I was feeling really warm when I woke up, and looked at my watch… 03:30. Too early. I found myself waking frequently after that, needing to turn over every time the hard bed got too uncomfortable in one position. At 05:00 I could hear the unintelligible shouts of drunken people echo around outside. It soon seemed like the first rays of sunlight were breaking through the darkness. I closed my eyes again, and hoped for sleep.

At 06:45 I gave up on trying to sleep. I was too warm, and my mouth was dry. I got up at 07:00 for breakfast, and started getting ready for the race that lay ahead of us. At 08:15 we walked to the tram stop at Karlovy lázne; there were some runners already waiting for tram 17. It was a little cool out, but the sun was shining, so we took the opportunity to photograph the Charles Bridge from the banks of the Vltava again. Once the tram reached Strossmayerovo náměstí, almost everyone on the tram left and started the ten minute walk to the race village.

When we arrived, I decided that it would be warm enough to run in a short-sleeve base layer and a t-shirt, so I got changed before dropping my bag off. The toilet queues here were far better than some of the other SuperHalf races, and the bag drop was such a simple but good system too. There were tables numbered from 01 to 99, with a rack behind that your bag would be put onto. The two digits represented the last two numbers of your race bib.

Carmen found someone she knew from a London running club, and then we came across Emma who we both know from the old days of UKRunChat. It’d been a long time since we all met on Twitter, when for an hour every Wednesday and Sunday, talking about running would take over. First the social media aspect had started to die off, sped up by the change from Twitter to X, and now with the new membership year coming up in the next few days, the running club would go the same way. Nothing but a memory, and the friendships that outlasted it.

We heard what the expo had been like in the evening after we’d left, and how late the number collections had gone on for. I wondered if it was always like that, or if there was something different about this year. We wished everyone luck before myself and Carmen headed towards the start corrals. When the time came to part ways, we wished each other luck, and headed in different directions. It was now just the small matter of us both completing another half marathon.

There was now a slight chill in the air where the buildings weren’t protecting us from the cold wind, and I couldn’t wait to get started. Within the first mile or so I expected I’d be warm enough then. I jumped on the spot a few times, and stretched my legs a little. They felt ready to go. Then, at 10:00, the race had begun.

Before you even cross the start line, you’re on cobblestones. Yes, they’re underneath a red carpet which is there to prevent tripping, but you still know they’re there, and they’ll be there at the finish. It was like a teaser for what was to come. Once across the start line the cobblestones were gone, but there were still tramlines to be careful of. It was as crowded as you’d expect, but not to the point that Valencia had been. I’d not really got a planned pace, so wasn’t too bothered about finding space, there were some runners around me that were more than happy to cut across the path of other runners though, at times coming close to tripping other people up. It feels like this has been an issue in a few races recently, as if suddenly people have lost their spatial awareness.

The tramlines eventually moved to the space between the road, and we ran through underpasses; meaning very minor climbs. Much better than running up the big green hill that was now on the lefthand side. The road was following the Vltava, and for the most part, the route provided a good view across it. What I could remember of the event map was that we’d be running down one side of the river, and back up the other, but I couldn’t remember if we would get a closer look at the old town on our way back.

Space had opened up, I was averaging around a 6:53/mi pace, and so far it was going well. At Czech Bridge we crossed to the other side of the river. I realised it made sense we crossed there as they wouldn’t want to disrupt the tourism around Charles Bridge. It wouldn’t have been so easy to get this number of runners past it through the lower town either. It was a good view of Prague Castle, but the cobblestones soon returned in small patches. There was the Rudolfinum, which was on our list of sights to walk past during the week - it seemed busy outside of it at the minute. The cobbles around the Colloredo-Mansfeld Palace by the Charles Bridge were probably some of the most worn and uneven ones so far. I didn’t see anyone trip, even with the tram lines through the cobbles, so that was a positive.

We passed the place we’d boarded the tram a few hours ago. So close, yet so far from the apartment. This section of road had concrete curbs between lanes, so a different type of obstacle to keep our eyes on whilst running. The cobbles then returned on the corner before the Legion Bridge, where different tramlines crossed over each other. The route crossed the bridge, which was thankfully a smooth surface, and that remained for a time. To make it even better there was even a small down hill towards the 5K point and the first water station.

For the briefest of moments I considered whether it was worth getting my phone out to take a picture. A raised walkway between a school and a playground had been painted to look like someone drinking from a bottle. It was a novel advertisement, but one I ultimately decided it wasn’t worth stopping for.

I could hear The BeeGees ‘Staying Alive’ playing somewhere ahead, and that was stuck in my head for the next kilometre or so. After passing the 6K point, I saw the 1:24 pacer on the other side of the road first, and then about a couple of minutes later I saw the 1:30 pacer. My hope was that it meant I wasn’t far from the turnaround point, and so wouldn’t be too far behind that time.

