A few months ago, Heather heard that there was going to be a marathon here in Kiel, running right past the ship. She and a number of others onboard began training. As well as the full marathon they were advertising a 10k and a half marathon. Heather wanted to do the half.
A few weeks ago, those wanting to run tried to register and were told that the race was full. It would not be possible to race. Much disappointment on the part of everyone concerned.
As the weekend approached, plans were made to have a number of activities to reach out to those coming for the race and invite them to the ship. Yesterday, we were expecting to see lots of activity in the car park in front of us in preperation, but as the rain lashed down and the wind howled, nothing seemed to be happening. Some of us doubted they were going to have a race at all.
This morning the sun was out and activity began and it became clear the race was on after all.
Heather got up early (for her on a Saturday) and got ready to go out for her usual Saturday morning run. She disappeared out of the cabin. 20 minutes later she was back, race number in hand, very excited. She had wandered over to the cruise terminal building a few hundred metres away and found lots of activity. She got talking to a guy from a running club and was offered a place. So with 45 mins to go before the start of the race, she was frantically looking for safety pins to hold her number on and stuffing porridge down her mouth.
The whole family headed over to the start line and at 10 am, Heather began a 10k race, with minimal preperation and training.
Running for Scotland
Excited to be running - at the start
Actually it wasn't a 10k, it was 10.5km but she didn't find that out until the end. They also didn't actually run a marathon but 42km. It was all very different from races at home. The roads weren't closed, they ran on the pavement. There was no markers for each km and the water stops had cups rather than bottles. They even had beer instead of energy drinks!
Despite all that, Heather actually did very well and came in 12th in the over 35 womens, and in the top 50 of all women runners with a time of 56 mins which translates to about 53mins for a 10k.
Heather and her running companion
Sprint Finish for the line
We are all very proud of her and she is very happy to have been able to take part after all.
