Prague by night
When planning our ‘racing autumn’, my eyes fell on the Nike Run first. One quick remark of 12Honza (“Prague by night is unforgettable, V will love it!”) made me change my mind and so we registered for the Mattoni Grand Prix Prague on September 8 instead. Of course we combined the race with a long weekend trip to Czech rep. to see my mother so the 1.5 day before the start shot, we were working in her garden, harvesting plums,
hiking around and enjoying the good old Czech cuisine. (Turns our V. loves my mum’s homemade meat loaf). Oh yes – not to forget: we had a great dinner with the whole family on Friday and finally announced my pregnancy. Surprisingly, nobody made any remark regarding the pregnant woman racing. Both my mum and my brother know that there is no chance to change my mind once I set my goal… 
On Saturday afternoon, we went down town to pick the start numbers and to breathe some of the ‘racing air’. The starting area looked like this:
We walked around with ice coffee, did some shopping and returned to my mum’s house. For the last time we tried to persuade her to join our friends along the race in Parizska street and to see us running. And at the end, she agreed to come with us! After a series of telephone calls we managed to get a camping chair and 2 friends to accompany mum to the best spot to watch us. We equipped them with a bottle of Becherovka as one never knows when the traditional liquid medicine will come handy. Both the liquor and the camping gear turned out to be unnecessary as we picked a perfect spot at a terrace in front of a fancy café. Mum could see us easily from her place!
Slowly we walked to the start area on Staromestske square that now looked like this:
We found the toilet (twice) and our D corridor and then all of the sudden I spotted attributes that unmistakably belonged to 12Honza (design glasses, black Asics running shoes ‘for formal occasions’, big smile, running pants with a hole on the right knee,…) with his daughter
and he spotted us.
A bit of a surreal moment to shake Honza’s hand, I was so happy we met there! We wished each other good luck and an enjoyable evening and shortly after that the famous Moldau from Smetana’s My Country brought me to tears and made us running.
The evening city was amazing. Yes, it took a bit of an extra focus to avoid the curbs and uneven cobblestones in darker areas but hey, we are urban people and this 10 km track showed Prague at its best. Especially the long stretches at the embankment were not to be missed. Funny enough, we passed pretty much all ‘important’ areas of my young student years and as our pace was moderate, I could show V all of them and even comment on ’what happened here and there…’
Before we knew, we were half way through, keeping the pace at a comfortable 6:15 or so per km. We drank some water from the bottle that V was carrying with her and ran on. Every time as we were passing Parizska street (4x in total) we waved to my mum. Then as we were passing Manesuv bridge on our way to finish, the fireworks above the river exploded!
At Ovocny market, 12Honza with his daughter ran over us in a mighty finish pace and soon we were passing the finish line as well. The race was fantastic as the atmosphere of medieval city by night cannot be substituted by anything else in the world. Our time 1:03:44 was way below what we predicted and I am very happy with it considering the fact I am almost 16 weeks pregnant.
With the golden medals hanging around our necks we walked to Parizska street again and joined our support team at the terrace. It was great to chat with them some more while drinking huge glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice and chewing cheesecake. I saw the twinkle in my mum’s eyes. She was so happy and proud of us! We talked and talked and if it was not for the public transport that we were depending on, we would have stayed over the midnight…
On Sunday morning we went to my mum’s cottage again to enjoy some more sun and hike a bit and also to finish some garden works.
And then it was time to head home. A perfect weekend if you ask me – and I am sure we will be back!
April Runs 
Perfect weekend, perfect day, perfect night..
What else can be written?
Yeah, congratulation to your pregnacy! I wish perfect times and hope that he (or she?) will grow into a great runner one day 🙂
Indeed, the weekend around the night race was great. And thanks for the congratulations – I never would have guessed what my first running year brings (It is a girl).
Congratulations! I wish yor girl will be not only great runner but nainly great pearson 🙂
Thank you Bubo, honestly. Although I know very few sportsmen/runners who are not great people. I am actually convinced that sport, especially endurance sport, turns people in better individuals.
April, nice report, and congratulation, great news! :-).
Thanks, we are really happy! By the way, your half marathon report is not bad either :-).
Thanks for nice pictures! I love you noticed my black Asics running shoes that I used to were for “formal occasions” like state certified exams..:). .. especially when I ran to school and there is “something” that requires formal dress code..:).
In this case, black Asics running shoes are the best choice. 🙂
Anyway, Saturday night it was a big party, indeed!
Congratulations , it shows you really enjoy it! Nice meeting you both! Cheers, 12:)
The best part was when immediately after the finish line V quickly dragged me towards you saying: “Don’t look for the medal yet, we have to congratulate Honza and Bara first.” So we did :-)). And we got the medals later.