Riga Marathon

I did not realize that Riga had a marathon during the weekend I planned to visit. They have a full marathon, half marathon, 10k, & some kids races.  They had over 33,000 participants & the weather stayed decent (cloudy & low 50s) for most of the races until the rain started around lunchtime.  The most famous runner there was 2 time New York City marathon winner Jelena Prokopcuka from Latvia. She won the women's half marathon.  I didn't get there in time to see her finish, but here is a photo from one of her NYC marathon wins.

The East African runners swept the top 3 places in both the men's & women's marathons with winning times of 2:11 & 2:38.  The biggest cheers were for the Latvian women that qualified for the Olympics after just missing the standard by 5 seconds last month.  Here are my photos from the races.

Men's winner

2nd place

First woman

Latvian woman qualifying for the Olympics.

Top 3 men

Back of the pack half marathoners

It is a tenth of mile from the finish, so I need to check my email.

Latvian dancers motivating the marathoners in the last few miles of the race.

The "nurses" in charge of the tent where they are giving post race massages.

Here are a few photos of the kids races.

Here is a random photo at my tram stop.  I think the translation is don't block the driver's view.

Overall my trip to Riga was good, but I would have liked to have had better weather for my visit.  But it was the first two rainy days of my trip after 16 days of no rain.  Next stop is 3 nights in Vilnius, Lithuania, which just over a 4 hour bus ride from Riga.