the gate, we were 17 hours behind schedule.  I spent most of that time at the airport, and I didn’t get any sleep.

I rarely try to sleep on flights, but I knew I wouldn’t have much time to sleep when I got to my hotel, so I was desperate.  As soon as the meal service was done, I tried to get to sleep.

I was about as comfortable as I’ve ever been while trying to sleep on an airplane, but it took almost six hours to fall asleep.  We had turbulence for most of the flight, and the bumpy ride made falling asleep almost impossible.  Later in the flight, things smoothed out a bit, and I got a brief nap.

I was originally scheduled to arrive in Buenos Aires at 9:45 AM on Friday.  Because of all the delays, I didn’t get there until 2:45 AM on Saturday.

Saturday, September 20

I had a bad experience with a taxi the last time I traveled to South America, so this time I booked an airport transfer before I arrived.  That was before I knew about the flight delays.  I had to contact the taxi company more than once to let them know my flight was delayed.  It took about 30 minutes to get through the line for passport control, but when I was done, I spotted my driver.

It took about an hour to get to my hotel.  I had contacted the hotel before my flight to let them know I would be arriving late.  I also asked them to have the temperature turned down in my room.  When I got there, my room was nice and cold.  I immediately climbed into bed to take a nap.

It took me about an hour to get to sleep.  I got enough of a nap to be able to function.  Then I had breakfast.

I lost a whole day, so everything I was planning to do on Friday got pushed to Saturday instead.  That included packet pickup for the marathon.  The earliest I could do that on Saturday was 10:00.  In the meantime, I did a workout in the fitness room.

Packet pickup was held in a park that was on the other side of the city.  I could get most of the way there on the Subte (subway), but I had to walk the last mile.

To pick up my race packet, I needed my passport and a QR code that they emailed to me.  I didn’t know if I would need my medical certificate, but I brought it just in case.

The race shirt was a tank top, which is always nice, since I don’t get as many of those.  Besides my race bib and shirt, my race packet included several product samples.  Some were useful, such as protein bars and other food.  Others were not so useful, like a half-liter bottle of mouthwash.  One interesting item was a package of maté, which is an Argentine herbal drink that has its own subculture.

It took me an hour to get to the park and another hour to get back.  When I got back, it was lunchtime, but I decided to skip lunch in favor of going for a run and then having an early dinner.  Ideally, I would’ve run on Friday and rested Saturday, but I spent Friday in an airport and on a plane.

From my hotel, I ran through Puerto Madero to reach an ecological reserve that has some trails.  That’s the same place where I went for runs the first time I visited Buenos Aires.  I was hoping to run a trail loop, but the reserve was closed.  Instead, I ran out and back on a wide sidewalk that’s adjacent to the reserve.

I wanted to get to bed early, so I had an early dinner.  In Argentina, people often don’t eat dinner until 9:00.  Restaurants often don’t open until 7:30.  I knew there were restaurants in Puerto Madero that are open all afternoon, so that’s where I went for dinner.  Argentina has a large Italian minority, so it wasn’t hard to find a restaurant with pizza.

I’m happy to say I slept well that night.  I really needed that after getting so little sleep the previous two nights.

Sunday, September 21

Sunday was race day.  The race started at 7:00 AM.  The only negative about my hotel is that it was four miles from where the race starts.  Buenos Aires has good public transportation, but race morning was problematic.  The subway system doesn’t operate that early on a Sunday morning.  There’s a bus route that goes right there, but I didn’t know if that route would be affected by road closures.  Without knowing for sure if the bus would be running, I decided to just walk.  I had to leave early, but my route was fairly direct.

I left the hotel at 5:00.  It was still dark, but I was following streets that were well-lit.  Leaving that early gave me enough time that I could walk at a casual pace and still get to the start area with plenty of time to make it through the bathroom lines.  Along the way, I passed a few landmarks.

With about a mile to go, I started to see other runners who were walking or running to the start area.  I saw two runners getting out of a taxi.  I assume the driver got them as close as he could, but couldn’t go all the way because of road closures.

After making a bathroom stop, I tried to figure out where the start corrals were.  The start area was huge, and there wasn’t any signage.  I never saw a map of the start area on the race website, so I just had to find my way around.

When I spotted the starting line, I was on the wrong side of it.  There were barricades on both sides of the street, so I had to take a circuitous route to get to the entrance to the start corrals.  Making matters worse, it had rained during the night, so I had to detour around several large puddles.

I never walked through a puddle, but I did a lot of walking on wet grass.  By the time I found the entrance to my corral, my shoes and socks were wet.

Shortly after I entered my corral, my watch informed me that I had reached its arbitrary goal of 10,000 steps.  That’s a lot of walking to do before the race even starts.

