Bordeaux

Went to Bordeaux for business this week and took my running kit with me. Unfortunately, I forgot the Garmin as this was still in my dirty kit bag from the Grouchy castle run. IT's getting so complicated to look after all my kit nowadays.

I woke up very early and decided to lie in bed for a while before the sun came up and at least go for a run when I could see where I was running. I was staying at Novotel - Bordeaux Le Lac and I don't recommend this place to anyone. The service was lousy and the rooms need refurbishing as they look as though they were last done at least 20 years ago.

Anyway, I was out running and since I figured that I was bound to get lost if I strayed too far, I ran around the lake instead. This was all very well, but I wasn't exactly sure how big the lake was. I'd seen it on a GPS system but I couldn't remember the scale. What the hell - I set out anyway.

Unfortunately, running around the lake wasn't as easy as it should have been. At the beginning the path beside the lake was well defined and doubled up as a trim track. After around 15 minutes, this petered out and became a cycle path, leading away from the lake and alongside the main road. I had no better idea of where to head so I followed this, especially since it was misty in this area and I didn't fancy the idea of getting lost now.

I ran beside an old exhibition centre with endless carparks and concrete and tarmac everywhere. So much for a nice morning run around the lake. I was expecting trees and pretty scenery and all I got was concrete and buildings, next to the road. I finally arrived back at the hotel and since it was still a little early I set off again. Tried a different route this time next to the road that crossed over the lake in the middle. Turned back at the service station and ran back. Enough said !!

Measured this on gmap afterwards and it came out at 9.6 km all up in just under 45 minutes. So running at around 4:35 pace which is not surprising. Just trying to maintain about 70k for the week in mileage.