I was heading back to the press center about an hour before the race when I saw that some TV guys were trying to put something on the top of one of the buildings. It gave me the idea to get up there myself and take a couple frames from there.
I asked the guy in the press centre if he could help me but he wasn’t too helpful and added that he mustn’t leave the press room anyway but I should try the accreditation center. So I did. The guy there was much more helpful and said why don’t we give it a go. We approached the building that happened to be the closest to the start-finish area and was tall enough.
We got into the building without any problems and headed for the top. The exit, that led to the top of the building, was closed so we figured we should approach one of the tenants of the building. My escort’s language skills came really handy when he negotiated with a really grumpy old lady. She wasn’t crazy about the idea of me on her balcony, but eventually she let me in. Still grumpy, she led me through her flat and guided me to the balcony.
By this time, the weather turned sunny so I felt really silly in my hat and all the warm gear I had on my. I had to wait a couple minutes and finally they let the race begin, which looked like this (it takes some to load, so be patient):