I was in corral F, which was for runners with estimated finish times between 3:46 and 4:00.  I was puzzled when I saw a runner at the back of corral E with a sign that read, “5.30.”  I assumed he was the leader of a pace group, but if his target time was 5:30, he shouldn’t have been in corral E.

Then I wondered if 5:30 was the time limit, and he was the sweeper.  If that was the case, he should have been in the last corral.  He eventually moved to the front of corral F, but that still didn’t make sense.

Sometimes when I run in a foreign country, I experience a different pre-race ritual.  As we were waiting for the race to start, I saw a large sheet passing over the runners in front of me.  As it reached us, we each reached up and grabbed it to help pull it back.  Then, as it passed over us, we kept our arms extended, so it glided over our fingertips.

This sheet was as wide as the street, and it was more than a block long.  It took so long to pass over us, that it may have been two blocks long.  It was divided into three stripes of equal width.  The outer two stripes were light blue and the middle stripe was while.  Those are the colors of Argentina’s flag.

When the elite runners started, I heard a loud cheer.  I was so far from the starting line that I couldn’t even see it.  It would be several minutes before my corral started.

Before my corral started, I started to feel a fine drizzle.  The temperature was in the 50s, but I opted to wear tights, knowing it would be windy.  With the drizzle, I felt more confident in that decision.  I also put my gloves on.

In front of each corral, there were two lines of volunteers holding hands to create a barrier across the road.  They waited until the corral in front of them had started before they let the next corral move up.  Then they brought us forward slowly, ensuring a stagger of at least a minute between corrals.  By the time my corral was allowed to cross the starting line, seven or eight minutes had already elapsed since the first runners started.

I was near the front of my corral.  As soon as I crossed the starting line, I was able to run at my own pace.  The stagger between corrals was sufficient to give us plenty of space to run.

At first, the runners around me were all going at the same pace.  Eventually, we caught up to runners from the back of corral E, even though they started at least a minute ahead of us.  Now, I had to start passing people, but it wasn’t that difficult to get around them.

This is a huge race, but we were starting on a road that was six lanes wide.  The stagger between corral starts was enough to ensure that we got spread out a bit before we caught up to the corral in front of us.  Most of the people in that corral were faster, but not everyone starts at the same pace, and some people start in a corral that’s too fast for them.  A certain amount of congestion is inevitable, but we weren’t packed in like sardines.

I felt like I might be starting fast, but I didn’t know for sure until I got a split from my watch.  I ran the first mile in 8:37.  That was fast, but not crazy fast.

As we got mixed in with runners from other corrals, I had to run at my own pace and not at the pace of the runners right in front of me.  In the first few miles, I did a good job of that.  My next two splits were 8:38 and 8:37.

At 5K, we reached the first hydration station.  This one just had water, and it was in bottles.  I grabbed a bottle, removed the cap, and drank about half of it.  It was a large bottle, and I couldn’t drink that much at once.  When I couldn’t drink any more, I tossed the bottle to the side of a road, where I saw a volunteer collecting the discarded bottles in a trash bag.

My next mile was a little slower.  I attributed that mostly to slowing down at the aid station.

The next time I reached an aid station, they had Gatorade in paper cups.  That station didn’t have any water.  Drinking a cup of Gatorade was easier, but that mile was slower than the previous one.

My pace was getting erratic.  The runners around me were still going at different paces.  How fast I ran in any particular mile seemed to depend on who I was following and how fast they were going.  I was no longer doing a good job of running at my own pace.  After running mile five in 8:59, I sped up to 8:23 in mile six.  The scary thing is that my pace felt about the same in both of those miles.

At 10K, there was another aid station with water bottles.  I decided to skip that one.  The aid stations were frequent enough that I didn’t need to drink at all of them.

I eventually noticed a pattern.  Every 5K, they had a water station.  Halfway between those they had Gatorade stations.  For most of the race, I only drank at the Gatorade stations.

We started out running west, but we eventually looped back and returned to the same park where we started.  This time, we were on the other side of a divided street.

By now, the drizzle had stopped.  I briefly saw the sun come out, but it wasn’t long before it was overcast again.  Thankfully, the drizzle never returned.

More than half of the runners were wearing their green race shirts.  At times, the runners in front of me looked like a sea of green.  I can’t say or even think “sea of green” without getting the song “Yellow Submarine” in my head.  It didn’t stay there for long.  Shortly after passing through the start/finish area, I heard a large sound system blasting “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen.  If you know me well, you know I sped up in that mile.

We occasionally passed major landmarks of the city.  I had my phone with me, so I could’ve taken pictures, but I didn’t want to stop or slow down.  I started at a fast pace, and I wanted to keep that going.

As we were approaching 17K, I started to see large office buildings ahead of us.  I thought we were heading into the downtown area, but then we turned.

