Paris Semi

I could get used to living in Paris. I mean I don’t speak French or have any real ties to the city except for an intense love of crepes and nutella, but that seems like enough.

We all trickled into the city on Friday night and spent the evening negotiating sleeping arrangements and accidentally ordering warm milk in cafes.

I realized it was going to be COLD for the race when Lex and I biked to Parc Floral on Saturday morning to drop off our medical forms, and I lost all feeling in my hands. We spent the rest of the day strolling around the city, saying deep things like:

"The subway ride took 40 minutes. We have to run that tomorrow?"

"I love how all of the buildings are so structured in an unstructured way."

I also spent a significant amount of time trying to convince the others that macaroons we bought at a specialty pastry shop were just as good as the macaroons sold at the McDonalds at Versailles.

Besides seeing Lex & co., the best part of the weekend was the actual race. Lex, Oppy, and I ran together, starting and ending in the Parc and looping around the city center. I don't know if it was the course or running with friends or if my brain went numb because of the cold, but the time flew by.

The end of the race was a mob scene; we elbowed our way non-climactically to the finish line, and I think Lex beat up an old woman for a banana. I didn't see it go down though because I was busy tripping Oppy so I could steal his Powerade.


I’m definitely ready for a full marathon. Boston 2011, here I come.

We headed back to the apartments only to realize that - being so laser-focused on the race - the runners locked themselves out of their apartment. No worries! Surely the landlord has an extra key.

He doesn't? No worries! I am sure we can call a locksmith.

Four hours later, we finally got into the apartment - just in time for me to grab my stuff and head out to the airport.

The race pics from the website are fairly frightening, so I'll only post two. Oppy, I'm including yours because you look badass. Lex - how did you manage to have no pictures (I think Cem had 12)? Did you delete them??