The 2021 Spetses Mini Marathon

 

Yesterday's weather

Sea taxi

Today I ran my third Spetses Mini Marathon, which is part of a weekend of events on my grandmother’s island in the Saronic Gulf. Yesterday the swimming events were held—1500, 3000, and 5000 meters of open ocean swimming, to the mainland and back for the latter—along with a 10K and some kids races.

 

The main event is a 25K race around the island with a field of about 750 runners of all abilities and from a variety of European nations and beyond. I got placed in the A Group based on my 2018 finish (which, sort of incredibly, was just 20 seconds different than today’s finish time), setting off with all the buff 20- and 30-somethings. I urged myself to run cautiously because of the fast field. And not mention the fact that I am the ripe age of 62, hardly an equal co-competitor.

Today's weather :(

The fast "sea cat" tied off beside the sea taxis

End of the start

The rain, thunder, and lightning began early and persisted throughout. The truth is that it felt great—much preferable that running in 90 degree heat with no shade. I ran steadily and carefully through kilometer 12, then worked the downhill sections and tried to stay on pace for the many uphill parts, cutting all the tangents on the many, many hairpin turns like I did in my racing prime. Which was a very long time ago.

 

Blurry but there in the mix

Beside Bouboulina, heroine of the Greek revolution--a name sensibly rejected by Nia's mom...and rightly so. Can you imagine the nicknames in grade school?

My coach and amateur ambulance attendant daughter, Nia, was there for me at the start and the finish.

The final 500 meters was on treacherously wet cobblestone, then up marble stairs, past crowded cafes where everyone was shouting. About 200 meters from the finish, I nearly took out a waiter carrying a full tray of drinks and lunch—he never looked before crossing the road and he did not know just how lucky he was!

My finish on wet marble...yikes

 

Nia joined me at the awards ceremony. I finished 49th overall with a time of 1:58. It felt pretty neat to be standing on that middle podium, which doesn’t happen every day. 

But the ride home on the motorbike was scary, with leg spasms nearly responsible for plowing us into several walls. Nia said, "why don't you let me drive?!" But I didn't.

Hey, you, get off of my cloud

Sporting the home country tee

Still smiling...just before the leg spasms struck

 

Greece and Its Changing Demographics

 

Just a few observations on the Greece I first came to know (and love) in 1972.

Greece is fast-becoming a multiracial, multicultural society. This is a compliment to the nation that invented the word xenophobia (ξενοφοβία) and a testament to a forward-thinking ethnos.

In Spetses we shopped at the Chinese discount clothing store, speaking modern Greek with the shopkeepers, a husband and wife from Hunan Province. The chef at my cousin’s restaurant is from Bangladesh, as are the many olive harvesters back in Messinia. Yioryio’s restaurant has Mexican fare on the menu.

So, here’s what we have on Spetses: A Greek restaurant that serves Mexican food that is prepared by a Bangladeshi who speaks fluent Greek. Go figure.

The Albanians are now this country’s master stone masons. Poles, Bulgarians, and Romanians work the cafeneions and the construction sector.

Greece, like America and most Western industrialized nations, suffers from negative population growth, which is a curse for future generations. A lot of people in America don’t see it that way, having been fed a steady diet of lies and propaganda that largely serves a white, privileged elite.

Who will do all the many jobs in America when we “throw out” our agricultural labor force--referred to by our last president as "rapists" and criminals? Are the ardent Americans who wear blinders ready to pay $10 for a tomato? Who will be paying into the social security system as our mythical “white American" population continues to shrink—if not a newer, perhaps darker, and revitalized population?

Demography demands an influx of “others,” like the NBA great Yianni: born of Nigerian parents in Greece, baptized as an Orthodox Christian, with Greek as his first language, the pride of Athens and Milwaukee. There are versions of the same story in America, but they are "othered" by those with massive political agendas and oversized egos to match.

Immigrants bring vitality, diversity, and a renewed spirit everywhere they go. Some nations choose to fear and then ultimately persecute them, and use them as scapegoats—while others, who embrace the realities of demography, recognize the value diversity brings to their own society. This story is yet to be written.

A multicultural society that is respected and valued would be a worthy model for America to emulate, a nation now atrophying under the dead weight of nativism that is driven by political elites and fearmongering.

And so, dear reader, you have endured today’s Temenos homily.