Since I am not able to go on my regular shopping jaunts on Sunday with the half marathon being run Sunday morning. Both the St. Aubin’s market and the Marché Victor Hugo will be closed when I finish the race and the fact that I do not really want to go shopping as soon as I finish the race, I went shopping this morning. I still had good variety at the Marché as they have all the types of stalls.

Since my traditional pre-race meal is roasted chicken, rice and a vegetable, I decided to make it a little French and got a Supreme de Pintade (guinea fowl) instead of chicken. It is somewhat leaner and has better flavor than chicken. So I had a nice pre-race dinner.

Later that day, I went to the All Saints Day service at St. Sernin. I was not going to be able to go to church on Sunday either because of the race. The English language services is at noon and I will have just finished the race, I hope!

The service starts with a procession of around the basilica and we process by all the reliquaries that are housed in the basilica. If I remember correctly, St. Sernin house the largest collection of reliquaries in France – if I counted correctly based on our processional chant where we name them all there were 35 saints. I think there are a total of 37 as they have reliquaries of St. Peter and St. Paul but those were included with the apostles.

Also, during the service the Archbishop (emeritus) confirmed two young men. They are generally the alter servers every Sunday. It was a small but intimate service even though it was in a large building.

The Archbishop’s sermon was about being sealed in the name of Christ when baptized and confirmed. He started it out with a discussion of tattoos today and how there are so many and they represent so many different expressions. I was amused as he did say that they do not enhance the body (which I tend to agree with).

The other amusing part was the normal priest at the end thanked everyone for attending and pointed out that the service was not well attended but he told us not to worry as the French language services were not well attended either – he ended by saying Many are called by few are chosen.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing and getting ready for the race. This is my first face in almost 4 years. My last race was a marathon and number 10 so I had decided not to really race after that one. I do not know what changed my mind but I am racing again Sunday. Not sure how it will go but it should be a good day.