Posted on 01/14/2020 7:49:46 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
At the starting line, I stamped my feet in the snow and repeated this mantra: ‘There’ll be hot wine at the end.’ The promise of plentiful wine, local color, and a unique experience had drawn me to travel on a bitingly cold, gray January weekend to Moldova, one of the least-visited countries in Europe. I was running the Mileștii Mici Wine Run, a 10k race through the world's largest wine cellar. With a total 125 miles of underground passages, there’s plenty of room to stage an ultra here; the 10K Wine Run explores a mere fraction of the tunnels.
Conditions during the race can swing from an icy sub-zero to a balmy 57 degrees, so that morning I dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, arm warmers, a balaclava, and gloves before boarding the race bus in front of the State Circus, a hulking Soviet modernist landmark on the dreary industrial outskirts of the capital city of Chişinău. During the 10-mile drive to the Mileștii Mici winery, the aging bus slid around on the icy roads, its fogged-up windows obscuring the landscape into vague, white-covered shapes.
Outside the castle-like walls of the winery, men chopped wood and lit fires, while young locals in traditional dress spun arm-in-arm to energetic Eastern European pop music to keep the runners entertained (and themselves warm). I jogged a few lengths up and down a snowy road before lining up with the 350 other participants, eager to start moving. Just after the starting gun fired, I felt something cold and wet hit me. I thought the spectators had tossed snow at us, until the scent of wine reached my nose. Moments after that celebratory spray, we entered the tunnels. Asphalt gave way to muddy cobblestones, mounds of dust, and uneven dirt track—much of it dimly lit.
(Excerpt) Read more at runnersworld.com ...
Never run 10ks.
Never rum marathons.
It is unhealthy practice.
An underground race with grottoes of wine strewn aboout? My God, man, even in my younger, healthier days, I’d have never even made it to the 1k mark without having sampled a liberal portion of ‘The Grape’. LOLOL
I dunno, a rum marathon sounds pretty interesting.
Moldova sucks!
“Never rum marathons.”
That’s right. One should Margarita their way through marathons.
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