Winter -> Summer

Finally, the temperatures have picked up together with clear blue skies - still needing overshoes and very glad I stuck with leggings and several body layers on Saturday, but today its shorts and short sleeved jersey, no need even for a wind breaker.
Saturday was the usual yardstick - 5 hrs 4min, but still to beat 5hrs will be very tough as I expect as usual I will get fitter and leaner, but not any faster this season. 

Above Wiedener Eck

Sunday was a Black Forest classic, I had the naive idea that I could ride out to the very top of Belchen and sample some Schwarzwalder Kirschtorte at the restaurant. As I climbed higher, the doubts that this would not be possible were confirmed at the gondola car park. For one, the gondola was closed, so that meant no visitors to be carried up to the top. But the road beyond the car park, which is closed to traffic, was utterly covered in snow and would still be very much skiable top to bottom. I guess the ski season has a closing date here, but theres still plenty of snow up here, Ive seen far far less snow on an open Glenshee with heather and rocks to contend with.
So, it was time to push on head for the most generous serving of Blackforest gateau at the top of the climb from Präg, above Todtmoos.

 

Paris Velib Marathon

It was Paris Marathon time again, not for me this time but Satoko was running despite recently being diagnosed as having zero ferritin - a protein important for absorbing iron and buffering excess iron, not ideal for endurance athletes.
A fine day for the run, but what should I do? Watch the start, get the metro to the Seine, then metro again to the finish? No, instead this time I thought I would retrack my steps (8 years ago now since I ran this race), or at least cycle around on one of the helpful Paris cycle hire machines.
You need a credit card to use them, which might be one reason so many of the bikes have been vandalised or stolen by those not able to attain a credit card. This is one bike scheme which has had far more vandalism and theft than expected, 3000 stolen in the first year, 80% of the bikes have had to be replaced since the launch in 2007.
I found the bikes to be far slicker than expected from their heavy appearance, and for €1.70 you could ride a bike all day long - as long as you return it and check out again within half an hour that is. The price escalates every half hour, which really means you want to go from A to B on these bikes.

Malheuresement, GPS signal lost at half way point

The main issue you would have with the bikes is due to the fact you can ride A to B, sometimes B is much more popular than C, and so the bike spots are all full up - meaning you cannot drop off the bike. I didn't need to check a map for the nearest station, there seemed to be many wherever I cycled.
In general, following a mrathon in full progress is a very difficult challenge. First, you want to go as close to the race as possible, but this means taking side streets which may or may not be dead ends, may or may not head in the right direction and this results in a forward progress equivalent to the average runner. Once out in the parks, some of the side tracks turned to sand to further slow me down. And on my final leg, the tree routes and general state of my cross bike style riding punctured the front tyre resulting in a final 2km limp to the final station. Its customary to leave a damaged bike in the bike station with the seat reversed so the maintenance guys can spot them quickly.
Next time I'll run the course.