Wings for Life World Run 2014 and Today

Go back with me to 2014. I found a great group of running friends as we were living in Belgium. One of those friends, Liz, lived next door to me and was originally from the U.K. and spoked English (my boys said she sounded like Harry Potter’s Mum). Liz was a runner as well! It became easy to meet her outside my back door and take off together through the wooded trails in our village.

Local Belgian races were always a good time, usually complete with a beer at the finish line of the race! I also love to travel, so destination races and ‘girls’ trip’ weekends were calling my name … I just had to get through a half-marathon! For races in Europe, I have run half-marathons in Brussels, Amsterdam, and Budapest. The race in Bratislava was a different kind of race.

In May 2014 they were having a world wide run that was different. There was no finish line, all are invited to run, and participants all over the world start at the exact same time. Thirty minutes after the start, the Catcher Car begins driving, slowly passing runners in what that completes their race. Best of all is that 100% of the entry fees and donations goes directly to spinal cord research and will help to cure spinal cord injury. There were different locations and cities taking part, and Liz and I decided to travel to Bratislava, Slovakia for this!

It was a great weekend … touring Bratislava and a day trip to see the sights in Vienna on the train. Race day was quite windy and we started our run at 12 p.m. local time. What an experience running at the same time as so many others all around the world!