Right after turning, we started up a hill.  This course is mostly flat.  Up until now, the only hill was the ramp leading up to a bridge.  The hill in front of me wasn’t steep, but it was long enough that I had to be careful not to tire myself out.  I kept running with the same effort.  I didn’t worry if that mile was a little slower.

After the hill, I spotted the obelisk, which is another major landmark.  As we reached the obelisk, we turned right.  Then we had a nice downhill.

At 20K, we reached another water station, but they also had bananas.  As soon as I noticed that, I moved to the other side of the street.  The last thing I wanted was to step on a banana peel.  It was bad enough that some runners were dropping water bottles in the middle of the street.

After a couple more turns, we were running toward the obelisk again, but from a different direction.  This was an out-and-back section.  We ran toward the obelisk, but before we reached it, we made a U-turn.

Along this street, there were people in the crowd in all kinds of colorful costumes.  One guy was on stilts.  There was a whole group dressed in yellow from head to toe and twirling yellow flags.

Shortly after the turnaround, I spotted the guy with the “5.30” sign.  He was only a minute or two behind me.  If he was a sweeper or someone with a target time of “5:30,” he shouldn’t be just a minute behind me.  I was on pace for a time well under four hours.

Then it dawned on me that 5:30 might be a pace rather than a target time.  I didn’t go the math precisely, but it occurred that a pace of 5:30 per kilometer would work out to roughly 8:40 per mile.  That was pretty close to my pace.

I got a split from my watch at 13 miles, but I never noticed the 21K banner.  I also didn’t see anything marking the halfway point.  If didn’t occur to me that I was more than half done until I reached the 22K sign.  My time there was under two hours, so I was clearly on pace to break four hours by a wide margin.  I started somewhat fast, but my only goal was to break four hours.

For the next several kilometers, I didn’t know which neighborhood we were in.  I was beginning to slow down, but I could afford that.  To break four hours, I needed to average 9:09 per mile.  Through the first 17 miles, all of my mile times were under nine minutes.  Then in mile 18, I slowed to 9:12.

If I ran that pace for the rest of the race, I would easily break four hours.  My fear was that I would keep slowing down.  I lit a fire under myself to keep up with the runners around me.  In mile 19, I sped up to 8:42.

We were almost to 31K when I saw a fountain I recognized.  We were in Puerto Madero.  I knew we would run through this neighborhood, but we entered it from an unfamiliar direction.

After two more turns, we were on a familiar street.  It’s the one that borders the ecological reserve.  I ran along here on Saturday, but I was on the sidewalk.  Now, I was running in the street.

My race packet included a gel.  I had been keeping it in my fanny pack since the beginning of the race.  When I saw that I was approaching a water station, I took it out and quickly ate it.  Then I grabbed a bottle of water and drank just enough to wash it down.

I didn’t know our route through Puerto Madero, but I knew everything would look familiar.  Two years ago, I spent three days in this neighborhood.  It’s the only part of Buenos Aires that was already familiar to me.

That made the next four kilometers easier.  By the time we left that neighborhood, we only had 7K to go.  That was roughly the same distance I walked to get to the start of the race, but our route would be different.  When I was walking, it seemed to take forever.  Running, it would take less than half as long to cover that distance.

I had been skipping most of the water stations, but at 35K, I was thirsty.  I didn’t want to wait for the next Gatorade station.  I didn’t like drinking from bottles, but I drank water at this aid station.

Next, we run underneath a highway.  For roughly two kilometers, there was another roadway above us.  Now, I couldn’t trust splits from my watch.  I didn’t have a direct line of sight to the satellites, so my watch couldn’t tell where I was.  It would extrapolate from my last known location, but it couldn’t tell me if my pace changed.

When we got back out into the open again, I had roughly 5K to go.  Up until now, I had kept every mile but one under nine minutes.  From here on out, I slowed down, but I was able to limit the damage.

Buenos Aires has two airports.  I flew into the large international airport.  Now, we were running near the smaller domestic airport.  I could see planes taking off.

We ran another out-and-back section.  I saw the 5.30 guy again.  If that was his pace in minutes per kilometer, it was reassuring that I was still ahead of him.

At 41K, we made our final turn.  Now we were heading toward the finish line, but I wouldn’t see it until the last 100 meters.  It was be hidden behind a bend, just as it was when I was lined up in the start corrals.

When I finally got close enough to see the finish line, I saw the clock.  By the time I got there, it read “4:01:05.”  That was the elapsed time since the elite runners started.  I knew my time would be several minutes faster.

I finished in 3:52:40.  Then I kept moving through the finish area as quickly as I could.

