Amazing run through Prague, and the media frenzy (Monday 6/18)

What a day! Monday (6/18) was so far one of the craziest days for me. After spending the day with my family on Sunday and going to an exchange point in the afternoon to meet a mayor of one of the Czech towns north of Prague, I got in only about half an hour of sleep before I took the tram from our apartment in Prague to the hotel where I met up with the crew of the communication vehicle at 1am. We took off driving for the 3am exchange point, from where I was to run through the whole downtown Praha. We got to the exchange point at around 2:15am, “nowhere even a foot” as we say in Czech, meaning that no one was around. Soon the Czech PR representative came, then an online journalist, and finally the Czech Television (Ceska Televize). My parents also arrived, so the crowd was already growing. The online journalist made a quick interview with me, then I changed and ran off into the woods to get rid of access fluids. Soon Richard ran into the exchange point, and we did the water ceremony while cameras flashing and the TV shooting. It was great having water in so much spotlight. We did the message first in English, and then Richard did it in English again, and I repeated in Czech. Then I took of running, with the TV shooting from a van, my dad biking nearby, the pilot vehicle right behind me, and Kelly on the support bike. Quite an entourage. It was a cool summer morning in Prague, a little after 3am. Soon I was running by the Prague Castle (Prazsky Hrad) and got on the Charles Bridge (Karluv Most). That’s where things got interesting. The Bridge was totally empty, which surprised me. Yes, it was about 3:30am, but I still thought some tourists would be there. It was just me, and the 14th century bridge. I ran by the Czech Tv cameras, and then all of a sudden heard a lot of huffing and puffing. I looked back, and the TV cameraman, the online journalist, and our own video and photographer were trying to keep up with me. It was kind of comical. I saw their heartfelt struggle, so I slowed down. They were totally out of it, so I stopped, ran back to the beginning of the bridge, and ran by them again. They must have been amazed by the beauty of Prague (who wouldn’t be, right?) because they tried to run with me even after the bridge, into the small and windy streets leading into the Old Town Square (Staromestske Namesti). It was in these streets that I witnessed the great fall of our court photographer Chris. I look on my left side, Chris running in his flip flops and trying to take a picture of me, when all of a sudden he starts flying in the air. In an attempt to protect his camera, his flips in the air, and lands on his back. He was okay, but I am sure his back is hurting now. Once I got to the Old Town Square, the TV cameraman was there again. I stopped, posed some, and then got going to the Wenceslas Square. Soon after I ran by the apartment where I grew up, and then away from the downtown. I finished my leg with a hill, where I ran away from Kelly who was accompanying me on a bike, and I handed off the baton to Mellisa. It was just after 4:30am, and my day was just getting started.
After I stretched, we went back to the Charles Bridge where we took some pictures of me running back and forth across the bridge. Then I went home, took a shower and had a breakfast, and at 7:30am had to be at the office of our Czech PR agency, where my media marathon continued. First I had a live phone-in radio interview, after which we went to a nearby coffee shop where I was interviewed by Prague’s daily newspaper. Then we took a taxi to another radio station for a live studio interview. I liked this one the most. If felt just like talking to somebody about the Run. Well, that’s what I pretty much did. My last interview was with Czech Television again, which was at Jin’s (the BPR Foundation founder) hotel. At around 2pm we left Prague for Austria. It was an exhausting day, but a great one. I got to share the message of water with many people. Through my interviews, a lot of Czechs got to hear that water is life, and life is good in Prague.