30th of March – 1st of April – Paris pre-marathon

I was met with the Parisian hospitality long before even leaving for Paris; I had sent a mail to the hotel with a question about my stay and I (naturally) wrote in English. Also, my name is very not French and therefore my mail address is similarly not French. And yet the response I received was in only French. How accommodating. (Apparently there is a law saying that all business-related communication has be done in French which explains it, but still).

The early flight to Paris went without a hitch and getting a ticket for the train I headed towards the city at 1100, having a fair bit of the day available though costing me my morning sleep. Getting off at the central station (Garde du Nord) I walked the rest of the way - ½ an hour – to the hotel where I managed an early check-in. For the record; it’s easier for the staff to accept your reservation if you actually enter the correct hotel. Sigh.

A short break later I left the hotel and went up to Sacre Coeur to have a look around. A can see the church from the hotel window and it was only half an hour’s walk, albeit uphill most of the way. It’s a nice-looking church but I might have missed something as I feel it and the location has been talked up more than reality could live up to. 

Mirroring reality.

From there I trotted down past the Louvre and followed the Seine until I reached the Eiffel Tower. It has been closed off for security reasons (I assume) so if you want to get close to it or under it you have to go through a security check which I didn’t feel I could be bothered to do. From there I headed further south to get to the runner’s expo where I managed to pick up my bib for Sunday’s run and with great difficulty finding the small table where they were handing out the reserved bibs for Saturday’s 4k morning run. Fun detail I noticed; the Medoc had their own booth where the representatives looked more like middle-aged wine farmers than runners who were handing out (small) glasses of wine.

The Seine with the Eiffel Tower in the distance.

Taking the metro back to the hotel I had another short break before going out for dinner getting onion soup, confit de carnard and apple pie. Delicious!

The following day – Friday – I had a solid breakfast before heading out for the day’s random walk. I headed towards the Notre Dame, but due to the many narrow confusing streets I once again ended up at the Louvre. With a consultation of a map and a bit of directional correction I managed to make my way to the Notre Dame – or at least the remaining shell from the fire in 2019. From there I managed – with a bit of difficulty – to locate the Bastille Plaza before crossing the Seine and getting lost in the streets. After some walking about and confusion I ended up back at the Eiffel Tower and a rain shower. Fortunately, the latter didn’t last long so the walk continued towards the Arc de Triomphe where I had a walk around, or as much around as possible as also this was at least partially fenced off. From there I walked back to the hotel where I had a short break before meeting with my parents for dinner.

Les Invalides; previously a home and hospital for war veterans.

Saturday started off with a 4km breakfast run from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower. It was cold and windy and I forgot my runner’s watch in the hotel room so the day started off very well. It was a short and slow run, nice with a lot of people but I was glad I had put on multiple layers. At the finish we were handed a bottle of water, juice boxes, fruit, tea/coffee, croissant and a pain au chocolat. Balancing all that was almost as hard as finding a metro entrance to get back to the hotel. 

The Eiffel Tower after the rain.

Grave of the unknown soldier under Arc de Triomphe with La Défense in the distance.

Returning to the hotel and having a shower I took the train out to Versailles to have a walk around in the garden. Amazingly large and so much to see – multiple fountains and statues all over the place. There is definitely more than one gardener employed there. Returning to the train station to return to the city my ticket had stopped working despite it still being valid. An employee let me through and told me to get a replacement at a ticket booth when disembarking. What I hadn’t prepared myself for was that when arriving at my station there was no ticket booth before going through the gates (which required a valid ticket) and there was no staff around. So I ended up taking the next train to the next station to try my luck there, and luckily I managed to get to someone who were able to change my ticket to a functioning one. 

The Versailles garden.

Shortly after coming back to the hotel I went out for dinner where I had booked a table. They were surprisingly efficient; I arrived at 1900 and a lasagna and chocolate mousse later I was back outside 45 minutes later. It probably also helped they had just opened for the evening – a trapdoor in the middle of the restaurant was still open from where they were still getting foodstuffs up from the basement when I arrived. 

The rest of the evening was purely resting for tomorrow.

The Jungle Book

As I mentioned in my description of my coming trip to Finland I want to do some more wildlife watching in the future and not just go running. And my trip to Finland has ended up not being the only one planned for this year.

Going to Africa I have always enjoyed looking for the cats because there is something very elegant about them. And whether you’re looking at a small house cat or a large lion on the African plains, they all have the exact same mannerisms. It’s quite funny when noticing it. But I have never seen a tiger in the wild.

That’s going to change this year.