I saw volunteers handing out water bottles.  I walked past them to get to other volunteers with Gatorade bottles.  I grabbed a bottle of Gatorade, and then I saw a volunteer with bananas.  I started eating a banana as I continued moving forward.  I was expecting to eventually see volunteers handing out finisher medals.

Soon, everyone ahead of me stopped moving.  There was a traffic jam.  When I reached the volunteers with medals, I understood what was causing the bottleneck.  We had tear-off tags at the bottom of our race bibs.  I didn’t know what those were for.  The volunteers had to collect those when they handed us our medals.

The design on the medal features the obelisk.  It was also featured on the shirts.

I had more options for getting back to hotel, because the subway was now running.  I had to get out of the finish area before I could get a good enough connection to use the maps app on my phone.  I already knew that I would need to walk for about a mile to get to the nearest Subte station.  When I pulled up transit directions to see how to get there, I noticed that it would take about an hour to get back to my hotel with a combination of walking and subway.  Just walking back would take an hour and 15 minutes.

Then it occurred to me that I had a third option that was faster.  I could run back to the hotel.  Additional running, at this point, would be a slow shuffle.  I also needed to take occasional walking breaks, as running was too tiring.  Still, it was the fastest way back to the hotel, so that’s what I did.

When I got back to the hotel, I was a train wreck.  I didn’t feel like going anywhere for lunch, so I ate the remaining food samples from my race packet.

When it was time for dinner, I still didn’t feel like going out.  That made it easier to decide where to eat.  I had dinner at the hotel’s restaurant.  I didn’t feel like I gave up anything.  It’s a good restaurant, and they had some local foods, as well as local beer and wine.

I slept well that night.

Monday, September 22

I flew home on Monday, but it was an evening departure, so I still had some time for sightseeing.  After breakfast, I did a workout at the hotel.  Then I headed out to see a few things that were within walking distance of my hotel.

My first stop was the Metropolitan Cathedral.  I didn’t have time to visit this church when I was here in 2023.

The cathedral is next to Plaza de Mayo.

Casa Rosada (the government building) is at the other end of the plaza.

From there, it was a short walk to the obelisk.

The most colorful neighborhood in Buenos Aires is La Boca.  I would’ve loved to visit that neighborhood again, but walking there would’ve taken too long, and there isn’t a Subte line that goes there.  Instead, I walked over to Puerto Madero, where I had lunch.

After lunch, I relaxed at the hotel until it was time to go to the airport.  My flight back to Atlanta is another overnight flight.  Hopefully this one will be on time.

Race statistics:

Distance:  42.2 kilometers

Time:  3:52:40

Average Pace:  5:31 per kilometer (8:52 per mile)

First Half:  1:55:16

Second Half:  1:57:24

Marathons/Ultras in 2025:  27

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  562

Consecutive Boston Qualifiers:  3

Lifetime Boston Qualifiers:  182

Countries:  57

Race Report: 2025 Vilnius Marathon

On September 14, I ran the Vilnius Marathon.  Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, which is the only one of the Baltic nations that I had not previously visited.

Wednesday, September 10

I arrived in Copenhagen in the morning, after an overnight flight from Minneapolis.  After a three-hour layover, I had a relatively short flight to Vilnius.  I arrived in the late afternoon and took a taxi to my hotel.

I stayed at the Grand Hotel Vilnius, which is a 5-star hotel in the Old Town.  You would expect an elegant hotel like this to be expensive, but it wasn’t.  That’s one of the things I like about the Baltic nations.  Their cities have all the charm of other European cities, but they’re less expensive.

After all that time sitting on airplanes, I was looking forward to getting outside and stretching my legs.  It was a nice afternoon, so I went for a run along the banks of the Neris River.

Packet pickup was in Cathedral Square, which was across the street from my hotel.  I was amazed at the amount of food in my race packet.

For dinner, I went to a restaurant in the Old Town called Lokys.  It’s in a 15th century building, and they serve traditional Lithuanian food.  Lithuanian cuisine features a lot of meat and potatoes.  One of the foods I had to try is called zeppelins.  They’re potatoes stuffed with meat.  Then they sprinkle it with pork lard and bacon.  I don’t generally eat meat, but I'll make exceptions when I travel.

I also had a dessert they refer to as a sweet rye bread delicacy.  Rye bread is also a big part of Lithuanian cuisine.  After dinner, I sampled some Lithuanian mead.

By the time I got back to my hotel, it was getting dark, and I was ready to crash.  Getting to sleep was easy.  Sleeping through the night was more difficult.  I struggled with jet lag for the first two nights.

Thursday, September 11

My hotel had a breakfast buffet.  Most of the local restaurants don’t open until 9:00, but the restaurant in my hotel opened at 6:30.

I signed up for a free walking tour of the Old Town, but that didn’t start until 10:30.  In the meantime, I did a workout at the hotel.

