We had a very tight schedule from the moment our plane touched down in Paris to getting on the train to Lyon. We had less than an hour if there were no flight delays. Of course, we were delayed 30 minutes…CRAP!  Thankfully I purchased the train tickets ahead of time so we didn’t have to waste time at the ticket counter and we didn’t check our bags so we didn’t have to wait for luggage.  We got off the plane and meandered our way from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2 at Charles de Gaulle airport which isn’t an easy task. Ran down the steps to the train station, looked briefly on the board for our track number. Let me tell you, that wasn’t very easy since the train didn’t say anything about Lyon. It listed a whole lot of cities and one was Brussels which made no sense to me. But we got on and before long we were on our way. I didn’t get much sleep on the plane so I napped a bit on the train. I was also hungry so I had a chicken Caesar salad sandwich and some chips. And in less than 2 hours we were in Lyon.

Cathy met us at the platform. She was beyond excited to see us. She was with her daughter Elodie. We got our hugs and kisses in and we were off to tour Lyon. We went to the old city and walked around the very narrow streets. We went into the two big churches, one of which we had to take a funicular up to. Very cool! The church on the hill had a fabulous view of the city. We took the funicular back down and had dinner at traditional Lyon restaurant. We drank wine, ate cheese, ate steak and had sorbet. So French! I even downed a few shots! It was a great start to our European vacation!

I must have lost my drive to write blog posts. I didn’t have a lot of down time on this trip so I didn’t get a chance to write about our days. I’ll try to get through in the next couple of days but no promises. Haha! Overall we had a great time. I got to meet Cathy, Eric’s French sister while in Lyon. He hadn’t seen her since he was kid. We had 3 HOT days in Paris and 4 HOT days in Brussels. I managed to run a 20KM in 90 degrees and eat more chocolate than my stomach can handle. I tasted a lot of different types of wine, champagne and Belgium beers and even had a few shots. It was quite the adventure! 

I had three races in 7 days this past week.

Eau Claire 5K
It started with the 5K a part of Eau Claire Marathon. My race was ok. Nothing fantastic but it was one of my fastest this year. I was just 13 seconds shy of breaking into the 38s again at 39:12. I want to get under 39 minutes so bad! I really want to get down to 33 but that requires more training. The weather was perfect for the race and the post-race root beer was delicious. After the race we had to rush to Target Field for a Twins game. The Twins lost. :(

TC 1 Mile
On Thursday we ran the TC 1 mile race. It was such a fun night! My mile came in at 12:01:05. I was so close to getting into the 11s. My goal was less than 12:15 so I made that goal!  Yay! We stayed to watch the Women and Men’s Pro Races. They were incredibly fast. The top male finished in 4:01. That was 6 seconds slower than the record.  Amazing! This was also my 100th Race!

Donut Dash 5K
Two days later we ran the Donut Dash 5K. It was bit on the warm side but otherwise a great morning for running. The amazing thing happened at this race. I managed to run each mile at a consistent pace. I’m seriously look at this:

I can’t believe I did that. All my other races I plummet during miles 2 and 3. But this race was the same. I don’t know how I did that. I was very happy with this race and the post-race donuts were great!