The travel up was a long car ride. We decided to make a day of it and stopped in Durham where there is a cathedral for lunch and then stopped at the border of England and Scotland.
When we reached Edinburgh it was beautiful! Mallory said I was so lucky - it was the best weather she had seen. It was so nice that we decided to get some food at the grocery store and have a picnic dinner in the meadows - a big grass field where all the students hang out.
The next day was the marathon. I met up with my team mates at the hostel where they were staying at, picked up one of the green shirts we had made for the group, and headed towards the race course. We watched Emily and Jude start and then headed towards our buses to be talking to our legs of the race (I was running the third leg). It was only suppose to take 45 minutes to get there, but our bus went to he wrong place so it ended up taking an hour and a half. By the time we got there, we knew our second runner would be coming soon. I barely had time to stretch before Uven showed up. It was fun starting at mile 13 because at that point I was passing everyone which felt good. The run was beautiful! We ran out along the water and my leg reached the race's furthest point away from town. At about mile 17 the race changed into a dirt road and we went on to someone's private farm. No spectators were allowed so it became very quiet and serene. At mile 18 there was a beautiful private castle set back into the trees - I felt very lucky to have gotten to run this leg of the race - none of my classmates got to see it. At mile 19, we left the farm and were back on the pavement. I finished in 1 hour 13 minutes, which is just over a 9 minute mile which was my goal. I thought it was pretty good for not training. I handed off to Phillipe who proceeded to run the last 5 miles at a 7 minute mile pace which allowed our team to finish in 3:48!
After the race, I caught up with Mallory and we had ice cream in the meadows. I then met up with the people from my program for dinner. We had Mexican food and then fried Mars bars for dessert (apparently they are really popular in Scotland). We then did a pub crawl until late into the night.
The next day I was leaving at 2pm so Mallory decided to show me around a bit before I left. We hiked up to Arthur's seat. It's one of the highest points in the city. I was really sore, but I made it. We sat up there for awhile and just took in the view and then hiked down and walked up the Royal Mile to the Elephant Cafe for lunch. The cafe is the birthplace of Harry Potter! It's where JK Rowling wrote the first novel and you can see why! The back wall of the cafe is glass and it overlooks the castle. I tried to get Haggis for lunch but they were all out, but I did have a can of Irn Bru (a pop that tastes like orange and bubble gum). It's very popular in Scotland!
Mallory and I had just enough time to make my train before I left. A quick goodbye and we were off.
No comments:
Post a Comment