Has spring finally sprung?
Good day faithful readers. Today has been one of those days that you rarely get, but when you do you're just happy to be alive and able to sit back and enjoy it. The temperature was near perfect (a few extra degrees wouldn't have gone astray), there was no wind, I had nothing particularly pressing to do, I could just sit back and relax. It was actually so nice around lunch time that myself and my friends sat out on the front lawn, had a few beers and watched the world go by... the world passing by seemed to be rather amused at these three people perched out on their front lawn, but that was ok.
Today has actually been one day in a series of nice days that we've had here in London over the last week or so. In between these nice days it has been just ordinary, but nevertheless it has lead me to believe that it is actually possible that spring may finally be here! There is another thing that has helped me come to this conclusion...
I love my cars. Whenever a car of note drives past I will be sure to stop whatever I'm doing and watch/listen to it before continuing on my way. Now, you may think that I'm deviating from what I was talking about in paragraph above, but I'm really just providing a context for those who don't know me quite so well.
Since I thought that it was such a nice day today I thought that I'd go for a walk to the gold course up the road. This isn't a terribly long way, probably around 1.5km each way, however over the course of this walk I saw 9 Ferrari's (1 x 360, 1 x Dino, 1 x 328, 1 x 430 and 5 x 355) and what was even more amazing, a Lamborghini Countach! Now anyone who knows cars knows that Ferrari's only come out of their air conditioned garages on absolutely perfects days... I don't think that you can complain too much about a day that rates a 9 on the Ferrari scale!
No Paris, but still good
Good day faithful reader. This morning I attended the London Marathon, my second in as many weeks. On this occasion however the only time that I was forced to run was when I was doing so in order to catch the Tube.
In order to obtain a prime viewing position I had to get up quite early, and the new day brought with it the same old shitty weather. This of course is just what you want when you're going to be waiting for hours on the side of the road for an ever so brief glance of your hero's running past.
I picked out a few positions along the route that I thought would provide me with a good look at the runners and also with easy access to the Tube so that I could move between locations. Really the only time that I had to stand for any period was when I was at the first location, since I'd arrived a bit early. After that I had to move pretty quickly in order to stay ahead of the runners. The last place I watched them before going to the finish was at the 30km mark. Despite the fact that they had to run 12km while I only had to catch the tube for a handful of stops (didn't even have to change lines) and walk across a park, I only beat them to the finish by a couple of minutes.
The runner that I had really come to see was Haile Gebreselassie (the runner in the blue shirt in the top photo), many times 5,000m and 10,000m world champion. Having lost a little of the speed required to run the shorter events he's moved to marathons recently, setting a new world record for the half marathon earlier this year.
Apparently up until the 30km mark a group of 9 runners, including Haile, were on world record pace. Obviously they couldn't keep this rate up though and by the finish the group had disintegrated. First across the line were two Kenyans in a time of 2:06:39. Haile crossed in 9th place a few minutes later.
It all started when I ran out of cereal
Good day faithful readers. I had a particularly bad day the other day. Not bad in the sense that loved ones were dying/becoming sick or anything major like that, just bad in the sense that I wished that I could have just started it all over again. The real highlight of the day was a job interview that I had in the morning. My brain just wasn't operating at 100% and as such the answers that I gave to their questions were not as good as I would have hoped.
To be honest though, as soon as I up ended the cereal box over my bowl only to have a pile of crumbs fall out I should have realised that it was going to be a bad day and called up and rescheduled. I'm a big breakfast person, it's my favorite meal of the day by far. So simple yet so satisfying. So it was definitely a bad omen when I ran out. A lot of people that I come across bypass breakfast totally in order to get a little extra sleep, but personally I would rather get up an hour earlier just so that I can have my breakfast in a nice relaxing manner. The way it should be eaten.
There are three types breakfast that I really enjoy above all others. The first is the "going out" breakfast. This is where you get up late on a summer's Sunday and want larger breakfast, something that'll cover you for lunch too, but you can't be bothered cooking it. You wander down to your nearest cafe, where all the shoppers are already out and about, sit out the front in the sun and order something exotic like sticky black rice with coconut milk bananas and strawberries, croissantes, eggs done in all manner of ways.
My second favorite breakfast is the "big family" breakfast. There are two version of this breakfast. Firstly there is the "morning after" breakfast. This is the breakfast that occurs the morning after a big party where the whole family comes around for bacon, eggs etc cooked on the bbq before the big clean up begins. The second is the "morning off" breakfast (usually a Christmas thing), where the whole family comes around for a big breakfast with everything you could ever want as the starter to a day of eating.