I’ve done free walking tours in several cities.  It costs nothing to sign up.  After the tour, you tip the guide whatever amount you think is appropriate.

The tour started in Cathedral Square, which is in the oldest part of the city.  Right next to the square are Vilnius Cathedral and the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania.

Our next stop was the presidential palace.

We worked our way through the cobblestone streets and saw parts of the university and the former Jewish ghetto.  Then we stopped at a large square outside of the city hall.

In this square there’s a portal to other cities.  Which city you’re seeing changes from time to time.  You can see people in their town square, and they can see you.

This church has an interesting history.  At different times, it’s been a catholic church, a Russian orthodox church, and a protestant church.  During Soviet times, it was converted into a museum of atheism.

Toward the end of our tour, we walked through Užupis.  Užupis is a community of artists who have declared their neighborhood to be an independent republic.  They take it semi-seriously.  You can even get your passport stamped there.

Our last stop was St. Anne’s Church.

After the tour, I had a light lunch at a café near Cathedral Square.  The other local food I had to try was the cold beetroot soup.  Unlike Russian borscht, which is a hot soup served in winter, this is a cold creamy soup that’s considered a summer soup.

In the afternoon, I hiked up to Gediminas Castle, which is at the top of a hill.  The funicular was out of service, so I took the trail.

From the top of the hill, I had good views of the Old Town from one side and the modern downtown area from the other side.

I didn’t realize when I started that the trail was cobblestones.  I’ve had a tight Achilles tendon for the last week, and hiking up and down the hill with uneven footing made it worse.  After that, I needed to go back to the hotel to get off my feet for a while.  That was just as well, as it started raining shortly after I got back.

For dinner, I went to Brussels Mussels.  As you might guess from the name, this is a Belgian seafood restaurant.  They have an impressive selection of Belgian beers, including 20 different Trappist beers.

Friday, September 12

I was hoping to go for another run by the river, but it rained all morning.  I did my morning run on the hotel treadmill instead.

It was still raining at lunchtime, so I found a Lithuanian restaurant close to my hotel.  I had another potato dish.  This time, it was potato pancakes.

When I was done with lunch, the rain was tapering off, so I explored more of the Old Town.  I started with Saints Johns’ Church.  That’s not a typo.  The full name is Church of St. Johns, St. John the Baptist, and Sts. John the Apostle and Evangelist.

Next, I followed Castle Street until I reached the Gates of Dawn.  This is the last remaining gate into the Old Town.

Just inside the gate is the Gates of Dawn Chapel.

After that, I wandered through the Old Town somewhat randomly, exploring some of the narrow streets and out of the way courtyards.

So far, I had been to three Lithuanian restaurants and a Belgian restaurant.  I was overdue to finally have pizza in Lithuania.  For dinner, I went to a pizzeria I had passed earlier on Castle Street.

After dinner, I visited a craft beer bar that was recommended by the guide from the walking tour I took on Thursday.

Saturday, September 13

I spent the morning at the hotel, doing some strength training and catching up on a few things.  Before I knew it, it was already time for lunch.

I continued my exploration of Lithuanian foods with fried cottage cheese pancakes.  Cottage cheese (often called curd) is found in many pastries, as well as potato dishes.

In the afternoon, I did another free walking tour.  This one was called Undiscovered Vilnius.  It took us across the river to different parts of the city.

We started with an area that was built during the Soviet period.  This abandoned building was going to be a Russian cultural center, but that project was halted after Russia invaded Ukraine.  Some people wanted to make it a Ukrainian cultural center instead, but the building is owned by Russia.  Now, it sits unused.

This mural represents a Ukrainian woman standing up for freedom.

Next, we visited the modern business district.  This office tower was built after Lithuania joined the EU.

On the other side of the business district, we toured a neighborhood with wooden homes that were built in the 1800s.

Our last stop was a terrace overlooking a park next to the river.

For my pre-race pizza, I went to an Italian restaurant in the Old Town.

Sunday, September 14

Sunday was race day.  The race started at 8:30 AM, so I didn’t have to get up unusually early.  The start corrals were directly in front of my hotel.

The temperature was in the low 60s, with mostly sunny skies and light winds.  I was happy with this weather, although some runners might find it to be too warm.

In my last race, I ran a time of 3:47:46, despite warmer temperatures and high humidity.  With cooler temperatures, I had every reason to expect that I could run faster.  Ideally, I would’ve tried for 3:45, but I was nervous.  A good portion of the course was through the Old Town, where the streets are either brick or cobblestone.  I didn’t know how fast I could run while paying close attention to my footing.  I was also worried about my left Achilles tendon.  It felt better than it did earlier in the week, but it was still tight.  With all that in mind, I decided to set a more conservative goal of four hours.

