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Tito!!!

October 11, 2018 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
Trchanje i To is the name of this running club, which means literally "Running and that" though I'd translate it as "Running and stuff". The "i To" is in theory because they also have swim practice and sometimes do yoga and gym workouts, but I was told at the first practice I went to that the acronym also spells "Tito," the communist leader who to most Bosnian Muslims is kinda like JFK, Nelson Mandela, and Che Guevara combined. Marshall Tito led a guerrilla war against the Nazis during WWII and then went on to reunite Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Slovenia as part of Yugoslavia, which he ruled as a dictator for 40 years. He is widely remembered in the West for being the only communist leader to defy Stalin and shake off Soviet influence, and later became leader of the "non-aligned movement" of countries that avoided taking sides in the Cold War and played the US and Soviets off one another to get assistance. He is fondly remembered in Bosnia today for preventing nationalism and ethnic tensions and building a multiethnic equal society. "Yugonostalgia" a common word here, and it's particularly popular among younger Bosnians who looks fondly to past they are too young to remember.

In any case... we did a workout. 20 x 200, which again is kinda ridiculous. I was in the fastest group again which was a bit faster than last time, consisting of two young men who began training earlier this year and don't really know how to pace themselves, and husband of the club's founder who has done 2 marathons and a triathlon but is still learning the ropes to some extent. I ran about half the pickups with at least one of them, trying to encourage them to stay with me, and the others way ahead, pushing the pace to what was probably under 40 seconds and maybe getting down to 34 on the last couple. Fun workout! Wish we didn't in between though. I was told my Bosnian is very good for someone who's only been here a month or two, which means I need to work hard to stay ahead of the curve... no one's gonna be impressed if I'm still stuttering to get out a single sentence six months from now.