My third favorite breakfast, my favorite favorite, is the "second" breakfast. Now that may seem like a strange sentence, but it will all become clear. One of my very favorite activities during summer is going for +100km bike rides very early in the morning. Now there is no way that you can ride this far without something to sustain you, so it is vital to have breakfast before you go. However, when you get back it is only about 9:30am and you're hungry again, so you stop with all your cycling friends at a cafe somewhere down near the beach for second breakfast. Now this breakfast doesn't usually consist of much, mainly coffee, pancakes, muesli, various pastries, but after a hard 100km ride it is extremely satisfying and you don't feel one shred of guilt in eating any of it. Combine this with just being able to sit out in the sun and watch the rest of the city wake up and I'll think you'll see why I like it so much. If only it weren't so hard to get out of bed at 5:30!
I love paris in the spring time... and every other time of the year
Good day faithful reader. In 2004 I spent 4 months on exchange in Paris and I enjoyed ever second that I was there. I went back to Australia firmly of the impression that it was the most wonderful city in the world... of those that I'd visited anyway.
My visit there on the weekend certainly did nothing to sway this opinion. I truly don't think that you could ever come across a more beautiful city. You could spend weeks there exploring different areas of the city, always finding something new and interesting to experience.
One of the places that I didn't get to visit while I was there last time was the Musee Rodin, home of the famous Thinker, so I decided that I'd take the opportunity this time. The gardens of the old mansion are beautifully laid out and make a perfect home for Rodin's sculptures. It's hardly any wonder that so many Parisiennes choose to spend their lunchtime sitting on the grass in the sun. It must be very peaceful.
My parents have been to France 3-4 times over the course of their life, and they've never been to Paris. They've even flown into Charles de Gaulle Airport and not gone into the city! They finally relented though and they plan on going later in the year. I'm very much looking forward to introducing them to all the things make the city such a wonderful place for me.
The paris marathon run down
Good day faithful readers. Well the Marathon de Paris has now been run and won, and I'm happy to say I was one of the successful finishers, crossing the line in a time of 3:47:01. This time put me in 12,019th place, or just outside the top third of the field, which I was quite happy with. Prior to starting the race I had hoped to finish in around 3:45:00, so missing this by only 2 minutes is certainly nothing to complain about.
The start of the race was phenomenal! Standing amongst 35,000 other people, all about to challenge themselves over 42km, it was amazing! On a different note, I also discovered how you deal with the ever present problem of needing a nervous pee on the start line... however, for purposes of good taste I won't go into details. Let me just say that it doesn't involve visiting the portaloos, where the lines are so long that the first runners would be crossing the finish line before you sat your bum on the seat.
Somehow or other I managed to leave half of my energy gels in my bag at the start line, so I was very happy that the organisers had taken it upon themselves to provide bananas, oranges and water at regular intervals along the route. The statistics they quote are: 87tons of oranges, a similar amount bananas, 400,000 bottles of water! Unsurprisingly this resulted in a huge amount of rubbish along the course. They were obviously prepared though because by the time that I returned to the Champs Elysees it was totally clear with traffic flowing as per normal.
The race itself went by very quickly thanks largely to the fact that you spend the entire time surrounded by hundreds of people, taking your mind off the kilometers. Definitely the most memorable part though, unsurprisingly, was the finish. The final 4-5kms of the course are largely run through the Bois de Boulogne, only popping out onto the Avenue de Foch (the finishing straight and one of the roads leading to the Arc de Triomphe) for the last 400-500m.
You come around the corner onto the Avenue de Foch, look up the road and see the finish line and just beyond it the Arc. With such a motivational sight and with the crowds yelling there is nothing you can do but give it everything you've got all the way to the line. It's a sad thing trying to sprint on legs that have just run 42km, but you do all you can and when you finally reach the line it feels amazing!
Now, what's my next challenge going to be?
The final hours
Good day faithful readers. Well, there's a mere 9 hours to go now before I'll be on the starting line with 34,000 other people ready to start the Paris Marathon. There we'll be, standing on the most beautiful boulevard in the world with the Arc de Triomphe as the back drop. The sun barely having risen we'll stream off down the Champs Elyeese toward Place de la Concorde and the Louvre and making our way east toward the Bois de Vincennes. After a loop of the park we head back along the banks of the Seine past some of the city's most famous land marks, including the Eiffel Tower. Following a short trip around the Bois de Boulogne we'll victoriously cross the finish line on Avenue de Foch with the Arc de Triomphe just in front of us. Should be an interesting journey!
At the moment I'm sitting at my friend's place feeling a little nervous I must say. Everything is as ready as I can make it. All I have to do is wake up, get dressed, eat my breakfast and catch the Metro to the start. Nothing can go wrong can it? I should take this opportunity here to point you all toward the new link that I've put to her blog on the right hand side of the screen. She's been blogging for less time than I have, but she's seems to have become addicted, whereas I have it under control. As such she's spent the entire weekend thus far pestering me to put a link to her sight. Go on, press it, you'll make her day!. At least I have the cat here to take my mind off things!
Anyways, I'd better sign off and get some sleep for tomorrow
Today has actually been one day in a series of nice days that we've had here in London over the last week or so. In between these nice days it has been just ordinary, but nevertheless it has lead me to believe that it is actually possible that spring may finally be here! There is another thing that has helped me come to this conclusion...
