I ran with Run in Toulouse tonight. It was a good run. Marc and Hugo convinced me to run with the hour long run at a 6:00 km pace (that works out to about a 9:00 mile pace). I was able to run the whole way at a reasonable pace.

I was not sure it was ideal as I have not been that active this winter with the snow and cold. I am not a winter person and the past winter in Alexandria with a month of below freezing temperatures and “snowcrete” caused me to be very sedentary so I am definitely not in shape. I was glad that Marc and Hugo confide me to run the longer pace.

In the running group, we run as a group at the set pace. There is a captain that leads the group and you are not supposed to get ahead of the captain during the run. At different points during the run when there are long straight parts, the captain will say the runner are free to run as fast as they want to a specific place and then turn around and return to the group. When we started, Marc said he was not going to do the free runs as he wanted to save his energy. I did not believe that he would not join the free runs as he is fast and competitive. He restrained himself for the first free run but joined the second as I knew he would.

As happened with the Pacers fun runs with Pat, Neil, Joe, Grayson and others, the final sprint to the finish becomes a race to the death. This is the same with the group of guys I run with at Run in Toulouse. Marc held off running the last two free runs as he wanted to run the race to the death. When it came he and Hugo and some others took off. I could not keep up with them, I never have been able to keep up Marc when he takes off even when I was in better shape. When I got to the finish, I asked who won and it was Hugo. Both of them are competitive and it is fun to watch them take each other on.

I was surprised as another runner came up to me and said welcome. He said he was glad I was back. I remember him but had not run with him regularly before. Nordine, our group captain, also recognized me and welcomed me back. I had run with Nordine before so was not surprised he remembered me. I guess being the eccentric American makes me memorable. It is nice to have this group as a community.

Hugo is making me speak French and is a good at correcting me when I not do not speak correctly. I am happy about it as both Marc and Elliot almost exclusively speak to me in English. Hugo was funny as he apologized to me for correcting my French and said he would not do it as he did not want to “hurt” me – which he meant criticize me. I told him he had to correct me or I would not get better and I really wanted to speak French correctly. I found out Hugo works for Airbus writing production and maintenance manuals.

The rest of the day was the usual. I went to a Ramen restaurant that Jen and Jesse and I had tried on their visit. It is very good and was a nice meal as the sun was out and it was warm so I ate on the sidewalk. One funny thing that happened at lunch was a very large garbage truck (U.S. size) which is not normal for the center of Toulouse. It was trying to navigate a very narrow street with cars on one side and the tables for the Ramen restaurant on the sidewalk. As the truck tried to make the turn, it was getting close to the tables. There was a two women sitting at the table nearest the street and where the truck was having the most problem navigate. The woman did not even act like there was a large truck about five inches from her and was close to hitting her and probable would not make the turn if she did not move. There were two young kids, one who worked at the restaurant, that were facing the truck at another table and they were giving the truck driver instructions on what he needed to do to make it through. Finally, the two kids and I realized we had to get up and move the tables to let the truck through. So we jumped up and started moving the tables. When we did this the women at the other table finally decided to move as well. They were irritated that they had to move. Finally the truck made it through and all went back to normal. In the United States, everyone would have moved immediately and allowed the truck through or at least, I think they would have.

The main picture is just a little of the street entertainment that I see daily in Toulouse.