Now?
Not yet, Zorba.
I’ve arrived in Greece and it’s humid. I hadn’t planned on that.
The orientation meeting which was supposed to be an overview of the week but was more an intro to Paul, the guy who runs the Apostolos Greek Tour company. He’s been doing this for 25 years and it’s truly a labor of love. And a family affair — he’s had 90% of the same staff for that whole time; his niece is his right hand person in Athens when she isn’t running her honey bee farm. I don’t think Paul’s making any money on this in the end. Certainly in his opening years when the Athens Marathon named him the North American representative, that was a title only and he self-funded all his expo appearances trying to drum up business. When he started in 1994, the entire Athens Marathon had less than 1000 runners. Time’s have changed, for the marathon, for Greece, for the world.
I really like the guy though. He’s a jolly guy, a fount of “dad runner jokes.” The best one so far has been, “I named my dog Five Miles… that way I can tell my friends I walk Five Miles every day.” He told us he likes to make people smile, that he does this to help people share in his love of Greece and life in general. It’s an infectious and inherently positive outlook. Sure, sure. The orientation took about an hour and I’m not sure we got much orientation… but I thought it was VERY Greek. Paul told us the spirit of Greece is personified by the phrase “Xenia” which he defined as befriending strangers, treating everyone as a friend. He grounded it in mythology, that back in the days of Gods and Goddesses, the deities often showed up as common folk at their people’s doors and if they were treated well as “commoners” the gods would smile upon that family; if they were treated poorly, curses and bad fortune. It’s a variation of the golden rule, that one should treat others as you want to be treated. There’s a more relaxed timeline to Greece, a cultural difference common to MANY nations as opposed to the hustle and bustle of the Coastal American mindsets.
In any case, I ducked out as they set up for a half hour Bob Costas video from 2004 and wandered the streets. The sun has set and I walk the beachside streets of the Athenian Rivieria. I am drenched. My fellow travelers when they hear I’m from Florida tell me I should be used to the humidity. I may be in most cases, but it doesn’t mean I like running through thick, oppressive humid soup.
On deck for tomorrow is a 7 AM half hour run which I’ll do to be social, followed by a city tour and a trip to the Athens Marathon Expo. I’ll break down a few more details hopefully tomorrow but the WiFi is a bit wonky… and my roommate just arrived after experiencing a number of flight delays.