Whirlwind passage in Paris

Nope, not another of these extraordinary and destructive meteorological events, it's just the word which came to mind when I thought of my short and unplanned stay here. Yet, with 68 miles (110K) over 4 days, I was able to squeeze in some good running. And, to keep up with the weather theme, in spite of the high temperatures and humidity. At least I was able to avoid the storms and pouring rain which brought some temperature relief in the evenings. And much appreciated rain to clean the streets and side walks (I always wonder how many dogs live in Paris...).

Since a picture is worth a thousands words, how many is a video worth? Must be a lot, and that's going to save you and me some time! ;-) Let me use the 4 Relive.cc flyovers as a running weekend report... Check them out by clicking on the scree shots, for an interesting experience to see Paris and it's South suburb from the air!

A couple of hours after landing on Friday, I crossed half Paris to pick something for my mother. I have to admit I didn't stop at all the red lights, I'm glad we don't risk losing our running license over road infractions... Just slaloming the many tourists and the heavy traffic of a Parisian work day was challenging enough.

On Saturday, I ran my usual 50K course: from Stade Charletty to Saclay Bourg (see short description in these 2016 and 2015 post), mostly on the Coulée Verte which is a bike path along the TGV tracks (see that post for a detailed description). Just under 4 hours.

Between some jet lag and a family celebration for the local Mothers' Day I only had time to run 18 miles on Sunday, on the Coulée Verte again.

On Monday, the day of my godfather's funeral, the reason of my trip, I stayed in the neighborhood and ran 12 times around the very nice Parc Montsouris.

This urban park is a gem and it probably takes 20 or 30 full-time staff gardeners to maintain. For the pleasure of all and many generations enjoying either running, walking or just bird and nature watching.

With that, I'm back in the Bay Area to run a few laps around Crissy Field starting this Friday at 6 pm (San Francisco One Day, ex Summer Solstice). Trying to push the envelope beyond my 133-mile PR at this 24-hour format. More news live on FaceBook, thanks to Greg Lanctot's PCTR venture, then in my next blog post of course... The ultra life goes on!