For a number of years after finishing my last marathon – October 2011, I lost my love for running. I continued running and participated in some races but did not really challenge myself for any of them. I would still run with the groups that I belonged to Pacer’s Social and Nova Rogue Runners and Run in Toulouse while in Toulouse. It was more perfunctory than really liking it.

I voluntarily went running tonight when it was raining at points pouring down rain. I guess that means that I like running again as before this run, I most likely would have talked myself out of going running in the cool and rain. I am not sure what has changed but I wanted to go running even in the weather. It was not even the social nature of the running which has motivated me in the past as I figured no one I knew would be out running in the weather. I was correct in that thought. I saw one person I knew during the run.

I even had fun during the run! I guess running the half marathon here and enjoying it made me think that I wanted to run more and get back into running more deliberately and getting back into full running shape. I am even thinking of signing up for another half marathon. I had not thought about future races for a long time.

I will be interested to see if my new love of running will survive winter in DC. I return to Alexandria in early December and will be there through the winter. I am not into cold weather so it will be interesting to see if I continue to want to run when it is cold.

I had another fantastic meal at Terra Tolosa. It is my second favorite restaurant in Toulouse. One of the interesting interactions is that the kitchen staff all refer to me as Peter but one of the servers (older) had always referred to me a Mr. Blair. Yesterday we broke through the barrier and he asked me if he could call me Peter. I readily agreed to that offer. He is also Pierre so it is appropriate. Pierre asked me to explain some words to him in English regarding areas of plates. I guess he was trying to figure out how to tell he kitchen staff that an area needed to be cleaned before the plate was taken to the table. We discussed “edge” and “rim”. It is fun to be as relaxed and welcomed at the restaurants.