Scotland
My awesome friend Crystal talked
me into this trip to Edinburgh. A group of women were planning a Memorial Day
weekend trip to Scotland to run a relay marathon in Edinburgh. I decided to run
a 10k since the relay teams were full. It is important to note that before
agreeing to this trip I had not actually run a full mile in my recent memory.
In preparation I began running consistently and enjoying small victories over
new distances and times. And after a few months of training I can now successfully
run 6.2 miles!
Our group consisted of
approximately 15 beautiful, strong, inspiring American women living in Bavaria.
We loaded up Thursday afternoon and caravanned to the airport. We arrived late
Thursday night and enjoyed a beautiful walk through Edinburgh to our apartment.
The apartment we rented was perfect for our group. It had 5 or more rooms with
multiple beds, a kitchen, and enough bathrooms.
Friday morning the majority of
the women went on a 4 hour drive to Loch Ness while me, Crystal and our new
friend Amy set off to explore Edinburgh. We went to Edinburgh castle first
which was absolutely gorgeous and had beautiful views of the city. Inside the
castle we saw Arthur’s rock (from the sword and the stone) and the royal
jewels. We walked around the castle grounds enjoying the scenery. After the
Castle we decided to have Indian for lunch. Crystal recently introduced me to
Indian and I absolutely love it. Edinburgh has a plethora of Indian
restaurants. We had a delicious lunch and regrouped to attack the Royal Mile.
When we finished there we hiked to Calton hill and relaxed in the grass, took
pictures, and enjoyed the views of the city below us.
Saturday- Race day!
Saturday was the 10k race. Four
of us were running the 10k and we all went together to the starting line. Pam
got us all awesome pink bandannas so we could all find each other. Standing at
the starting line with 100’s of people waiting for the race to begin was beyond
exciting. We were all dancing and getting ready. The race began and for a while
the four of us stayed together. Tera and Mary Anne were hauling and Meratee and
I hung back. I expected and trained for a fairly flat route. The route was up
Arthur’s seat. I don’t think that’s playing fair. I was a bit ticked that the
course was so terrible. I expected that I might finish in an hour and five
minutes or less. Meratee and I stuck together for the whole race and ran and
walked together. Thankfully the end was flat and we ran through the finish
line. We were happily surprised at the finish line by all the ladies cheering
us on. After we went through and got our t-shirts and took pictures Crystal and
I went back to the apartment so I could shower and then we headed out to the
bus station to go to St. Andrew’s for the day. It was about an hour and a half
bus trip and we arrived in around 3. We walked around some of the cute shops
and then went to the castle ruins which were gorgeous. We walked past the
building where William and Kate rented an apartment and sat on the pier for a
bit. Then we ran on the Chariots of fire beach and collected seashells. For
dinner we found a precious restaurant called the doll house- and found out that
Kate Middleton worked there for a short time. The food was delicious. From
there we went back to the apartment and had a wonderful night’s sleep.
Our 10k route was UP this mountain! Aruthur's seat. I finished in 1 hour 10 minutes and 12 seconds.
Sunday was race day for the two
teams of 4 running the relay marathon. Meratee, Mary Anne and I went to the
finish line to support the ladies running through. We ended up staying there
until 4 or 5 pm and afterward my moving buddy Crystal and I went back to the
apartment after that. We all met there to go get fish and chips for dinner!
Monday morning we awoke very
early to make our 6am flight back home. Everyone else had a short layover in
Amsterdam but I had a nearly 12 hour layover so I did some exploring there. I
got to see Anne Frank’s house, which was incredible. It was very well preserved
and the experience was amazing. The walls still had the decorations Anne put up
and markings on a wall where Anne and her sisters’ heights were measured.
I walked around the canals and
enjoyed the day in Amsterdam before going back to the airport to board my
flight home to Germany! How cool is it that I go “home” to Germany?
