Il est plus

So THE weekend went very well. The kids did great. There was no excited greeting when we returned. They were all sitting at the table eating dinner and looked up as if we had been there all along. No problems. We couldn't have asked for it to go better. So blessed.

The parent getting away part of the weekend went very well. It was such a strange experience for me to be able to just get out of the car and get something to eat or to just go to the toilet when I needed to go. It was nice, but I still missed my monkeys. Baby steps. I'll be ready for a little bit longer trip away next year for our 10th anniversary.

The race part was just okay. It rained, which we expected, but it was very unpleasant rain for those of us who did not finish with the winning time of 1:01:56. The winning time was faster than our 10K! Those people are amazing. We stayed together and finished in 2:14:59. By the end we were soaked and freezing and still had quite a long way to walk to pick up our bag and then another walk to the Metro and another walk to the hotel. Of course the sun was shining the entire drive home, but we'll take what we can get these days.

This week is flying by. I am off to London for a girls' trip on Saturday. The timing isn't great just after our Paris trip and then right before Daddy's business trip to Germany, but it will be nice to spend time with friends and have uninterrupted conversations in which we can finish thoughts and speak in complete sentences. Hopefully we still remember how to do that.

We didn't take any pictures of the race ourselves and haven't found many online from others. The number of spectators was most likely influenced by the unpleasant weather. I know I wouldn't have stood out in the rain to watch. There was a guy carrying a huge Eiffel Tower model as he ran. The first time we saw him, we smiled and thought he was crazy. We saw him later (passing us) and thought he was crazy and he sucked for carrying a gigantic Eiffel Tower and still running faster than us. I have no idea when he finished and I couldn't find any pictures of him. I did find a running forum where people were discussing being beaten by other people dressed in costume. There weren't many dressed in costume in Paris (I read that London generally has a lot of characters racing). Most of the people on the forum mentioned being beaten "soundly" by Elvis in 2007 and one said he was beaten by Paddington Bear in London. We saw a few people wearing clown wigs or flags, but the Eiffel Tower "suit" was the most challenging thing I have ever seen (for running). There were some people dressed as cheerleaders and lots of people playing music as we ran by. We did have our picture made (as it said on the website "in order to immortalize your feat") on kilometer 19 and after. That is a terrible time to "immortalize" the feat. By then we were soaked and feeling very "mortal"...

This time we feel like recovered much more quickly than from the Brussels 20K last year. We registered for that one again last week. By May we have better odds of of better weather. Last year it was hot by Belgian standards. So, il est plus et maintenant, pour la prochaine!



Here are some of "The Motivators"!