The Leek Half Marathon

Following a pleasant couple of days with various members of my family in West Wales on the occasion of my nephew's wedding, early yesterday morning my brother Llion drove me three hours across the country to Leek, where I ran in the half marathon. I hadn't expected to run a particularly fast time, because the course contains a lot of very steep hills. Apart from a couple of miles of relatively flat road in the middle of the course, where the outstanding views across the very beautiful countryside makes one forget the pain completely, the rest of the course seemed to consist of very steep ups and very steep downs. Not at all what I am used to in Berlin and Brandenburg.

I was however, very happy with my performance. I don't yet know the official results but my time was around 1 hour 53 minutes. Llion kindly drove me to East Midlands airport straight afterwards, and I arrived home at half past midnight, understandably tired.

My stay in Wales was extremely pleasant, not just on account of the occasion and the opportunity to meet up with family again, but the beauty of the West Wales countryside as well as the location of my Bed and Breakfast and the very friendly hospitality of the owners. It was also great to experience the Welsh language being spoken as a first language among the family and friends of my nephew's wife.

Thanks to Llion for the photos.