A shiny new Parisian PB

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 (yes of course it included a glass of red) 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...