Communication from Austria Part Zwei

So, yeah, I'm here. I'm running. And I read this blog. Those are given.

What's not given is that I still give a Scheiße about what goes on in your obesely arrogant Wal-mart country with your little poodles and MySpace and pink polo shirts and your Hum-VEEs as big as my apartment that I share! Well I do! I mean... it is! Given. That I care. About that stuff. But I don't care about Jake winning a race in Vermont. If he was a real man, he'd lawyer his way to a real state, like Texas. Texas is a real state.

Austria is a socialist state. I win a race in the biggest city around, and they give the 2100 euros to some Schwein whose little socialist bib number had to jump right out into the hand of the lottery drawer. Haven't you ever heard of earning money, people? It was fun, though. I probably passed him while running back to the train station while he was still on the course.

I'll bring you up to speed on the topic of competitive running in Austria. Günter Weidlinger is a 29-year-old has all of the national records from 1500m-10,000m and the steeple. Look him up, he's a fast Läufer. But he also broke his face on a barrier at the World Track Championships this year. The video is on youtube. So while he was in the hospital and my buddy since April, Martin Steinbauer (13:41, nuff said), had dislocated his pinky toe in Bangkok, Thailand after the World University Games (yeah, they have beer in Thailand, too) I was by some accounts the fastest man in Austria. That was probably only my own account, and only for some distance like 8,794m or however far my next race will be since they never get it right.

Now Günther is back, so I can't claim to be the fastest at anything, but I've still got thousands of kilometers of paved and irritatingly flat and straight bike paths along the river, as well as lots of trails in the woods that I can't quite make it to on the average run without taking the subway or something to get there. I have options, and I'm planning on running some more races soon. I've been throwing around words about a half marathon this month even, but I'm not sure if I believe myself or if it's even worth it. I'll stick to whichever distances sound like the most fun. And then a marathon next year, if I can summon the Mut to get rolling this winter.

We'll see how it all turns out, and I'll be seeing how everything turns out there. Congrats to everyone who kicked Arsch in the last few weeks at road races and triathlons, as well as Grandma's Hiking Trip in Vermont.

"I was elected to LEAD, not to READ!"
--Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Simpsons: the Movie