Good Grief, I don't even know where to begin with this one! Within hours of posting my last update here, all hell literally broke loose and the shit hit the fan from all directions! I have a private company handle my work visa each yr so that I can be self employed because as a teacher, that is the only way to survive financially since schools and language centers pay absolute shite and are nothing more than middlemen who literally steal half your earning potential. So, the spiffy thing is that a work visa renews inside Russia (no visa run necessary ) each year. Sure, it costs about 1000$, but simple math proves it's worth it since a single visa run can easily cost more.
So, on Friday March, 14th my visa was due to be extended for another year....or so I thought. My visa guy is usually on top of things and he called me just after noon to let me know I had til MIDNIGHT to get the f#ck out! WTF? It turned out he had made the mistake of hiring an incompetent bitch who failed to file for my work permit on time! So nice to have a few hours' warning! Well trains were no longer an option since the one to Riga won't hit the border til 5AM the next day......Was I mad as hell? YES! Could all of this have been easily avoided- YES! So, if I couldn't catch a plane to ANYWHERE in time I would get myself a 5 yr ban because of this bitch's negligence! Not only did she not file the paperwork on time but instead of asking my visa guy (head of the company) for help, the bitch thought she could handle it herself and failed to inform him. So, I also very much insisted that since it was the company's F#CKUP that they REIMBURSE ME IN FULL for this nice long forced visa run and 2 weeks I was about to go do in the "time out box" in Riga while I waited for a 3 month visa to be processed so I could come back. My guy agreed to that without question and I threw what I could into a bag and caught the LAST FLIGHT to Riga that evening because I have NOWHERE ELSE TO GO. As for this bitch or rather sorry sack of shit, being fired for this huge and expensive f#ckup isn't enough. I will never forgive nor forget the duress caused by her negligence and hope to God she and hers have nothing but a life of misery for this. That's what she deserves. There is no excuse for what happened. My nearly getting BANNED for an involuntary visa overstay because of this is ridiculous! All of my stuff is here and I would have been totally screwed so may she forever rot. I also lost THIRTEEN DAYS of work during busy season over this and am now going to be up shit creek come summer when I don't see in a month what I see in those 2 weeks during busy season. Paying for the trip and visa expenses is nice but the lost work just kicked my ass. How many ppl can afford to be paid half their monthly salary and not have a problem? I fortunately , at least have a place to stay in Riga- an old college mate is the owner of a budget hotel and I always stay at his place when in town. The actual visa gets processed in Vilnius (because it's the quickest option) but I had to wait for 2 weeks for the invite and then have it wired from Moscow to the consulate in Vilnius for one day pickup. I have nowhere to stay in Vilnius and at 50 euros a day for a hotel for 2 weeks, I'd be broke!So, I stayed in Riga til the very last day when my visa was ready for pickup in Vilnius. It's only a 31/2 hr bus ride Riga -Vilnius so that's what I did.
So here I am in Riga in the time out box for 2 weeks without salary. What to do......I thought the season opener was the Rezekne Half on April 6-turned out there was a half in Mezaparks on the 22nd of March. As the door was hitting me in the ass on the way out of Moscow, of course I grabbed my racing flats! I won the half and got comped entry to the Vandra Marathon near Tallinn May, 3rd. Hmmmm I will have to do ONE MORE VISA RUN before June 23rd.....kill2 birds with one stone! The half was on a flat course in the park really nice and well organized as races always are in Latvia. Soo looks like I will be doing a marathon for fun next month. This was my first masters race on the road too. They do things by birth yr not date and oh dear, yeah, it's the 40 yr old group. Eek! I'm really not in a hurry to turn 40!
Regarding marathons- I pretty much retired from doing them seriously after my last GOOD marathon in Riga in 2009. I have since focused on the 50 and 100k where I feel I can still improve before I get REALLY OLD! I did 10x800s for my Wednesday workout before the half and I did them right in the spot where in 2009 I broke away from the ladies at 25k to eventually creep up to 3rd. That's all I could think about during my workout and for a moment, I considered trying the Riga Marathon one last time. I would be nuts to do that at this point. Those kinds of decisions get made not 6-7 weeks before a major race but more like 3-4 months out! I had begun training for the 100k before we lost it in Daugavpils and IAU/IAAF moved it to Quatar. I've since had motivation issues but decided to focus on 50k Latvian Championships in July (not a good time for a 50k....) and very possibly the 100 in St Pete in September. Remembering Riga in 2009 just kind of depresses me because I'm not sure I could ever pull a marathon that fast out of this ass again but then again I have not bothered training for one almost since then.
