The trip

2026 was underway quickly on 10th January. I had been to Prague in 2025 for my stag do but, as you’d expect, didn’t find any time to run. Whilst we were there, we mostly concluded that Prague would be a nice weekend away with the respective WAGs so I decided to act on that conclusion and book a cheap and cheerful winter trip.

We’d originally booked Wizz flights from Gatwick, but after the schedule was changed, we changed to Ryanair from Stansted. This was comfortably back in 2025 though, so until the 9th of January, I for whatever reason forgot about the change and still thought I was heading to Gatwick for a midday flight. I was annoyed to then realise it was actually 5:55 the next morning, but this ended up being a factor that sort of saved the trip.

After the pilot announced that we were 10 minutes from landing, he quickly followed with instructions from air traffic control to circle for half an hour whilst they clear the runway of snow. We touched down in a sea of white and I was immediately doubting that I’d be able to run. I couldn’t got to Prague twice and ‘fail’ both times.

We got to the hotel a little after 11 and were allowed to check in straight away. As is the usually the case, the hotel was cheap and quite empty in January. We got a few bits from the Albert shop round the corner and I got changed into all my layers, and leggings rather than shorts. I had prepared for the cold but not the snow. My brand new road racers were not the ideal choice, but luckily the Adizero’s rose to the challenge presented by snow, ice and slush very well.

I spent the first hour of the run walking trying to find somewhere that I could run. The criteria being, some sort of loop, or long enough straight, that I was relatively unlikely to twist and ankle or fall on, and that wasn’t packed with other people or vehicles. Annoyingly the paths that hadn’t been well gritted or cleared, like the park / paths near the main train station, were prepared deliberately because of the high footfall that they receive. After my search was unsuccessful there, I carried on to a park that according to Google maps is called Riegrovy sady. I explored it for a while, the running track was behind a gate and building (that was open but I didn’t want to have to explain what I was doing because it sounds so silly) it was very hilly and paths were snowy, and there were hundreds of kids sledding. I was panicking and thinking that I just wouldn’t be able to run. I headed back down one of the steep paths and realised that another path had received enough footfall that it wasn’t white. This path covered one full side of the park and was complemented by a near parallel pavement that for whatever reason had been gritted and cleared and that you could get to down the stairs on one end and round a corner on the other. I had a loop and I started running.

I did a few laps before heading back to the hotel for a quick pit stop and to update Ciara. Heading back out at 6 miles, I decided two stints of 10 would be the best approach. This is then when the story gets rather boring. I headed back to the park and just ran lots of laps. Nothing exciting really happened. The park path was at the bottom of a long hill with hundreds of kids sledding down so I had to dodge the occasional child or squished parent as they tried to avoid the benches at the bottom of the rather short brake run. I got my watch past 15 miles and then headed back to the hotel. Although it was absolutely freezing (-10 Celsius) I wasn’t too cold. I’d seemed to get the layers and pace combination perfect to stay warm but avoid much sweat, and a slight loosening of my watch strap and double gloves kept my hands alive.

Segment three was not too dissimilar to section 2 although I left the park area a little earlier, around 24 miles and ran up and down the connecting main road where the pavement was now somewhat runnable. I then finished rounding up the distance near the train station which ended up being more of a run than a walk. I felt a great sense of relief as I stopped my watch and stepped back into the heated hotel lobby. It was 1-1 with Czechia now and I avoided what would have been a terrible start to the year if I’d failed. The next week, I pulled back a similar equalising goal against the smallest country in the world, the Vatican City.

Evidence