I went with a friend of mine, an exchange student here in Switzerland also from Canada. On the train to Bern at 7 in the morning we got our race gear ready, ready as in full of Canadian flags and then we decorated ourselves with Canadian tattoos. We weren't expecting many people to say much because we assumed there were a tonne of people from other countries as well.. I was very wrong!
The whole entire 10km, I had a lot of people that either a) ran beside me for an amount of the race telling me that they've been there before and that they absolutely love Canada or b) people at the sidelines watching the race, seeing us then all of a sudden jumping up and down yelling GO CANADA GO !! CANADIAN GIRLS!! WOO HOO !! GO CANADA GO!! It was such an adrenaline rush, it felt great. I feel proud to come from Canada, always have and always will.. but at this moment it gave me that warm fuzzy feeling in my heart for my country.
There were a lot of special moments throughout the race, that stood out even more than people cheering very loudly for us. At one point there were a group of about five guys the same age as me, on the other side of the barrier where people stood to watch the race. They saw my Canadian flags and started running right beside me for a few minutes screaming at the top of their lungs GO CANADA GO !! GO CANADA GO!! It was startling but I couldn't help but have the biggest smile on my face!! Also, a number of people ran beside me for parts of the race like people from Alaska and Afghanistan! One girl from Afghanistan ran with me for the last half kilometer of the race, it was really interesting to talk to her and hear about her life over there.
Who would have thought that one 10KM race would be so meaningful and bring so many people together? I enjoyed this special rainy, sunny, rainy, sunny day in Switzerland's capital city, Bern.
The purple t-shirts we got after the race!!
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