As soon as I reached the turnaround point, I started keeping an eye out for Carmen on the other side of the road. Perhaps I’d get to see her during this race. Maybe the cobbles had been gone for a couple of miles now, but they’d taken a toll on my feet. My right foot was starting to feel uncomfortable with every foot strike.

Just before I reached the 9K point, I heard someone shout “David!”. As I looked up, distracted from the foot discomfort, I saw Emma passing by in the opposite direction - I shouted back, but she was already past. I kept looking for Carmen now, but within minutes the route peeled away from the oncoming runners.

My foot eased a little after the second water station. I was focussed on just finishing this race, not too bothered about the pace, and thought I was making a conscious effort to slow down to keep the foot happy. In reality my average pace hadn’t really changed at all. I think it must have been the down hill after crossing Jirásek Bridge that made it just feel easier. I’m not sure I even noticed the Dancing House.

I ran along a tram platform at one point, and then jumped off the end. Maybe too energetic for over 6 miles in, but it was nice to have a little fun with the route. I was at least past the halfway point. After another hairpin bend, it was now time to start heading north, gradually making our way back to the race village.

I found a random lump in the road at around 12K and stumbled a little, but kept going. At the National Theatre it was a right turn, heading towards the Tesco we’d been to the night before. The cobbles here were much worse than some of the ones we’d run on, and the pain in the foot returned.

At the Powder Gate you then turn back towards the Old Town. The market stalls were very close to the running route as it went through Old Town Square. In fact, some of them were so close that it wasn’t possible for tourists to reach the front of them, and would need to stretch round the side to order anything. I did wonder if any runners would stop by these on their way round.

After that I could see the river ahead once more, as the route started to then head east. Following this part of the river it felt like we were running into the middle of nowhere. My foot was still hurting too, and it felt like I couldn’t run on it much more. I saw a tunnel ahead, where the road dipped down and back up, and I made myself at least do that bit, and kept going a little more before I slowed to a walk. I found it didn’t feel that bad at all when walking on it.

I alternated between running and walking for the next couple of miles, until it’d eased enough to think I could risk running on it for the remainder of the race. That was the plan, but the hill up to Libeň Bridge was steeper than I wanted to run up at this point, so I walked up a good portion of that, and then ran from there.

Approximately one mile to go. The downhill off the bridge was nice, but it was putting pressure on my foot again, which I wasn’t happy about, but I was sure I could live with it for a mile. There were then signs that started to count down from 800 metres. When I realised I was around where Carmen’s starting corral was, I realised she’d have a much better idea than me when she got here at just how far away the finish line would be. I then rounded the final corner and could see the finish in the distance. It still seemed quite a way, but I pushed on.

Seeing the finish line made me speed up, without realising I had, but when I passed the 200 metre sign I started to speed up more. Not quite to a sprint though.

The red carpet hid cobblestones, I’d remembered that from the start of the race, so whilst I sped up, I was still cautious of not going too fast should I manage to find a gap in the cobbles underneath the carpet. The carpet should stop me from tripping, but I wasn’t about to take that chance. I crossed the finish line in 1:32:03 - a long way off my PB, but surprisingly my fastest in the SuperHalf series so far with one to go…

Shortly after crossing the line you’re given a large bottle of water, though I didn’t realise it was sparkling. Next is the medal, which is another nice one. There’s then plenty of banana and orange halves being given out before fruit-flavoured energy drinks. I was in need of a loo though, so I wasn't hanging around.

I headed into the race village to collect my bag, and then went looking for Hall 11, where they were doing the medal engraving. By the time I was done there, Carmen had finished as well! I wandered around to a spot just before the energy drinks and waited for her to arrive. She’d not enjoyed the cobblestones too much either, and her legs had suffered from them, the heat, and the loss of five weeks of training from her recent leg injury.

The race village had gotten a lot busier since I’d finished, but we needed to get through it again to collect Carmen’s bag. Whilst there, we also stopped to get a photograph together with our medals, and then took the quietest route to a stop for the 17 tram. I was limping a little on the walk there, and it might not have been the most direct route either, but it was quicker with less people to slow us down. It took us under the railway, where there’s a mural for Sir Nicholas Winton, the British-born German who had assisted in the rescue of 669 children of Czechoslovakia. Carmen recognised the name straightaway.

Back at the apartment now, we thought about finding somewhere for tea and cake for lunch, but left it too late to go anywhere before we’d need to head to Kafe and Hrnky (hrnky meaning mugs) for our pottery painting session. It would be 21 minutes by tram, or 22 minutes walking - having just done a half marathon we decided the best option would be to take the number 22 tram around to the bottom of the hill we’d then need to walk up. Having bought a 24-hour ticket for public transport this morning for 140 CZK, it seemed like a good idea to use it if we could! Considering thirty minute tickets were only 36 CZK, we needed to make four distinct journeys to make it worthwhile.

