Maybe it’s because I’m so easily pleased, but I always have a ridiculously good time in Paris. We had 4 days there and spent the time wandering the streets to see all our favourite places, as well as seeking out a few museums that we’d not been to before. This time they were: Musee des Egouts – the sewers – pretty interesting and not nearly as smelly as expected; a le Corbusier house; Musee du Vin and a small art museum with a Dali exhibition. We stayed near Notre Dame, handy for going out around Saint Germain in the evenings.

Conditions were perfect for the marathon on Sunday morning – sunny and cool with a light breeze. I’m not really a fan of big city runs, but as we ran through the Bois de Vincennes I decided Paris is definitely one of my favourite road races. I was running at an easy pace, grinning like an eejot and enjoying the scenery, so I was a bit surprised that I overtook the 4 hour pacers at half way, then ran a negative split to finish in a new PB of 3:50:25. Shiny. And long overdue – my previous PB was set back in 2006.

I thought maybe my legs would complain the next day, but they were happy to trot out another 10+ mile training run from Notre Dame along the Seine and around the park at the base of the Eiffel Tower. I suppose I did find the steps up to the Sacre Coeur a little tougher than usual that afternoon.

A brilliant trip away – I think we’ll have to go back in the summer, then again for the marathon next April…
They do say that one is well prepared for the marathon if you’ve done enough long runs though 😛