The qualifying period for the 2027 Boston Marathon started this weekend.  For 2027, I’ll be in a new age group, so I don’t need to run as fast to qualify.  The qualifying standard for my new age group is 4:05, so four hours would be fast enough to qualify.

They had pace groups, with target times in 15-minute increments.  I noticed the pacers for the 3:45 and 4:00 groups.  I considered starting the race with the 4:00 group, but lined up between the two groups instead.

The street we started on was paved with large bricks.  It was a flat surface, but there were cracks between the bricks.  It was runnable, but I still paid close attention to my footing.

Where I lined up, I was only about 10 feet behind the 3:45 group, but they got much farther ahead by the time I crossed the starting line.  I could see them getting farther and farther ahead, but I was initially bottled up behind some slower runners.

I was just finding my stride when we made the first turn.  We briefly crossed a section of cobblestones, where the footing was uneven.  That forced me to slow down again, but only briefly.  As I got all the way around the turn, I got onto a street with nice smooth pavement.

As I sped up, I could see the 3:45 group about a block ahead of me.  It seemed like the gap was getting smaller, and I wondered if I could catch up to them.  I gave up on that notion when I made the next turn and found myself running on bricks again.  The next several kilometers were through the Old Town, so there was a lot of brick and a few sections of cobblestone.

The first water station was only 1.7 kilometers into the race.  It was on a narrow street that was made even more narrow by having tables set up on both sides of the street.  I had plenty to drink before the race, so I skipped this one.  Other runners were stopping to grab cups of water, and that caused a bottleneck.  I stayed in the middle of the street and did my best to get through this section without slowing down too much.

After that, there were aid stations every three kilometers.  I drank at all the remaining aid stations.  Some just had water.  Others had water and an electrolyte drink.  A few had gels and bananas.

We were less than three kilometers into the race when we turned onto Castle Street.  I had walked along this street enough times to know exactly what the footing was like.  It wasn’t lumpy cobblestone, but it wasn’t nice smooth brick either.  It was somewhere in between.  The section of the street we were running had a fairly level surface.  It was runnable, but I was still wary of the gaps.

The course was marked in kilometers, but my watch was giving me splits in miles.  I never noticed my time for the first mile.  My time for the second mile was 8:41.  That was reasonable.  I wasn’t keeping up with the 3:45 group, but I was easily on pace to break four hours.

Before long, we crossed a bridge.  I didn’t initially recognize the bridge, but I recognized a banner above the street.  We were entering Užupis.

This is a colorful neighborhood, but I had to keep my eyes on my footing.  The street surface wasn’t level, and the surface was similar to Castle Street.

Just before 5K, we ran up a small hill, and I briefly felt hot and sweaty.  I wondered if I would regret my decision to wear a short-sleeved T-shirt.  I would’ve been more comfortable in a tank top.

I only felt hot going up hills, and there weren’t that many of them.  The rest of the time I felt OK.

At about 6K, we turned onto a street that had really uneven footing.  Then we made a sharp turn onto a different section of Castle Street, that also wasn’t level.  For the first time, I felt some discomfort in my Achilles tendon.  Most of the time, it didn’t bother me, but it didn’t react well to the uneven footing.

As we continued through the Old Town, I recognized many of the streets from all the walking I did over the previous three days.

As we were running downhill on a street with some treacherous footing, I heard a runner tripping on the cobblestones.  I turned my head in time to see her falling.  I was about to go back to help her up when I saw another runner was already helping her.  Hitting those stones while running downhill had to hurt.  It was a reminder that staying safe was more important than maintaining a consistent pace.  I slowed down a bit until I got through that section.

After about five miles, we got out of the Old Town, but I knew we would visit it again later.  Even though we were no longer in the Old Town, the street we were on was still paved with bricks.

The next street I turned onto was asphalt.  That was a relief, but as I looked farther ahead, I saw that I was starting up a long hill.  This was the largest hill on the course, and I was forced to slow down.  I slowed to 9:06 in that mile.  Before that, all my splits were in the 8:30s or 8:40s.

When I reached the top of the hill, I was relieved to be turning onto a street that was downhill.  Then I saw that it was paved with bricks.  I started to wonder if the rest of the race would be like this.

At about 11K, we turned onto a road that led us through a large park on the western side of the city.  The road was narrow, but it was smooth pavement, and it was initially downhill.  I got back to my previous pace, and I also recovered from the tiring uphill section.

We were still in this park when we reached the 15K mark.  So far, the marathon and half marathon were still following the same route.  I had studied the course map for the marathon, but I never bothered to look at the map for the half marathon, so I didn’t know where the two courses diverged.  Those runners only had 6K to go, and it seemed like we were about that far from Cathedral Square.

