I know this sounds weird but the race day was great! It some ways it ties everything about my stays in Toulouse together. It involved running, seeing parts of Toulouse I had never seen, being with friends, eating and drinking. It shows that I have build a community in Toulouse.

I got up at a reasonable hour to get ready for the race. One of the things that I think he French do correctly in their race culture is that not all races start at 8:00 am in the morning so you do not have to get up at an ungodly hour to run. Granted the marathon started at 8:00 am but the half marathon started at 9:45 am so there was no rush to get to the start line. I even was able to shower and have a light breakfast before I left. Something I have never done before marathons and other races I have run.

I walked over to the start line as it was on opposite side of the old city from where I live. When I got there, there were many runners and spectators congregating around the start area. The start line was broken up into what the French call SAS and we call corrals. One difference for this race from others I have run is that there were two port-a-potties and open air urinals in each corral. It makes it somewhat easier to use that the mass port-a-potty locations in most races.

This is probably too much information but I am very impressed with the sustainability built into the race. The port-a-potties are all environmentally friendly. They are wood structures and the necessities are all compostibable. There are not chemicals involved. There is sawdust that you put in the potty after you are finished. It reminded me of the outhouse on Yarmouth Island from my stays on the island in Maine when I was younger. The open urinals take me a little getting used to but it again makes the necessities before the race.

After a little confusion, I found Enzo, the owner of Le Panache. We had figured out we were planning on the same time and were in the same corral. We had agreed to run together. It was nice to find him as it made running the race more fun. I thought I would run by myself originally but it was great to have someone to run with.

During the wait for the start, there were a group who lead the corral in warm ups. It was pretty funny and fun watching the corral get into the workout and warm up.

The start was different than I expected but worked very well. The corrals were released over a specific period of time and the previous corrals was already running and a good deal of distance before the next group was released. I think this was done because the streets of Toulouse are not wide and all three races had a total of 35,000 runners. I believe the half marathon had 17,000 runners. I gather that last year all the races followed the same course and this caused a lot of congestion and was not ideal. This year the marathon and half marathon ran different courses so it was not as congested.

The race course was pretty and ran through very nice areas. There were two stretches of the course that I had never run before. One was just down streets off main roads that I had not visited walking or running. The second was along the border of the Garonne and we ran much farther than I had ever run before. We ran out to where the cable car was. I had thought of going out and riding the cable car but after running out there, I am not sure there is anything to see out there. My one complaint about the course was there were lots of turns. I had always said that I would not run the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler as there were too many turns. On this course I think there were even more turns.

The city of Toulouse comes out for the race. The streets were packed with spectators. Sometimes there were so many people that the roads got even narrower. The crowds were very enthusiastic. I think the French cheers are better than the English cheers. As far as I could tell, no one shouted out that I was looking good. There were lots of “bravos” and Tu as l’air fort – you look strong. Also, “allez, allez”, go, go! My favorite sign was Run like you stole the jewels from the Louvre.

The race itself was good. I probably was not as fast as I could have gone but I wanted to run the whole race with Enzo. He struggled at times so I would walk with him when he was struggling. I decided that running with him was better than beating myself up to get a better time. It was going to be part of my Toulouse experience and that was better than working hard for a time. I am glad I did as Enzo had a large support group and they cheered for me as well as Enzo. Enzo even had a friend who rode his bicycle out to the farthest part of the course and cheered us on. He took this picture.

At the end of the race, we met up with Enzo’s girlfriend and his friends. It was fun to be part of the group. They invited me to join them later that afternoon to celebrate. I felt very honored to join them.

Another observation of the sustainability of the race. The water stops and the water given out at the end of the race was given out in recycle cups. They were heavy plastic cups. There are large recycling bins at each water stop to throw your cups in. At the end, there are people collecting the cups as you leave the finish area. It makes a great deal of sense and is a good way to handle these activities. Sorry about the thumb. I guess my post race photography is not great. The cup is on the right side and you can see the collection in the middle.

Also, the medal is made of wood.

I met Enzo and his friends at Le Cafeteria for a post run celebration. It was very nice to be included. Everyone was great about me being there and not speaking great French. The conversation was going on all around me and I could understand but not all of it. They were very warm and welcoming. It makes me feel a part of the community here in Toulouse.

Another fun part was people from Run in Toulouse recognized me. Part was that I was running in my Run in Toulouse shirt but it helped as they cheered as I went by.

All in all it was a great day and makes me know my choice to live in Toulouse part time was a great decision.