Conveniently, I’ve discovered that the word for ice in German is ICE (well, spelled EIS but roughly
pronounced the same). So at 11pm, when I stepped intoa small pub in a countryside village to try to obtain some, the five men sitting around a table first looked at me strangely-- sweaty in my reflective night running gear-- and then hollered to the bartender. Out came a bag full. That was easy. Rudy came in and followed up my English explanation of the Blue Planet Run in German. The five firefighters and bartender were so intrigued that they gave us beer mugs. Several
pictures later, we were back on the road again. Given the graveyard shift we’ve been on and the few people we’ve seen, this chance encounter re-energized us for the dark hours ahead.

Night running elicits intrigue. In the day, you’re just a normal person out running, but at night, with a flashing escort vehicle, people who pass by slow down and peer out of their car windows in curiosity, probably saying “What the heck is this here? At 2AM in the middle of countryside here’s a crazy person running in the rain!” The night support crew has reported numerous encounters with the police. I haven’t seen the police, but the other night a man hollered out to me from his truck, “Ist das ein maraton?” I started to tell him, but sadly he waved and drove off. Evidently, he spoke no English. And unfortunately, I don’t know how to say “we’re running around the world for water” in German. By the time I get that down, we’ll be in Russia. (At least in Russia we will have translators.)

Writing from Praha… Laurel