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.
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