Paris Marathon 2015

In 2015, we really wanted to go to Paris for a couple of days, not necessarily to run the marathon but to steal a relaxed week from our then very busy agendas, chill out. We really needed a loooooong weekend. Our son was almost five, we had an overdue Disneyland promise and happened to have a lot of accumulated miles. A small group of my best buddies were also running the race so it all made perfect sense. The starts were aligned.

We did not really have a budget for the trip, but somehow we would manage it. My wife found a good house to rent for a week-which was both cheaper and way better than the hotel alternative. We would have to cook and clean, but really did not care that much.

Paris is beautiful, yes, but as is the case with most good things in life, it is a bit expensive. It took me a couple of days to plan an affordable program. We would arrive three days before the race, see the city, go to Disneyland, run the race and be back on Monday. We needed our vacation days for the approaching summer.

On our first day in Paris, we met with the agency to get the keys to the house and learned that we needed to deposit 180 Euros in cash. Apparently this little detail was mentioned in the fine print and we had overlooked it. 180 is not a huge amount of money, but we barely had any cash on ourselves. Initially we objected, offered to somehow use our card but the argument led to nowhere. The agent was adamant. Having no choice, we deposited the money, decided to rely on our credit cards which could max out any moment. Then we found a nice small grocery, bought food and wine and decided to forget about this small but distasteful event.

But we didn’t.

It is not wise to spend a truckload of money to travel to Paris only to ruin your experience fretting over a small sum like 180 Euros. Maybe we weren’t that wise. Next two days, we somehow made a big deal out of it. Every time we paid for something, we found a new creative way to complain about the fact that we needed 180 Euros more. If only we had that, things would be much, much better.

Nevertheless, we were having great fun. The first evening we prepared ourselves a very good dinner and treated ourselves to a good bottle of wine. Then a second after that. I wasn’t too worried because we had three more days ahead. Lots of time to recover.

I envy people can have a bucketload of drinks and show up to work in their 100% next morning. I am not like that. Maybe I am missing an enzyme, maybe focusing too much on how I feel. I don’t know. Even after half a bottle of wine or a few beers, I get sleepy and my next day turns into a blurry haze. Even the simplest things that require focus become a big deal. This is why I can try to limit myself to two glasses of wine mostly and almost never drink the day before serious runs.

But, this was Paris, you only live twice and they have real good wine. Two days before the race, we again prepared a magnificent meal, enjoyed two more bottles (one for each) and I made the same promise. The next day, I would just go to Disneyland, have a decent carb-loading dinner and hit the sack early.

The next morning, a sunny Saturday before the race, we were in Disneyland. Everything was nice. The weather could not be better, the place was not that crowded and we only ended up waiting, say 1 hour, before each ride.

Still, we kept complaining about the missing 180 Euros. Like a song that sticks to your tongue, it did not go away.

Finally, around noon, we decided to have a few burgers and get some rest. My wife made a remark about the ridiculously high price of thing in the park (she has a point) and went to ladies room.

A few minutes later she was back with a surprised look on her face and 180 Euros in his hands. Nine twenties, folded in half.

“I just found 180 Euros on the ground” she said. There was no one around to claim it. At first, I though she was just joking. But no, she was not. The money we were bitching about came out of nowhere.

Maybe we should have returned the money to Lost&Found. We did not. Had my son been a few years older, he would definitely tell us to report the money. We did not possess that kind of finesse as adults. More importantly, the money itself was not the issue.

Something changed in that moment. Suddenly we did not have anything to complain about. Suddenly we were young, healthy, happy and content. We were rich. There was nothing to complain about. Finally we did shut up. I carried my son all day, tried all the rides and enjoyed every moment. It was a perfect day.

In the evening, we met with our friends in a nice restaurant, loaded up carbs along with a few beers and tried to imagine how perfect the race ahead would be. The race would be “legendary”. I could picture myself sailing effortlessly to my PB with Eiffel in the background.

It could be one my best races, if I did not behave like a Clumsy Rabbit. I don’t know what people call this lovely rabbit character in French. For my son, he was the “Clumsy Rabbit” He was a careless character getting caught between sliding doors, tumbling over stairs, falling on to rails and always looking you in the eye to catch your attention. He was everywhere warning children to mind everyday dangers of the city, giving us parents a nice excuse to bring up the subject. We all liked it.

