Charlene was recruited for the race by a group that was raising money for the Gavin R Stevens Foundation. They needed a real deal blind person to run the race with them (to add, I guess, some verisimilitude to the undertaking) and not surprisingly it proved tougher than they expected to find a blind person willing to undertake a mud run. Charlene is a balls to the wall athlete who has been blind from birth. She has run marathons, done sprint triathlons, completed a 50 mile race, (tandem) biked in Europe – there’s not much she’s afraid of (except flying insects getting in her face). The race officials were going to let her go around all of the mud pits to which Chuck responded, “No way!” and made her go through at least a few of them. He went through a bunch as well, and ended up sliding into one pit that turned out to be deeper than he expected. At the finish he was so mud-covered that we couldn’t really see what he had done to himself, but later in the day it was clear that he had done a bit of a number on himself.

Day One, after washing

Day Two, looking icky

At the doctor's

Three days on antibiotics

As the images show, things got ugly. It didn’t help that the next day we decided to do an ocean swim and he pulled on (then pulled off) a wetsuit over the leg. Each day the leg became a bit more tender and got redder and angrier, and finally this past Wednesday, as puss started oozing out from the chunkier wounds he decided it was time to go see a doctor. Three prescriptions and one shot later we headed home. He’s on two antibiotics and has some cream he’s supposed to put on it. What was really amazing is it took less than 12 hours on the antibiotics for his leg to look better.

The thing is, we forget that he was getting cancer treatments for 18 months, and that those only wrapped up about six months ago. The chemo took such an obvious toll on him – he lost his hair and looked and felt awful, but he was on immunotherapy treatments for an additional year. And though the immunotherapy drugs didn’t make him lose his hair or look sick, the one thing ALL the cancer fighting drugs had in common was that they kicked the crap out of his immune system, leaving him vulnerable to infections of all sorts. He’s had two colds in the past six months – and this is a guy who never gets sick! Cancer is a real bitch, and the recovery is no cakewalk either! I’m going to try and make a bigger effort to remember that and try to keep him from doing any extraordinarily harebrained activities in the future (hahaha!!). Like I said, I’ll TRY.

Anyway, he’s mostly fine now (nothing’s oozing) and plans on staying out of mud pits for a while.

Once we arrived in Paris we fell into the clutches of a gypsy taxi driver who way overcharged us for a taxi ride to our hotel. We had a room booked for last night way back when we thought we’d just be there for the night before we flew home, so we had to wait until this morning to see if we could stay another night. Once that was squared away we went out exploring the neighborhood and found a nearby running trail and a charming village. We also looked at the other hotels in the neighborhood and found a better deal just down the road. The flight cancellations have resulted in a lot of room cancellations, so we were able to book a room for 5 nights without a problem.

Next we got 5-day Metro passes that allow us to ride the local train, Metro and bus lines to our hearts’ content. Today we took the train to the Carousel of the Louvre and picked up a cheap netbook so that we’d both have computers to work on. The only trick: the system language is in French! So Chuck gets the English computer and I’ll handle the French one. When we get home we’ll sell it on Craigslist.

Our iPhones have been wonderful lifelines – they’ve worked everywhere and the 3G data connection has provided us with important info on our travel plans as they have constantly been changed. If anything, I would have upped my data plan from 50MB to 100MB, but then, who knew we’d be here so long?

It’s weird: this should be a great opportunity to enjoy an unexpected week in Paris. But there’s vacation mindset, then there’s ready-to-go-home mindset. And until this morning, I really held out hope that the volcano would quit erupting, the skies would clear, and we’d board our scheduled flight and go home.

Tuesday, April 20: I wrote the previous paragraphs over the past few days. It’s now Tuesday and the volcano is still spewing ash. Some flights have left CDG – we can hear them. Which ones, we have no idea. Today we moved to a cheaper hotel just down the street from the previous one. At the Millennium we can both access the Internet at the same time. So here we are, waiting like so many other people.

