Halloween and the Marathon

The past two weeks have been pretty mellow and uneventful, other than two days:

Halloween....

 Got my fill of pumpkin carving, preparing four of them for first grade teachers introducing their students to the beautiful Halloween tradition.

And then the four of us elementary teaching fellows put on a cute little play for the fourth graders that was an absolute blast

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And today I participated in the Athens Authentic Marathon, running in the 10K. The full marathon traces the original path from Marathon, Greece, to Athens, but the 10K is a different route through some of the major streets of downtown. All of the races ended on the track of the marble stadium, and the feeling of running into the stadium was amazing. As was the sound of hundreds of feet pitter-pattering in the otherwise-silent and still downtown streets.

Considering it was my first time ever running more than 5 miles, I'd say it went well! All of Saturday had been thunderstormy and miserable, but the weather gods smiled on us and it was the nicest day in weeks! Pictures are thanks to Emily (left) and Courtney (right), since I didn't bring my phone to the race.

 (pre-race and we already look so tired)

 (Waiting to begin, with a nice view of Lykavittos Hill in the background)

 (Running into the stadium...arch #2 of 3 that I thought was the finish line but wasn't...)

(Receiving our participation medals)

 (What a view; what a place to finish)

And a post-race celebratory breakfast of sauteed sausages and little corncakes