Most of the runners around me were wearing half marathon bibs.  I began to get a little bit nervous, so I looked around to see if I could spot anyone else wearing a marathon bib.  When I saw other marathon runners, I felt less nervous.  I didn’t miss any turns.

We left the park on a bridge that took us across the Neris River.  Then we turned and started running parallel to the river.  It seemed like we were now taking a fairly direct route in the direction where we would eventually finish.

We went down a ramp and onto a sidewalk that was right next to the river.  A few days earlier, I had run on a similar sidewalk on the opposite bank of the river.

Going under one of the bridges, I recognized a mural.  I had seen this mural from the other side of the river.

We were still on this sidewalk when we passed the 19K mark.  Then we went up a ramp and turned onto a bridge that’s known locally as the “green bridge.”  In the middle of the bridge, I saw a sign.  It indicated that runners doing the half marathon were to go straight, while runners doing the marathon were to turn left after crossing the bridge.

After making that turn, I saw the 20K mark.  For the rest of the race, I would only be surrounded by other marathon runners.

We eventually passed another bridge that would later take us back across the river.  First, we needed to do a long out-and-back section.  As soon as we passed that bridge, the street surface changed.  It was paved with large bricks, but the footing was uneven.  In mile 13, I slowed to 9:03.  I was starting to get tired, but it was the uneven surface that slowed me down.

At the halfway park, I was on pace for a time in the low 3:50s.  On the other side of the street, I could see the 3:45 group.  They were a few minutes ahead of me, so I knew it wouldn’t be too long before I reached the turnaround.

Before the turnaround, it was slightly uphill.  Coming back, it was downhill.  I did my best to pick up my pace again.

I felt more tired than I should at this point.  I knew I’d slow down a little in the second half, but I wanted to keep my pace under nine minutes per mile.  At that pace, I would keep the second half under two hours.

I was almost to the 22K mark, when I saw the 4:00 group on the other side of the street.  They had just passed the halfway mark.  I was about 800 meters ahead of them.

After that out-and-back, we crossed the river and turned left.  The next few miles took us past the central business district.  I recognized several of the buildings from my walking tour on Saturday.

Next, we entered a residential neighborhood that one of the tour guides described as a posh neighborhood.

I sometimes walked for a few seconds while drinking at an aid station.  Then I’d quickly resume running.  After one of the aid stations, I noticed a few of the other runners were continuing to walk after the aid station.

I was almost to 28K.  It occurred to me that I could no longer maintain a consistent pace just by staying with the runners around me.  Some of them were slowing down.  If I wasn’t careful, I could drift into a slower pace.

My last two miles had been in the 8:50s.  I was OK with that, but I didn’t want to get any slower.

I starting looking around to see which runners still looked strong.  I needed to keep up with them.

I was rounding a turn at about 30K when a runner in a green shirt passed me.  It occurred to me that I should try to keep up with him.  It took much more effort, but I managed to match his pace.

Soon, we crossed the river on another bridge.  I looked ahead to see which way runners were turning after crossing the bridge.  They were turning right, so I kept to the right side of the bridge.

Coming off the bridge, I was still chasing the runner in the green shirt.  We eventually reached a turnaround.  Just after the turn, we reached the 31K mark.  I still had 11K to go, but we were now running back toward the Old Town.  For the time being, we were on smooth pavement, but I wondered how much longer that would last.  It was only a matter of time before we ran through the Old Town again.

In mile 20, I sped up to 8:33.  Following the guy with the green shirt was keeping me on a good pace, but it was tiring.

On the opposite side of the bridge, I saw the 4:00 group going in the other direction.  I was farther ahead of them now.

We passed the bridge that we had previously crossed and continued to follow the river.  I could see that this section was out-and-back.  I saw a pace group on the other side.  Was it the 3:45 group?  No, it was the 3:30 group.  Evidently, this was a long out-and-back.

That was good news.  This street had good pavement.  The longer I was on this street, the longer I could delay the inevitable return to bricks and cobblestones.

Eventually, I saw the 3:45 group coming back on the other side.  They were farther ahead of me now.  We were following the river, which had a slight bend to it.  The turnaround was somewhere around the bend, but I couldn’t see it yet.  As I continued around the bend, I was surprised how far it was.

As I reached the turn, I got my split for mile 21.  It was 8:40.  Ahead of me, I could see that the guy in the green shirt was pulling away from me.

I was passed by another runner who was wearing a light blue shirt.  I knew immediately that I couldn’t keep up with him.  He quickly passed the guy in the green shirt, who I was still chasing.

I caught up to a woman in a dark blue shirt.  I remembered seeing her when we were running through the park much earlier in the race.  That’s when I was looking around for other runners wearing marathon bibs.  I briefly gave up on following the guy in the green shirt.  I followed her instead.