I have been hugely disappointed by the lack of information coming from official channels. The only communication we received from American Airlines was the cancellation notice. We had to contact them to get the wheels of the rebooking turning. And we have heard nothing since. Thanks for nothing, American. CNN has been the source of most news and they lean toward the dramatic so we have to sift through information trying to find the real state of affairs.

Today we walked into the village of Roissy and did some marketing so we could save some money on restaurants. I feel really bad for the people who are out of money and stuck at the airport(s).

Today we drove to Wales (not that far, as it happens, from Bristol) and visited Carreg Cennen castle, the only castle in Wales owned by a Welshman. What was great about it was that it was completely unsupervised: we could climb the walls, go down into caves and generally behave like unruly kids and there was nobody there to tell us to be careful or behave ourselves. Fun! Wales is absolutely beautiful, and we spent several hours rambling on a lovely trail near the castle. I’d love to go back and spend several days just hiking around Wales. The only sad thing that happened was that poor Meagan finally made the connection between lamb chops and little lambikins frolicking in fields.

Completely clouding the past two days has been news of the Icelandic volcano which when it first erupted seemed like a fairly uneventful climatic blip on the radar. The joke was on us, as the volcano has utterly disrupted all travel into and out of Europe. We are supposed to fly from Bristol to Paris tomorrow afternoon and the chances of that happening are less than the odds of peace on earth by next Wednesday. If we miss that flight we will almost certainly miss our flight out of Paris to home on Monday. *sigh* So our first task tomorrow is to see if we can get seats on any train out of London to Paris tomorrow. (Travelers everywhere are laughing as I type these words.) We kept thinking that the volcanic ash would keep blowing northeast and all would be fine. Instead, the ash just keeps on coming. Transatlantic ocean liner options are looking attractive right now.

So it goes. Meanwhile, pics of our travels are here and here.

Our legs after all of yesterday’s going up and down stairs and walking several miles are actually feeling pretty good today! Still sore, don’t get me wrong but we aren’t letting out inadvertent groans every time we stand up or sit down now.

Charles de Gaulle airport is fabulous – the shopping is spectacular. All sorts of designer stores. We stopped in the duty free store and got some goodies to take to England.

As I mentioned I have been busily uploading our Paris pics. Check them out here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/osheas/sets/72157623845782012/

Our hotel was perfectly located for the start: we walked out the front door, turned right, walked a block and were at the corrals. Unlike US marathons, the Europeans have expectations of their runners, and the last corral was for a finish time of 4:30, which meant it was the corral for everybody who expected to take longer than 4:30 to finish – in other words it was a big ass corral full of runners of all different levels of ability. There were close to 40,000 runners signed up and it was far and away the largest field of runners in which I have ever run. I had agreed to pace Judy for the first 13 miles so she wouldn’t burn herself out in the first half (a common newbie mistake). From the time the clock started it took us about 15-20 minutes to get to the actual starting line, but since the race used timing chips, it didn’t really matter.

The course started at the Arc de Triomphe, ran down the Champs Elyssees, down past the Louvre, through the Bois de Vincennes, back past the Louvre along the Seine, underneath the Champs Elyssees (passing through the tunnel where Princess Di was killed), then up to and through the Bois du Boulogne finally finishing on what (looked to me like) the back side of the Arc de Triomphe. The weather was cool and breezy with some sun. I decided to wear a shot sleeved top and by the end was regretting my decision – it was nippy out there! Given the hoards of people, the support was phenomenal. They had lots of water for everyone (and actually handed out bottles you could carry versus the small cups we’re used to in the States. There were orange slices, bananas, raisins and sugar cubes as well every three or four miles. Lots of people came out to yell support and cheer runners on (given the street closures, they probably didn’t have much else to do!). It was a very international race: they limit country quotas, for instance there were 1,000 Americans running) so we heard all languages spoken on the course.

