Running and the runs

We walked to Holyrood Park today to watch the World Cross Country Championships. I really didn't have high expectations, as my last cross country meet was back in high school and I was running it. I absolutely hated running, and one season of x-country in high school was enough to make me loathe the sport for years. But, I wanted to get out and about and this WAS the championship, so the best runners in the world were there. Not that I keep up with this sort of thing, but one of the favorites was this guy from Ethiopia named Kenenisa Bekele.
Anyhow, we found a reasonably good place to watch the race from up on the hill. Just seeing all of the people around made me sort of excited. It was so official and everyone had their country's flags and colors. It almost made me want to have an American flag and cheer on our guys. But I settled for sitting in the grass and eating some cookies while watching near anorexic men run at lightning fast speeds for 12 kilometers (7.5 miles). But I digress.... I was all excited when the gun went off and the men started running. They had this ATV going alongside the front runners to get them on camera. There was this huge screen down below so we could sort of make out the runners.
Then about 5 minutes into the race, the commentator got all excited and started shouting "Oh no! Bekele's shoe has just fallen off!" Apparently another runner had clipped his foot and his shoe came ripping half off. So this guy had to completely take it off and then put it back on his foot after a few footsteps in the muddy (it was raining all morning) grass and then take off again. I can't believe how quickly he got it back on, because he wasn't even the last guy when he got up and started running again. I figured he'd be a goner at that point, no matter how good he was. Given how he had to run extra hard to catch up to the front of the pack again and one of his feet was muddy and wet inside his shoe, he would have had good reason to trail off a bit. But he kept going strong and eventually won the race! Can you believe that?Needless to say it was an exciting race. I'm eating my words a bit to have to say that.
Simon was running around and taking photos of the guys as they ran by down below where Marius and I were watching from. Here are some of his photos.

Oh, and speaking of running... Marius still has the runs, so I'll call the Dr tomorrow to see what they say. I'll also call our landlord because there's water dripping down from our bathroom ceiling! This is the second time it's happened....
Here's a little video of the race. Note the piper on the rocks.... No event in Scotland would be complete without a bag piper in the background or foreground.