Darlene,

The marathon was quite scenic in Vienna (Wien to be accurate), a little

warm (20 to 24 Celsius), and thinner air (as I started to run low on

oxygen after 15K). Marathon organization could use a little help

(there

was no clue as to one's time until the finish line, no yellers - aka

Houston, no extra clocks - aka Paris). Like most European marathons

they had few porta potties (only 8 at the start line, but lots at the

finish line). When they queued for a potty, it wasn't for a quick pee

either (they could find a nice tree/bush for that). The mineral water

being handed out at the stops made me ill so I stayed with the PowerAde

and the Coca-Cola (Coke was a sponsor). Another wrinkle is that they

charge you an extra 25 Euros in cash when you pick up your chip at the

Expo. At the end of the race, you walk to an area to hand in your chip

and they give your 25 Euros in cash back. They had lots of boom boxes

with music but only one live band was encountered. It was in the

Praterstern (a large amusement park to the south of the city noted for

it's large ferris wheel as shown in movie "The Third Man"). The live

band was a friendly "oom pah pah" band of about 10 members. Attendance

was lower than Houston but the crowd made up for it with more

enthusiasm. In Houston, they yelled "Go!", in Florence it's

"Andiamo!",

and in Paris it's "Allez!". But in Vienna it's "Hopp Hopp Hopp Hopp!".

I felt like I was expected to run like a bunny rabbit.

Chip time: 4:57

Another note about the trip was that we lost our passports in Paris a

few days before we were to return to Houston (left them in a taxi). So

we extended the trip a couple of days and added a few more stops onto

our itinerary: a Paris police station and the US Embassy. We filed a

report with the Paris police which was fun to watch as it seemed they

were "high tech" at first by entering our theft report into the

computer. We soon found out this was not as it seemed as they just

used

the computer to print off the report. Unfortunately, the officer left

off some items and had to fill out the form from scratch again (could

not pull up the old report as it didn't save anything). He finally got

it right on the 3rd try. I felt sorry for the guy as he had to take

each one to be signed and stamped by the "chef" ("chief" for those

non-French/Belgian runners) of the station. The embassy was also

interesting as you find all these other Americans that lost their stuff

as well and the methods used to take their stuff from them (thieves

usually working in teams of 2). We got new passports in a few hours.

I'll pick a lower altitude marathon next time. (and remember to take a

camera)

Jim Warren