Prague 10k - Rich's Version

Wow.  Elaine and I ran in the Prague 10k Saturday night and it was different in several ways from other events we've participated in.  Elaine's post has pictures.

• The race was at night.  I wasn't sure how it would be running through city streets (some times on cobblestones) in the dark.  My opinion is mixed on this.  The parts of the course that were along the Vltava River and/or in view of the Prague Castle were awesome.  The castle sits up on a hill and was brightly lit.  Seeing it from across the river was truly spectacular.  Several parts of the course were on cobblestones.  They are pretty to look at but are not an even surface to run on.  It wasn't so bad where there was enough light to see but there were several places where the course was completely dark and those times I prayed that my feet wouldn't find any holes or unevenness that could cause me harm.  My prayers were answered.
• It was a HUUUUGE event.  The scope and scale of everything was just huge.  There were thousands of runners.  During the whole race I had to watch out for other runners.  It felt like rush hour.  It didn't feel like it ever really opened up.  It felt much bigger than anything we had run in before.  There were "elite" runners that were treated special.  There was a procession of flags at the start for each country represented by a runner.  There was a "lead" car that had the race timer on top.  There was a cameraman on the back of a motorcycle.  There were at least 4 bands playing on the course.  City streets and trams were shutdown just for the race.  There were spectators all along the course.  It felt really big.
• The course looped back on itself.  There was one part of the course that we passed 5 times.  I was a little worried that I might make a wrong turn but there were always enough runners around me that I followed the flow and never had to make a decision about which way to turn.  In one way the looped course was nice because I actually saw the lead runners several times as they flew past going the other direction.  They probably didn't even hear me cheering for them.

I would totally recommend running this event if you are ever in Prague.

Elaine mentioned the funny instructions in the race guide:  "Women will appreciate elastic leggings that stop just below the knee."  That was probably written/translated by a man and should have been, "Men will appreciate..."