So the Belgrade Week o' Fun, i.e. Belgrade marathon and 40th birthday celebrations!!
1st off, I really saw firsthand how stressful it is to organize some of these 'sports tours.' My super DCS running friends Margaret and Nic (and Tim) have done in countless times, and we've all taken it for granted. We literally show up and all is done for us. So I had some 'pressure' on me. Needless to say, Belgrade is NOT my home. I haven't grown up there, I hardly speak the language (I'll say I'm proficient) and the times I've gone before, it is shadowing my parents like a puppy and/or having things done for me because... I'm a guest! So I had to 'learn' a bit of the city myself, and try and show off the city! As much as I hate to admit it, when I was first promoting it, I swear (these aren't Americans, mind you) were like "umm... where's Belgrade again?" So the effort was also to put it on the map for people.
Needless to say, ALL went well. Phew! Thankfully all liked the hotel, Hotel Majestic, which is SMACK in the middle of town and everything is walking distance (including start/finish of the marathon) which is extra relieving, and yes, a bit outdated, but a very historic hotel. I'll break it up:
The Marathon Weekend:
Staring off at the FlyDubai (Terminal 2) - sooo funny as Dubai, being Dubai, many of them had never flown it because it is ... shall we say, not as nice as Emirates and the comments were... very Dubai-like. Hahahah
Welcome to Belgrade!!! I organized Liljana with transport, which was awesome! She was on time and Dad was super sweet and he met me at the airport with a rose... and then typical daddio style, took off as he had a lot of things to do :)
Then, as it was such a short trip, we had a mini pow wow around the city, we of course went to Kalemegdan, the fortress, Knez Mihalova Street, pretty much walked a lot of downtown as we were right there, and thank gawd we had such lovely weather, it was actually perfect!
These guys did a great bike tour!
The next day... we were off! Umm.. I had to 'lead' us on a 4-5km warm-up easy pre-marathon run, and ... it was a lot of stop and go and I was a bit nervous because I'm not the best with directions, but thankfully we didn't do MORE mileage and it was relaxed enough and we had fun :-)
John carbo-loading, lol
Funny enough, it was an abnormally WARM period in Belgrade, unseasonably warm, and I guess I will take that over frigid cold, but it made the marathon itself HOT HOT HOT!
SURPRISE! Lots of SURPRISES this weekend, ONE was that my super friends know I like pink, so they ALL made pink t-shirts that said "Ellen's Striders" and then MY shirt said "I am Ellen." MAJORLY touched and soo soo sweet of them! Especially seeing the boyz where these pink shirts.
Heart! Loved love loved it!
THEN Surprise #2 was.... TOTAL TASH!!! My sister flew ALL THE WAY FROM CHINA to surprise me and... I was shocked!!!! So amazing and made the trip soo much better. She was funny in that she was hanging out with my parents and "60+ year olds" the week before, so needless to say, she was DYING to hang out with 'young people' again. She's too funny and LOVED the effort by all! Thank you all!
Here is her SURPRISE!!!
The marathon! Well, this was quite important to me. 1st, I needed to redeem myself after my Dubai Marathon Demise. Then I needed a marathon qualifier for Comrades. THEN, this is the FIRST time my family has seen one of my runs and spectated one of my runs, so I wanted to make THEM (and me!) proud!
It was a nice late start, I think it was 10am, so plenty of time to even have a proper breakfast and just.... hang out before the start!
They were SUPER fun and the group sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me... actually, MANY times that weekend, but that day as well. Too awesome!!!
The start!
Louise, Shabri, Ram and John - having fun running the marathon, who says it's not fun?
Partha and Ayman - the A players, both aiming for 3:30 - wow!
Lyn-Si running strong, as always!
Vicki showing her guns as she finishes the last .1 of the marathon!
Paula - always smiling and having fun, even when running!
Haha, the above is almost a play-by-play, or step-by-step of me finishing! As it is a small marathon, I TOTALLY saw and HEARD them. Tash was soo funny, I think she just screamed! Hahha :-)
Done! 3:49! My usual time (Most of my marathons have been sub 3:50). Success! And lucky you, it's now been awhile, so I won't blab about the details as I normally do, BUT I will say, yes, it was warm, and.... I saw mom and dad and Tash and Jana on the route, was which AWESOME. I somehow passed Partha, Lyn-Si and Riyadh, kept a steady pace, and overall.... went okay! I won't say I was a bit bored with the run as it is a little barren, buuuuut it thankfully had NO drama and I achieved my goal of finishing #1 and finishing in a respectable time. And .... as FATE would have it, my actual time was 3:49:59 ... which qualified me for the Chicago marathon 2019!!! Hurraahh!!!
Me congratulating John, he did an amazing sub-4 marathon!
Me, Daddio, and Tash
Louise, Shabri and Vicki
Classic Post-Mara fam pic!!!
Total Tash, me, and Liz
And.... MAJOR Heart to this.... as they were feeling left out (FOMO), bless Tim, Nic, Laura (and Kieran), they did a Hatta run that weekend... and wore the pink shirts!!! Soooo sooo cute!!!!
Tim, Kieran, Nic, and Laura - hello back!!!
Then it was.... POST MARATHON PART-AY!! Umm... now it's been so long I forgot the name of the place that my dad chose, buuut it was a GREAT location, walking distance, we had an AMAZING sunset, and... was just a lot of fun! I guess you can say this was my proper bday celebration... and quite overwhelming to say the least! There were all my run DCS friends, and then there was ALL our family friends (as with a wedding, this is an opportunity for parents to get THEIR friends together). And... I'm not used to ALL this attention just on ME! Really! They sang Happy bday in English, then Serbian, and then I think English again, then Serbian... ha ha. It was quite cute, and I feel soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo honored and blessed and thankful to have such AMAZING people in my life!!!
Above and below are officially MY FAVE PICS!!! We look great, hehe, and yes, genuinely sooo happy to be together after.... gosh, must have been 3 years the last time I saw her!
The gang left the morning after the marathon/b-day party, and .... then it was FAMILY TIME!!!
Serbia really does have the BEST food, as Tash clearly demonstrates, lol
I have to finish with a classic fam picture.... that's why I love going to Belgrade so much, we still have lots of pictures from the apartment (that we still own) of us growing up, and it is definitely a trip down memory lane. And... this is really one of my FAVE pictures EVER!
Soo, overall a VERY successful Belgrade weekend! Yes, overwhelming and stressful at times (organizing 20 people in a city you don't know that well, manage friends and their 'demands,' manage family... and their 'demands' (haha), AND run a respectable marathon? Well, somehow I did it!), but also FUN and AMAZING and.... just feel soo grateful and appreciative and feel soooo incredibly ... BLESSED!!! Thank you all for making it sooo special, really was one of the BEST birthdays of my life!
Turning 40 isn't so bad after all, and as per Tash, it is YOFO - Year of 40th, so the celebrations continue ALL year!
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