“I wonder what they’re all here for?”

That is what I blurted as our van approached the 9am exchange point, at a somewhat nondescript intersection on the outskirts of Hamburg, Germany, where we saw a group of 120 kids standing around. For a moment I really did wonder what event they were there for, until it dawned on me that they were actually there to see our exchange ceremony.

We haven’t had big crowds yet at most of the small exchange points, so we were all a bit surprised and definitely excited to find out that a local teacher had read about BPR in the newspaper and decided to bring a bunch of the students out to watch and cheer us on. I was the first runner of the day for our team, so I was set to read the message with the incoming runner (Simon). I have to say, there was a huge buzz and energy boost having an audience there to support us, and it made me feel so good to know that the message is getting out.

The kids made a circle around us and Brynn helped explain BPR in German and also translated as Simon and I read the message in English. They all looked on intently, and I even heard that after I left to run my leg, a number of the students were asking how they could become runners in the next BPR, proudly proclaiming that they were going to start training now. I hope they do! In the meantime, I hope they tell their friends about the 1.2 billion people that don’t have access to safe drinking water.