5:00 am. So there was absolute mayhem in the streets of Paris last night, it snowed all day and there was a least 1 inch of snow accumulated on the streets. People were abandoning their cars, taxis refused to take people places, just crazy, we took the subway down to the Christmas shops on the Champs Elysees last night and it was a huge icy slushy mess, no shovels in France apparently. So last night I pretty much decided my chances of running today weren't looking promising but at 4:00 am some wrong number from Provo called me and woke me up, I threw on some clothes and went downstairs to see what the roads looked like, to my dismay they just looked wet, no ice that I could see. Knowing that I would feel bad I didn't run all day if I didn't go I went back up to my room and changed in to running clothes and off I went. Well turns out the 20 feet in front of my hotel was the only non-icy spot in Paris. The rest of the run was pretty much what I had feared, icy, chunky, mess. I just went really slow, I was just wearing my Nike Free's not the best traction shoes in the world but it wasn't terrible, I never really felt out of control. Ran to the Arc De Triumph made a circle around it and down the Champs Elysees, some delivery guy on a motor scooter making a left turn totally wiped out in the middle of the Champs Elysees, I ran out and helped him pick his scooter backup and pick up random pieces that had fallen off, I think we determined he was OK, he could have told me he was bleeding on the inside, both arms and legs were broken and he was having a hard time breathing and I wouldn't have know better, but anyway, he jumped back on his scooter and scooted away. Ran back to the hotel, 6 miles in 45 minutes. 7:30/avg pace. It actually felt really nice to slow it down, I should do it more often. Now off to work, finally the last day, I am so ready to go home tomorrow.
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