What a weekend!! Graham and I set off for Paris on the afternoon flight from Manchester arriving at 16:20 at Charles de Gaulle airport where we were met by Sue from the runners world forum. She had already bought our tickets for the metro and SNCF and knew how to get to the Expo.
We soon got our numbers and went for a quick look around. I bought some commemorative socks and Sue bought a hat, but there wasn't really much time for anything else as we had arranged to meet some of the others for dinner.
After checking in at the hotel Astrid on the Rue de Carnot, we went to meet up with the others at the Vesuvius restaurant on the Champs Ellysses. The others had already eaten and we just ordered chicken and chips which were scrummy. We left at about 10:30pm and went straight back to the hotel.
Saturday was spent just walking around trying to find our bearings. We found a lovely market with more fish and fruit on each stall than I have ever seen. There were fresh scallops being opened by one man and on the same stall fresh langoustines which, I have to say, I have never seen before. We got a lovely meal at a bar freshly made macaroni cheese with minced beef in it. Nothing like the heinz tinned version.
Saturday night I'd arranged to meet up with the rest of the forum at pasta papa and although I was still full from the afternoon meal, I ordered penne pasta with pesto. The plate was ginormous and I only managed to eat half of it. The company was great. I sat with Ian and his parents and Graham went to the bar next door because he really didn't want any more to eat and preferred to go for a drink.
The prices were very expensive due mainly to the value of the pound against the euro.
So, Sunday morning at 8am we all met up for the team photo before moving off to the pens. I refrained from drinking too much because the queues for the loos were too long and I knew I would need to go if I drank too much.
8:45am came and the race set off to the music "Tonight's gonna be a good night" by the Black Eyed Peas. It took a good 12 or so minutes before our pen reached the start and it was like picking your way through a rubbish tip. There were bottles, jackets and items of clothing strewn all over the road. Someone will have had a job clearing all that lot up after we'd gone.
I have never been anywhere so pretty as Paris. The run round was beautiful for the full course. Running down the famous Champs Ellysses from the Arc towards les Tuilleries, past the Louvre, the Bastille, Notre Dame, The Eiffel Tower, along the Seine and through the Bois up the Avenue Foch to the finish.
My Garmin was not in sync with the mileage on the route but that often happens when I'm in a race so I just ignored the distance on it and went by the time and time per lap. I was trying to finish in 4h45m and was on a target for that according to my garmin, but checking the actual splits from the official times I was too slow. i think though that it was due to my 15 min wait for the loo.
Just after the half way mark my hips started hurting quite badly and I had to struggle to run. A kind lady gave me some dissolve in your mouth ibuprofen and the pain went within minutes enabling me to pick up the pace again.
There were plenty of water stations, each with cut up oranges, bananas, sugar cubes and raisins. One of them had red wine as they were promoting the Medoc marathon where you can get wine or water at each stop.
I finished in 5h17min so almost exactly the same as London last year. I didn't want to hang about as I told Graham not to meet me at the finish, so I just got my medal and t shirt and went back to the hotel for a drink and some food. Graham had left sandwich making stuff for me and some very very stinky cheese which I had to leave outside on the window ledge. (I gave it to Ricky when we got back) It was lovely cheese though.
I spent the rest of the day chilling out in the room. I just didn't have the energy to meet the others at the other end of the city as my legs were ceasing up and just refused to take me anywhere else. Graham looked after me as usual making me drinks and going to mcdonalds for a take away.
Monday morning was spent going to the Eiffel Tower and the Notre Dame cathedral. Then back to the hotel to wait for a taxi to the airport.
Looking back we wasted a lot of time hanging around waiting for transport on Monday. The taxi picked us up at 4:45pm then at the airport we had to wait for 2 hours only to find the flight was delayed for an hour. That meant that we would miss our last train home from Manchester airport.
It was 10:15pm when we landed and our last train was at 10:29. No chance of catching it. We got our bags and headed off to the train station to wait yet another hour for the 0001 train to Preston and then caught a taxi home.