I burned myself out completely pacing Judy (though she only went about ten miles with me before taking off). My calves started cramping something fierce at about mile 18, so the last six miles were a brisk walk for me. Chuck ran a smarter race than me and refused to try and keep up with anybody, doing his own thing and finishing in 5:50 which was within 5 minutes of his planned time. I, on the other hand, ran the first half in 4:15 time and the last 13 in 5:30 time which resulted in a 5:12 finish time for me. Not bad, considering we hadn’t trained as hard as we should have (oh yeah, and Chuck is all of one year out of chemotherapy). I was reminded again of how little I care for the 26.2 mile distance – that is a LONG way to run! But we have our medals, and now we can spend the rest of our trip enjoying ourselves and not thinking and worrying about the upcoming race.

We each took a few pics on the course (I used my iPhone and Chuck used a little Canon) but we both flaked in the last half, which is indicative of the effort we were putting into the race.

Most of our friends left today (and I can‘t imagine flying 12 hours after running 26.2 miles, but that‘s their problem!), so we spent the day enjoying the sights. It was cooler and windier than yesterday so we couldn’t sit along the Seine without freezing our tushes. So we decided to visit churches, going to Notre Dame and Sacre Coeur (where we opted NOT to climb to the 300 steps up to the dome, thank you very much). The crowds weren’t nearly as crazy as on the weekend, so it was much more pleasant walking around. By the time we had trudged up the second or third massive staircase, however, both my calves and my thighs let me know what they thought of me. And it wasn’t pretty, let me tell you. Still, we had fun, joking about our semi-infirm state. The day after a marathon is never pretty and this was no exception. I’ve been sitting typing this entry and I know that when I’m done and stand up it’s going to be ugly. But so it goes.

We did make it back to the Louvre and the crowds were greatly reduced, having either gone home or woken up unable to move, so we actually got to go in and see the inside of the pyramid, which led us the the Carousel of the Louvre which led us ti – oh, be still my beating heart – Paris’s Apple Store! And it was like coming home, only cooler. We didn’t buy anything but it reminded me of my first trip to Europe lo these many years ago (are you reading this, Cheryl?) when we would go into American Express offices wherever we were to just for a few moments feel like we were home.

Tonight we went to dinner at, of all things, an Italian restaurant that had very good food. We walked back to the hotel, enjoying the evening and all of the people still out and about. I realized that I am and always will be an American, and so will always struggle with the inferiority complex that goes along with that fact: I will never feel as as sophisticated as an Frenchwoman, and will always feel like a rube in a fancy store on the Champs Elyssees. But that’s life, and at this point in my life, I am finally, once and for all, over being embarrassed or apologetic about it. But I am also ticked that American schools don’t introduce each and every school kid to a foreign language from day one. Traveling in France and speaking so little of the language makes me feel like the loser kid in school, who knows that people are talking and maybe laughing about them behind their back, but has no idea what they’re really saying. Pics are here, and growing as I get a chance to upload.

Tomorrow we say au revoir to Paris and continue our adventures in Bristol, England.

We are staying at the Hotel Napoleon which is a nice place but whose mist charming feature us that it is about half a block from the Arc de Triomphe and more importantly for us half a block from the start of the marathon. It’s about a block from the finish which after 26.2 miles may matter more than the half block to the start. The room is small but pleasant. The only downside to the place is the cost of wireless: 20 euros a day! The weather is amazing. It rained some yesterday but today it was partly cloudy and a brisk 55 degrees or so – that means great running weather. Yay!

Today we woke feeling fairly well acclimated to the time change, so our efforts of yesterday paid off! We spent the day in Reims seeing the cathedral, touring the Veuve Clicquot champagne-ery (and doing some tasting, too). Now we’re on the train back to Paris and I can feel the jet lag catching up with me finally (though it is nearly 7:30pm). At one point on the tour, I had an almost overwhelming desire to lay down on the floor right in front of the tour guide and go to sleep. Oh yeah, that’s jet lag!

Tomorrow we plan on doing nothing in particular and just enjoying Paris in the springtime. Life is good. Will post photos as soon as I find free wireless. Typing on the iPhone this much is wearing m index finger out!

Walk 8 seconds. Trot 4 seconds. Stop. Sniff. Sprint 7 seconds. Freeze. Walk 5 seconds in any direction but forward. Stare 9 seconds. Lunge at squirrel. Double back, walk 3 seconds. Urinate. Repeat six times. Collapse on rug.