During the dinner I made the mistake of my life- I had a few beers and coffee. Like alcohol, coffee has a very sharp and long lasting effect on me. Give me a Turkish coffee after dinner and I end up reading until 3:00 am. When we arrived home I was literally dog tired after a long day in Disneyland and the long dinner.

I was a bit anxious now about being tired the next day. Around 9:00 pm, we went to bed.

I never had insomnia my entire life. I always slept like a baby on busses, planes, between classes in school, in open air. I can sleep anywhere anytime. The only thing that gets in the way is coffee.

After helplessly turning around in the bed until 1:00 am, I gave up. I decided to prepare my stuff for tomorrow. I had one metro ticket (single pass), 5 euros (to buy metro ticket, in case I failed to meet up with Aybike at the finish), 2 gels and my phone. That only took 10 minutes to put together. Still I was wide awake and needed do something to pass time.

After connecting my phone to charger, I set the alarm 5:00 am (need time in the morning for the pre-race breakfast-coffee-bathroom routine like every mortal) and started watching a movie with earphones on my iPad. Apocalypto, by Mel Gibson, was nice. Lots of in-forest running with heads literally rolling. Around 3:00 I started The Prince of Tides, decided that it was good but too touchy-feely for my mood and switched to Apocalypse Now.

I was happily reflecting on the evils of war and the impossibility of world peace when Aybike scared the shit out me by hitting me on the shoulder.

“It’s 6:00 darling… When are you going to leave?”

My screwed up the alarm somehow. How nice. In the next couple of minutes, I changed into my running shorts, grabbed my ticket, 5 euros, disposable Turkish Airlines blanket and dashed out of the house cursing myself for missing my morning coffee and breakfast.

I barely made it in time. In that frenzy, I rushed into a coffee shop, paid 5 Euros for two coffees (coffee is cheaper if you have it inside?), ate my two gels for breakfast, took a pre-race selfie, all in a crazy rush. Trust me this takes all the fun out of it.

Finally, the race started and I wish I could write about how fresh and energetic I was. First few kilometres were difficult. After 10, running was painful in every way. After the 21 mark, things became surreal and I wished I never left home after passing 30 K.

But we runner are a stubborn bunch. I had made a promise to meet my wife and son at the finish line at 12:30 and I was determined to make it.

The race course is epic. The only downside was the tunnels, where I really struggled with the noice and lack of air. The home stretch was also a bit heartbreaking.

Somehow, I made it at 12:35 and met my wife. I can’t say I enjoyed it. They were also a bit edgy, sleepless and tired from the day before. We decided to find a good pizza place and continue our holiday.

While having pizzas I checked my time and to my surprise, realised that it was not that bad at all. Maybe I was feeling bad because I pushed myself too far without drinking enough water. I don’t know. I was too exhausted and sleepless to appreciate anything. So we made it back home again and after a quick shower literally collapsed and passed out for two hours.

In the evening, we finally meet with our friends again. Everybody was feeling good, nobody got injured and we had a number of PBs. Lots of things to toast for. And so we did. I think this is the best thing about travelling in groups. No matter what happens in the race, you always have something to celebrate and have fun.

On our way back home, my son discovered more Clumsy Rabbits, wanted us to promise that we would go back to Disneyland someday and discovered the “Upside Down Man” in our street.

Finally we made it home. We had a race trophy to be proud of and 180 Euros to spend at the airport the next day.

We decided to open another bottle, let my son sleep whenever he wants to and enjoy the slowness of things, the absence of an agenda the next day. We kept talking about the curious appearance of 180 Euros for years thereafter and it became a part of our family lingo.

But I learned something very important from that race. I learned that not everything needs to be a race. Maybe we could have spend our Sunday with a long brunch. We could sleep in and just be lazy or see one more museum. All I needed was some rest. Cramming everything into a long weekend was just too much. There is no pleasure in doing things in a rush. Sometimes life give us too little time, so be it, but we should not be making things worse by sticking to arbitrary goals or itineraries that ultimately mean nothing.

Next morning we had our brunch, took a taxi to the airport and promised ourselves not to be clumsy rabbits.

I don’t know what happened to 180 Euros.