As the phrase goes, the best laid plans of mice and men. This was my day. I have planned the whole day out as I needed to run the half marathon, shower, get to the airport to catch my flight to Florence and meet Tom and Marion.

The first part of the day went smoothly, I got up showered and got ready for the half marathon. I found Enzo and his friends in the corral and we started running.

Enzo and his friends started out too fast for me so I just ran my own race. As I reached mile 9, I saw Enzo and Dorian ahead of me and knew Enzo was struggling. I caught up to them and finished the race with them. I am amazed that Enzo even tries to run the marathon. He run Le Panache 5 days a week as well as other work on his days off I am sure. He, also, as most French smokes. I am impressed that he can finish a half marathon. We finished in 1:57 which was a little slower than I wanted but it was good as I could finish with Enzo. Amazingly, I finished fourth in my age group – have to be honest here I am 70 so I am not sure there are many runners in my age group.

On the way back to my apartment, I ran into one of the Run in Toulouse leaders, he saw I was wearing the Run in Toulouse shirt and asked me how I did. I was surprised as he assumed I did the full marathon. Also, he must have recognized me from the runs as he spoke to me in English immediately.

Just a little aside, I saw an Instagram post that said, Toulouse burning in the street Saturday, running in the streets on Sunday. That is a good characterization of the bipolar nature of the city and the demonstrations.

The getting home, showering and get to the airport was flawless. I was worried as the Navette Airport Bus was deviated because of road closures but it came as expected.

This is when the fun began. There was an announcement that the flight was delayed by 45 minutes. That passed without any other information. Then it was announced that the plane would not arrive and they needed to charter another plane to come to get us. The time for that passed as well. Then it was announced the plane was coming but we would not land in Florence but Pisa and then we would be bused to Florence. After many hours and other complications. We left at midnight on a flight to Bologna. It was reported that there were high winds in Florence that made landing impossible. Not sure what was going on but was glad to finally be on a plane after 10 hours in the airport.

Luckily, since Bologna was our destination for Monday, I was able to book a room at the hotel where we are staying in Bologna. I, finally, canceled my room in Florence.

On arrival, I took a cab from the airport to the hotel. I would normally take public transportation but at 1:30 am it had closed. The greeting at the hotel even at that late hour was very nice – even part done in Italian. From memory from when I was a child and lived in Italy for three years. It is amazing what the brain will remember especially when tired.

Back to cliches, alls well that ends well. I am in Bologna and will see Tom and Marion tomorrow.

I had been thinking how different Europe was as I could run a marathon in France and have dinner in Italy. That did not exactly work out but I did do two things in two countries in less than 24 hours.