Tag: Parklife

2019 week twenty one

Book Read
None

Kilometres Ran
week twenty one – 44.6

2019 to date: 1,020 KM

TLDR: I didn’t read anything. I found some race photos from the 3Laenderlauf Half Marathon in Basel, Switzerland, and passed 1,000 KM so far in 2019 whilst running around Paris.

I thought that there was a chance that I would sit in a café sipping espresso or on the bank of the Seine with a bottle of Badoit and a baguette reading a book but non! We did stuff instead. After the 3Laenderlauf half marathon on Sunday I took Monday off, then one last run in Basel, Switzerland on Tuesday before getting onto a train for Paris. After arriving photographs from the Basel race appeared on its website.

3Landerlauf Half Marathon start line. I found me; I’m in there.
3Laenderlauf Half Marathon, at the first corner heading for Mittlere Brücke (Middle Bridge).
#Laenderlauf Half Marathon at about 18 KM coming south along the Rhine on Uferstrasse. After starting with the 85 crowd I faded pretty hard. Here I’m alone between the 1:40 pack behind me, and the 95s I can just see up ahead.
3Laenderlauf finish line sprint! Looks like I’m fighting some Gs coming through that corner. Finished 1:37:43 OT – over five minutes off my personal best, but set a new fastest-in-Europe beating Helsinki (1:39:09 -May 2018) and Copenhagen (1:38:27 -September 2017).

Our first day in Paris I didn’t run. I intended to, but got up in the morning and hadn’t planned a route and the got frustrated trying to plan where to go in a completely new city. I thought that I’d run the approx. kilometre south of our flat in Belleville on the north edge of the 20th Arrondissement to Père Lachaise Cemetery an run through there, but no running allowed in the cemetery. Day two I took a 20 minute metro ride down the 11 Line to Hôtel de Ville and ran around Île Saint-Louis and Île de la Cité and then along the Seine and up Canal Saint-Martin back to home.

Seine in the morning.

I liked the Seine and the Canal but not having to take a metro, or the traffic, or the number of people on the narrow sidewalks. For day two I decided to give the Canal another look, but taking it further north and coming back through a park that has a lot of activity on Strava Global Heatmap. Along the way I passed 1,000 so far in 2019.

Along the locks of Canal Saint-Martin in Paris I passed 1,000 KM so far in 2019 (and a couple days earlier than 2018, in spite of spending most of January and February this year on the disabled list).

The Canal was fine but the Parc des Buttes-Chaumont was excellent. I decided to go back the next day, and I’ve been back every day since. I went once around clockwise, then once counter, and have gone counter since. The outside loop is 2,320 metres. There’s a bit of a climb coming south-west and a nice downhill in the north-east, for 34 (or 39 depending on Strava’s / Garmin’s mood) metres elevation difference in the loop. It is so much fun.

One kilometre to the south park entrance then four loops.

I like Paris a lot but I’ve fallen in love with running loops of Parc des Buttes-Chaumont. My plan was to run the banks of the Seine one last time before we leave but I have a feeling that instead I’ll be chasing Strava segment PRs on Grand tour Buttes sens inverse aiguilles entrée Sud.