Before long, I inadvertently passed her.  Then I saw that I was about to catch up to the guy in the green shirt.  I wasn’t speeding up.  He was slowing down.  I kept up my same pace and I moved past him.

I eventually saw the 4:00 group on the other side of the street.  I estimated they were about a mile behind me now.

When I got my split for mile 22, it confirmed my suspicion that this out-and-back section was more than a mile in each direction.  When I finally reached the end of it, I turned onto a street that was paved with bricks.  I assumed at this point that I would be on bricks or cobblestones for the rest of the race.  That wasn’t completely true, but it was mostly true.

On this street, I was forced to slow down out of caution.  I took consolation in knowing that I was still keeping ahead of the guy in the green shirt.  Then he passed me.  Oh well.  I had to go at a pace that felt safe.

In mile 23, I slowed to 9:03.  That was only the third mile that was slower than nine minutes.  So far, they were all faster than 9:09, which was the pace I needed to average to break four hours.

In the distance, I saw a church with a cross on top.  Most of the churches in Vilnius have ornate crosses.  This one was more traditional.  I recognized the church in the distance as Vilnius Cathedral, which is right next to the finish line.  Before we got there, we would make several more turns.

As we re-entered the Old Town, we were constantly turning onto different streets.  Each one was different.  Some had small bricks.  Some had large bricks.  Some had cobblestones.  Some had large rectangular slabs of granite.  Some streets were level.  Others had bumps and grooves.  I ran each one at a pace that felt safe.  Overall, I was slowing down.

I turned onto one particularly treacherous street and recognized it as the same street where I saw a runner fall earlier in the race.  Now we were running it in the opposite direction.

In mile 24, I slowed to 9:12.  For the first time, I wasn’t keeping my pace under 9:09.  It didn’t matter now.  Even if I slowed down, I would still break four hours by a wide margin.

We ran near the bridge that had taken us into Užupis earlier in the race.  We would eventually cross that bridge again, but we were running everything in the opposite direction now.  First, we had to run past Užupis.  Then we would enter it from the other side.

This next section was asphalt, but it was longer than I remembered.  In mile 25, I slowed to 9:22.  I couldn’t blame that on cobblestones.  Now, I was just running out of gas.

We ran through Užupis again, and I had my last opportunity to drink some water.  As I left that neighborhood, I estimated I had one kilometer to go.  I was slowing down, but I was almost there.

I ran under a familiar balloon arch.  Then I ran past St. Anne’s Church.  As I continued, I saw a sign that indicated we had 500 meters to go.

I couldn’t see the finish line yet.  I had to get around two more bends.  Then I saw Cathedral Square on my right.  My hotel was right in front of me.  I had to make one more turn.  Then I just had 100 meters to go.

I couldn’t keep up with some of the faster runners around me.  That didn’t matter.  I just wanted to finish.

I finished in 3:53:38.  I basically split the difference between the 3:45 group and the 4:00 group.  One volunteer handed me a water bottle.  Another handed me my finisher medal.

My hotel was on the left side of the street, but I had to exit the street from the right side.  It was annoying how far I had to walk before I could get across the street.

I never looked to see if they had food in the finish area.  I just wanted to get back to the hotel.  I still had food from my race packet.  To tide myself over until dinner, I had rye bread and buckwheat porridge.

My Achilles tendon tightened up in the hours after the race.  I noticed it more walking to dinner than I did during the race.  It’s not a serious injury, but it’s an ongoing concern.

For dinner, I went to a pizzeria in Užupis.  I learned about this pizzeria from one of the tour guides.  It’s owned by an Italian family.

I usually sleep better after a marathon, but this was the exception.  I only slept for half the night.  That not good when it’s the night before a long travel day.

Monday, September 15

I had to get up early to go to the airport for my flight to Amsterdam.  I had to leave before the hotel started its breakfast service, so I made due with the last of the food from my race packet.

My day got off to an annoying start when I arrived at the airport.  My flight from Vilnius to Amsterdam was operated by Air Baltic, but I’m connecting to a Delta flight.  I don’t like to check bags when I’m flying on two different airlines.  When I checked in with Air Baltic, they insisted on weighing my roller bag and my backpack together.  The combined weight was more than their eight kg. limit, so they made me check my roller bag.  Hopefully, it won’t get lost.

I’m currently in Amsterdam.  I won't get home until late afternoon.  To me, it’ll feel like midnight when I get home.  I’ll need to do laundry tonight, so I’ll have clean clothes for my next adventure.

Race statistics:

Distance:  42.2 kilometers

Time:  3:53:38

Average Pace:  5:32 per kilometer (8:55 per mile)

First Half:  1:55:35

Second Half:  1:58:03

Marathons/Ultras in 2025:  26

Lifetime Marathons/Ultras:  561

Boston Qualifiers:  181

Countries:  56