28th – 30th of October

Flying out to Delhi, leaving morning and arriving near mid-night where I’ll check into the hotel where I’ll be staying for two nights before flying out to Nagpur where we’ll go on a 3-hour drive to Pench National Park. The full day in Delhi is the official start day for the tour so that’s when the group and guide will be meeting.

31st of October – 1st of November

The plan is to have 4 game drives in Pench NP during the following two days. Apparently this area was what was the inspiration for The Jungle Book. There are supposed to be app. 45 tigers and leopards, monkeys, deer and plenty of birds, so no risk of getting bored. That would be a bit too soon this early on the trip.

2nd – 5th of November

Transfer to Kanha National Park – a short distance but apparently a 4 hour drive. We are in no rush at all. Here we’ll be going on 5 drives trying to find any of the app. 500 tigers present in the park. Apart from tigers there are hundreds of wildlife species so we’ll have plenty to see along the way.

6th – 9th of November

Moving on, this time to Bandhavgarh National Park – a slightly longer drive of 6-7 hours. There are 60-70 tigers in the park, but due to the size of the park (or rather lack of it) it has the highest density of tigers in India. Also leopards, sloth bears, various other cats and up to 150 different kinds of birds. The 6 game drives here I suspect will be busy.

10th – 11th of November

Transfer to Katni where we’ll catch an overnight train to Agra. Getting there in the morning we’ll check into the hotel after which vi visit the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort.

12th – 13th of November

The following day we’ll be driving back to Delhi where we’ll arrive in the afternoon. The tour officially ends on the 13th after breakfast, but as I have a flight that day at 0200 (that’s AM) I’ll be leaving for the airport in the evening after we arrive at the hotel.

I am really looking forward to this trip. I have long wanted to see tigers in the wild and this is I hope will saturate that desire. It was surprisingly difficult to find a tour that only did tiger safaris; most trips included cultural stuff and days off, but wanting to solely do a safari that felt like a waste of time. Finding a tour spending two days on non-safari activities (Agra) is ok – considering we are in the relative neighborhood it would be weird not to pass by. 

I think this is going to be amazing.

Bearly Finnish(ed)

In recent years few of my trips have had a focus on wildlife. Considering how much enjoy watching and photographing wildlife I feel like having to do something about that and start planning my next trip where I don’t just visit a city or do something silly like participating in a run.

So I sat down and figured out what kind of animals I wanted to see. Seeing polar bears in recent years was amazing, but that was only polar bears, and there are other kinds to see in the world. Canada is a great source of non-polar bear bear watching, but having gone there twice in two years I wanted to go somewhere else instead. And then it’s fortunate there is a country nearby that has exactly that, so transport gets much easier than having to go across the ocean (again).

Finland to the rescue!

14th of May
Flying out to Kajaani airport barely half-way up in Finland with a layover in Helsinki. Here we’ll be picked up and driven 2-ish hours east to the B&B we are going to spend our time there.

15th – 16th of May

The first two days will be spent doing a couple of short walks in the surrounding forest mixed in with some bird watching. Both late afternoons and nights will be spent in bear hides, where we’ll hopefully get some good views of the bears being active during the late hours.

17th of May
Here we will be driving out to see the environment of beavers, together with the moose and forest reindeer. 

18th – 19th of May
These two days we will be back at spending out nights in hides. We will be moved around in different hides, so it won’t be the same area every time we go out; some of them might be in a forest clearing, another by a small lake, so there will be some variety.

20th – 21st of May
On the last (full) day will be leisurely with not much planned. We will be  visiting the local predator center, an exhibition of the Finnish wildlife, and a stop through the town of Kuhmo. Last day we’ll be returning to the airport for the flight out in the evening.

I think this will be an interesting tour. Not only because I get to see bears (get a chance to see bears, it is wildlife after all) but there is apparently plenty of wolves and wolverines in the area too, giving a high probability of spotting them, too. Also I’m looking forward to how it’ll be in the hides; will I end up getting bored out of my mind or will I actually be occupied for most of the time? Only time will tell!

New update for Abbott World Marathon Majors

With last year's completion of Chicago and Boston marathons, and the mail received letting me participate in the 2023 London marathon, things have been moving forward in more sense than one. On top of that its satisfying being able to cross them off one at a time. This means that 4 of the World Marathon Majors are complete, one is in the near future and one is still some years in the future.

As things are currently, this is the current schedule, past and future.

