Long weekend at hostel in Prague and running Prague Marathon.
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My father drove me and Reeta to the airport three hours before departure as usual. We had to check in at an automatic machine. The new thing was that beside your boarding card you also received the tag which you should attach to the suitcase you check in. It was a bit confusing since you didn't know exactly how you should attach it and which part of it you should keep. On top of this the machine went out of order when it tried to print out the baggage tag for Reeta. I wonder what they are going to automate next time. Luckily they could print out a baggage tag at the check-in counter instead.
There were a lot of problems at the gate. City Airline had overbooked the little plane. Some people had already agreed to take a later plane via Copenhagen but they needed five more persons. They had in other words overbooked the plane with at least 7 persons. It was the first time this happened to me. You were offered 500 euro as a voucher if you took the later plane. You could use the money to buy a new airplane ticket within a year. If you didn't want money for a ticket you could instead receive 250 euro which you could buy things for. I wonder what kind of things? Was it just things they sell on their airplanes? I was not interested so I didn't ask. Our plane would arrive in Prague at 14:10. If you traveled via Copenhagen I think you would arrive in Prague at 19:45. Luckily they got 5 more persons who agreed to take the later plane.
The airplane was very small, just 37 seats, one seat at the window and on the other side of the aisle were two more seats. The storage shelf over your head was also very small. You couldn't place an ordinary cabin bag there. We therefore placed one bag under the seat in front of us with the result that you had problem to stretch out your legs. We got tags which we could write our names on so I took out my most valuable things from my bag, beside some fragile things, and gave my bag to the airhostess after I had put my name tag on it. They took it out and put it in the baggage room at the back of the plane. I suppose with the rest of the baggage. The different was that you got it back directly when you left the plane so you didn't have to fetch it at the baggage claim room. It was therefore quite safe I suppose since you were sure that it was going together with your plane and not lost on the way somewhere.
We were served a good sandwich onboard the plane together with something to drink such as tea, coffee, juice or water. I think you also could get Coca Cola, beer or wine. I am not sure if you had to pay extra for the wine.
There was no passport check in Sweden and neither in Prague. You had of course to pass security checks but they didn't look into our cabin bags.
You reached the baggage claim area quickly and our suitcases had surprisingly already arrived. That was really quick, probably because the plane was so small.
We bought tickets at the transport information counter. The tickets were valid both onboard bus 119, which went to the nearest metro station, and also on the metro. The tickets, transfer tickets, were in fact valid on busses, trams or metro during 75 minutes in zone P and O. They cost 26 Czech crowns each and you had to pay an extra 13 crowns each for the baggage ( discounted transfer tickets ).
You found bus 119 outside terminal exit D on platform B. You just had to cross the lane outside the terminal to find platform B. The bus arrived almost immediately and you took your luggage with you onboard the bus which is good. There is always a risk that someone might steal your suitcases if you have to store them in a special place for the baggage. You had to put your tickets in a machine so you get a timestamp on them which show when your trip started. Our trip started 15:01. You then had 75 minutes to reach your destination and I suppose you can change bus, metro or tram as many times you need during that time. I think it took around 20 minutes to reach the metro station. There seemed to be an extra metro station, compared to the map, so keep an eye on where you are.
We had received information from the hostel that we should get off at the museum. It would have been better to get of at the Mustek station and then exit the metro at the Jindrisska street.
You had a little bit to walk before you reached the hostel which we had booked on HostelWorld. We checked in and paid for the three nights directly. We took the very tiny, old elevator up to our room, number 7, on fourth floor. We actually got two rooms beside bathroom and a kitchen all by ourselves.
We ate sandwiches which we had brought from home before we went out for a walk. I teached Reeta how to use a map so we had a city orienteering. I marked some places on the map and she had to find them. She had to know her way in the city since she would be alone when I ran the marathon that Sunday. We walked to Henry's Tower, the Powder Tower and to the Old Time Square. We then went down to Charles Bridge. On our way we visited some shops.
It was very cold outside in the evening. I should have brought a thicker jacket and a muffler around my neck. We found a Chinese restaurant near Charles Bridge where we took something to eat. A hot dish with curry chicken and rice cost 119 crowns which was about half the price compared to if you eat in Sweden.
After dinner we went home. First we had planned to go out and dance in the evening but we were both too tired.
We still had our little apartment all by ourselves. It was almost completely silent. No disturbing sounds from other guests or from the street outside. The hostel was very nice and I can recommend it. They had given information that they had lockers but they didn't have any in the two sleeping rooms we had. It is much better and safer with lockers under your bed. Now we had to keep our things all the time in our suitcases which we had attached to a radiator with a security wire and padlock.