Outside the Charles University, we could hear chants and raised voices - a ‘No tyrants’ protest was peacefully taking place outside. It was in support of democracy, civil rights, freedom of speech, and voting rights. Something that is debatably under threat in the USA right now. Quite a few police stood watch over the protest, clearly in case anything took a turn for the worse.

The road up the side of the castle gets steeper as you climb it, and is made from cobblestones. These didn’t feel too bad at all, now that I was wearing walking shoes. Towards the top of the road we found the cafe, and wandered into the courtyard. A sign pointed downstairs for the cafe, and through the door for the ceramic painting. I wasn’t sure if it was upstairs or not, so I went up several flights of stairs before returning back down to continue on through a different door.

We were told to put on an apron, choose what we wanted to paint from the large array of mugs, and to find somewhere to sit. They then explained to us the process. The more layers of a paint you apply, the stronger the colour would be. Any more than about three layers though, and the pigment would melt in the kiln and run. During the run I’d thought a little about what I’d paint, and had thought about doing some sort of landscape representing Prague, but now that we were here, I couldn’t decide what to paint.

To give myself more time to think, I went downstairs to the cafe and bought us both a soy hot chocolate. Normally I wouldn’t, but it was quicker and easier than figuring out what they had. Whilst I’d been getting the drinks sorted, Carmen had been researching images of robins, and had begun sketching one out. The graphite from the pencil would melt in the kiln, so any lines from it would not be visible after firing, even if they had shown through the paint later. I was still perplexed though; what could I draw? Ideally I wanted it to be something I could do without a reference photo, so I wouldn’t risk getting the white powder from the mug over my phone.

I thought about what I’ve drawn previously, and what from them I could get the colours right for, and potentially finish within what remained of the allotted two hours. A dragon. I sketched a rough outline in places, realising I’d done it too close to the handle, but I decided to leave it as that.

I picked one pot that I initially thought was red, not realising that it dries to a brown colour until Carmen pointed it out; but I decided that I could use that for shadow and build up reds on top of that. I was thinking in terms of miniature painting, not pottery painting. As if that couldn’t get any worse, I found the paint would run frequently as well, forcing me to improvise and change the design of the dragon. I wanted to use black pigment to outline key features, and to give the impression of scales, but found this one didn’t apply well unless I applied it heavily. It’s hard to describe how different this experience is to miniature painting, or most types of painting I’d done so far.

We’d got two hours booked for the painting, but we both managed to finish in less than that. Between the time spent, and the cost of my mug, it was only 390 CZK. Carmen had chosen a slightly smaller mug, and paid slightly less for hers. It seemed like a cheap way to be entertained for a couple of hours.

As we’d already gotten so close to the top of the hill, we continued up to the viewpoint from Hradcany Square. We didn’t look around whilst up there, that’d be for another day, for now we just took in the view across the Old Town, and beyond to the other districts of Prague. As we’d not yet done any tourism, we didn’t really have any idea what the places were.

When we headed back down, it was time to find somewhere to eat. I bought a souvenir coin with a picture of the castle on it for 50 CZK. While walking around streets at random, we surprisingly found our way to the Lennon Wall - located around the corner from the entrance to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. This wall is one that had become a similar form of expression under communist rule, as the Berlin Wall had been.

Before the wall got its current name, it was already a place for local artists and poets to graffiti images and words on. After the murder of John Lennon, an unknown artist had painted a mural in his memory on this wall, but it was soon painted over by the government. Their efforts to stop it being used as a place of expression ultimately failed. In 2014, the Umbrella movement in Hong Kong started their own ‘Lennon Wall’ as a place to air their grievances too - but was later replaced with a digital version.

The Čertovka canal runs just past the wall, driving a waterwheel to turn. On a wooden platform next to it we spotted a statue referred to as ‘the Gremlin’. I thought perhaps we’d found our way onto one of the islands, which technically we had, just not the one I thought we were on. This one is called Kampa Island, and this specific area of Čertovka is often referred to as the Little Venice of Prague. The island itself is named such because of the Spanish soldiers that built a camp there in the 17th century.

I realised where we were when we saw Charles Bridge above us, so step by step we slowly made our way up onto the bridge, just as the clock struck 19:00. The bridge was busy, even though the sun had set. We took our time, and by the time we’d crossed, the last of the light was leaving the sky. The road crossing into the Old Town was a lot busier than the bridge, but once across we found a shortcut through an alleyway to Charles Burger - a place we’d walked past near the apartment earlier. This seemed as good as anywhere to eat.

I had a chicken burger and Fanta, and Carmen had a cheeseburger and mint tea. With a tip this came to only 910 CZK. Instead of heading back to the apartment, we continued past it to Tesco to get some more supplies to cover another breakfast, and lunch. We finally got back at around 20:30 for a cup of tea. It had been a long day.