Berlin - September 2019
New York - November 2019
Boston - April 2022
Chicago - October 2022
London - April 2023
Tokyo - March 2026

So in a few months I will have only one left, so I guess I'll have to find other runs in the mean time to keep me on my toes. Sounds like a horrible concept. Also, there are rumors that they are planning on adding another run to the group, so even if I can see the end of it now it might change in the future. It'll be interesting to see how that turns out as there have been talk for a long time to add more run(s). We'll see, but I worry this will be an endless chase with always another one in the future that has just been added, and not being able to actually finish the group like I did with the Superhalfs. 

Running fish & chips

Towards the end of September I received a mail from the travel agent doing the marathon tours that London had opened up for some more spots in 2023, so anyone who had booked for a later date could, if they were quick, sign up for the 2023 run instead, shortening the wait. I didn't think I was particularly quick, but apparently quick enough, so now I'm going to London in April 2023 instead of in 2025.

London is a nice city and I'm looking forward to going back, even if it is for a marathon.

20th - 22nd of April
Flying out to London in the afternoon I don't expect to be able to get to the expo on the first day. Instead I'll have Friday and Saturday to get there, and also spending time wandering the city and having (another) look at this fine old city.

23rd of April
Race day. The starting point is out in Greenwich and after a quick detour around Woolwich we return past the Cutty Sark, largely following the Themes before crossing the Tower Bridge, circling around in the opposite direction so you get to see the Cutty Sark and O2 Arena from the opposite side before going back, passing the Tower Bridge and ultimately finishing in St. James Park. It looks like a nice course, but also potentially narrow streets so I'm looking forward to see how congested the entire run is going to be.

24th of April.
Flight back home in the early evening. That means I get one last shot at fish & chips before having to return to the airport.

Ignoring the potentially (very) British weather I think this will be a great trip and run. The course takes you around to some pretty nice sights so it'll truly be a running sightseeing. 

SuperHalfs conclusion

Back in the good ol' days, in 2019, 5 European half marathons - Prague, Lisbon, Copenhagen, Cardiff and Valencia - announced they got together to give runners an opportunity to earn a fancy medal if you completed all 5 within 36 months from 2020 onward. Off course such a thing was right up my alley and I quickly signed up for all of them. And then that happened, so they were all cancelled and/or postponed. 

And postponed a bit more.

Until towards the end of 2021 where the first started again; Copenhagen and Valencia. So I participated in those though after the Copenhagen run I realized that they wouldn't start counting until the beginning of 2022. They argued they wanted a fresh start and fresh year, and while some of the community complained about this - the communication about this decision hadn't been clear before the Copenhagen run - they held onto that decision and I would have to also run them in 2022 despite completing them in 2021. The horror!

So getting through 2022 I have finally run and completed all 5 Superhalfs.

Prague (2nd of April); 1:44:41
Lisbon (8th of May); 1:46:35
Copenhagen (18th of September); 1:40:05 (PR)
Cardiff (2nd of October); 1:45:11
Valencia (23rd of October); 1:48:08

My goal on the half marathon distance is 1:45 which I didn't achieve for 3 of the runs. Fortunately, due to my fast time in Copenhagen I still managed to stay below 1:45 on average, more exactly 1:44:56. This meant that in Valencia I had 18 seconds to spare. A bit close to comfort, but I am happy I managed and it is now over and done with.

The SuperHalfs medal next to the Valencia HM medal.

23rd – 24th – Post-race and return home

Walking back to the hotel, goodie bag on my back and trying to prevent the two medals from rattling too much against each other, I relished in the thought that this was the last run in a row of many and I was looked forward to a month with no running and just relaxation. While the conditions during today’s run definitely had something to do with it I was looking forward to getting back to the hotel, have a shower and then lie down until going out for dinner somewhere. On arrival I passed by the kitchen where they were still serving breakfast, so filling my plate and going to my room I did exactly as planned; shower and relaxation, snacking on breakfast and goodie bag snacks. Trotting out for dinner I (obviously) ended up at a place where I managed to grab another pile of paella. And yes; smallest serving was for 2.

Having a flight just past noon fit perfectly with leaving the hotel in the morning, checking out (the receptionist recognized me from my visit last year – (not so) surprisingly not many people with my last name visit) and taking the train back to the airport where I checked in and had a nice flight home. Had quite a bit of a layover but fortunately there was plenty of food available. Not bad at all.

Having already visited Valencia once I feel like I have had enough of the city for now; the old part is really charming and nice to walk around in, but after two visits that feels like a done deal. The city is definitely worth a visit, I think, but going twice I feel is overdoing it. But I had a blast, the food was great and the half marathon there is done. Time to plan another one!

Full album can be seen here.