At the Sport Expo Adidas, Puma, Asics and other companies were selling things for runners. I got a t-shirt and my start number including timing chip. There was a pasta party and each runner got one coupon which could be exchanged for a medium portion of pasta. It was not much of a party. I thought that you should be able to eat as much as possible.
We came back to our rooms at around 9 p.m. We had then been out for nine hours and we had just been sitting for a little more than an hour. My legs were tired and it wasn't perhaps the best preparation for the marathon the next day.
We ate noodles and chicken in the evening which we prepared ourselves using the kitchen in the room.
Late in the evening two other guys arrived who also should run the next day. They took one room and we had the kitchen, bathroom and refrigerator together.
I went up at 7 a.m. and ate breakfast at around 7:30. 8 a.m. I walked to the Old Town Square where the marathon started and finished. On my way I passed Henry's Tower and the Powder Tower again before I walked up the Celetna road where the different start groups should start. I was in the last start group. The marathon started at 9 a.m. All started at the same time but it took 10 minutes before I reached the start line where my time started automatically thanks to my timing chip and small battery attached behind my number.
It was my first marathon and I had expected that it should be very hard. Everything went however much better than I had expected. I managed to run all the way without problem. Here you have my times.
| First 10 km: | 1:00:07 | Second 10 km: | 1:02:46 | Third 10 km: | 1:03:05 | Fourth 10 km: | 1:07:14 |
The whole marathon, 42 km and 195 meters took 4 hours, 27 minutes and 53 seconds.
Here you have a short video which I filmed with my camera when I finished my first marathon.
Prag marathon video.
Back at the hostel I found that I had received the following SMS.
Congratulations STEFAN, you finished the Full Marathon in 4:37:57. See you next year!
I took a shower and ate a lot of food since I was starving. All my energy was gone. I then went to bed and rested for 5 hours. I was really tired. At around 7 p.m. I managed to get up and we ate something which Reeta had bought in a nearby take away restaurant. We then went out for a walk.
In the evening I received the following e-mail:
Hello STEFAN,
Many thanks for your participation in the 16th Volkswagen Prague Marathon.
You can find your result here below:
Start number: 3892 - STENFELDT STEFAN
Category: MM45
Year of birth: 1962
| Split | Time | min/Km | Delta | min/Km | RealTime |
| 10 Km | 1:10:11 | 7,01 | 1:10:11 | 7,01 | 1:00:07 |
| 20 Km | 2:12:57 | 6,38 | 1:02:46 | 6,16 | 2:02:52 |
| Half marathon | 2:19:46 | 6,37 | 0:06:49 | 6,12 | 2:09:41 |
| 30 Km | 3:16:02 | 6,32 | 0:56:16 | 6,19 | 3:05:57 |
| 40 Km | 4:23:16 | 6,34 | 1:07:14 | 6,43 | 4:13:12 |
| Finish | 4:37:57 | 6,35 | 0:14:41 | 6,41 | 4:27:53 |
We ate breakfast and packed our things. There was a new girl at the reception that told us that we couldn't leave our luggage at the room until 11:30. We had to check out 10 a.m. and store the things in the luggage room down in the basement. She informed us that nothing had ever been stolen there. We got a key from her and went down ourselves. We were alone in the luggage room and we could have stolen things from other people so the safety could have been better.
Previously I had checked Internet on a computer in the common room. You had to use a code to enter the first door to the common room and then you could borrow a key at the reception to enter another room where you find the computer. I was in hurry so I didn't check out the common room and I didn't take any photos.
We went back to the hostel 11:30 and our taxi driver already waited for us. It was actually not a real taxi, just an ordinary car. The driver was however very friendly.
It took a long time to the airport since there was a traffic jam due to some kind of accident. It took however less than an hour so we were there in time. We had paid for the taxi in advance at the hostel reception when we booked it the previously evening.
There was some trouble when it was our time to check in. The woman told us that it was some kind of system problem but I think that she had just entered something wrong and it was difficult to start from beginning again. Other people had no problems. First I thought that the plane was overbooked again but luckily that was not the case.
We passed a couple who checked our boarding cards and our passports and then there was a security check before we had to walk for some time to our gate, C12.
The trip home went without problem. I had planned to buy two bottles of Absolute Vodka for 139 SEK each at the Swedish airport but found a little text where it said that it was only for non EU travelers.
My father waited for us as usual and drove us home.
At the website www.praguemarathon.com/en you find information about the race. My start number was 3892. I got position 3673, position M/W 3162 and position in my category, MM45, 453. 4856 persons fulfilled the race within the maximum time which was 7 hours. About 2/3 of the people who fulfilled the race ran faster than me and 1/3 ran slower.