So, on Friday March, 14th my visa was due to be extended for another year....or so I thought. My visa guy is usually on top of things and he called me just after noon to let me know I had til MIDNIGHT to get the f#ck out! WTF? It turned out he had made the mistake of hiring an incompetent bitch who failed to file for my work permit on time! So nice to have a few hours' warning! Well trains were no longer an option since the one to Riga won't hit the border til 5AM the next day......Was I mad as hell? YES! Could all of this have been easily avoided- YES! So, if I couldn't catch a plane to ANYWHERE in time I would get myself a 5 yr ban because of this bitch's negligence! Not only did she not file the paperwork on time but instead of asking my visa guy (head of the company) for help, the bitch thought she could handle it herself and failed to inform him. So, I also very much insisted that since it was the company's F#CKUP that they REIMBURSE ME IN FULL for this nice long forced visa run and 2 weeks I was about to go do in the "time out box" in Riga while I waited for a 3 month visa to be processed so I could come back. My guy agreed to that without question and I threw what I could into a bag and caught the LAST FLIGHT to Riga that evening because I have NOWHERE ELSE TO GO. As for this bitch or rather sorry sack of shit, being fired for this huge and expensive f#ckup isn't enough. I will never forgive nor forget the duress caused by her negligence and hope to God she and hers have nothing but a life of misery for this. That's what she deserves. There is no excuse for what happened. My nearly getting BANNED for an involuntary visa overstay because of this is ridiculous! All of my stuff is here and I would have been totally screwed so may she forever rot. I also lost THIRTEEN DAYS of work during busy season over this and am now going to be up shit creek come summer when I don't see in a month what I see in those 2 weeks during busy season. Paying for the trip and visa expenses is nice but the lost work just kicked my ass. How many ppl can afford to be paid half their monthly salary and not have a problem? I fortunately , at least have a place to stay in Riga- an old college mate is the owner of a budget hotel and I always stay at his place when in town. The actual visa gets processed in Vilnius (because it's the quickest option) but I had to wait for 2 weeks for the invite and then have it wired from Moscow to the consulate in Vilnius for one day pickup. I have nowhere to stay in Vilnius and at 50 euros a day for a hotel for 2 weeks, I'd be broke!So, I stayed in Riga til the very last day when my visa was ready for pickup in Vilnius. It's only a 31/2 hr bus ride Riga -Vilnius so that's what I did.
So here I am in Riga in the time out box for 2 weeks without salary. What to do......I thought the season opener was the Rezekne Half on April 6-turned out there was a half in Mezaparks on the 22nd of March. As the door was hitting me in the ass on the way out of Moscow, of course I grabbed my racing flats! I won the half and got comped entry to the Vandra Marathon near Tallinn May, 3rd. Hmmmm I will have to do ONE MORE VISA RUN before June 23rd.....kill2 birds with one stone! The half was on a flat course in the park really nice and well organized as races always are in Latvia. Soo looks like I will be doing a marathon for fun next month. This was my first masters race on the road too. They do things by birth yr not date and oh dear, yeah, it's the 40 yr old group. Eek! I'm really not in a hurry to turn 40!
Regarding marathons- I pretty much retired from doing them seriously after my last GOOD marathon in Riga in 2009. I have since focused on the 50 and 100k where I feel I can still improve before I get REALLY OLD! I did 10x800s for my Wednesday workout before the half and I did them right in the spot where in 2009 I broke away from the ladies at 25k to eventually creep up to 3rd. That's all I could think about during my workout and for a moment, I considered trying the Riga Marathon one last time. I would be nuts to do that at this point. Those kinds of decisions get made not 6-7 weeks before a major race but more like 3-4 months out! I had begun training for the 100k before we lost it in Daugavpils and IAU/IAAF moved it to Quatar. I've since had motivation issues but decided to focus on 50k Latvian Championships in July (not a good time for a 50k....) and very possibly the 100 in St Pete in September. Remembering Riga in 2009 just kind of depresses me because I'm not sure I could ever pull a marathon that fast out of this ass again but then again I have not bothered training for one almost since then.
It was WARM! About _10-12 and all the snow melted off the day before the race!
It was nice seeing lots of familiar faces and many were surprised to see me so early in the season. This is what happens when you get "booted" from Russia on short notice!
Valdis on the right is one of our FAST 100k guys!
You get the 2nd slipper when you run the marathon :)
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