Post world-run – Celebrations in Rouen, France

WIth Franck in Paris

The past 2 weeks have been particularly busy. On more than one occasion I have reflected on how life was so much more quiet and easy going when running a marathon a day..! 

I settled in the first few days, going from meeting to meeting: publishing houses, media requests, conference agencies. Franck also organised a conference in a cool bar in Paris with the Trail Running Team. 

Friday 16th was a busy day. I spent the morning with the youngsters of the Rouen Jailhouse. They had requested that I came over and the teacher wrote me an email which I was all too pleased to accept. We had a very animated two hour exchange, I mostly answering their uninterrupted flow of questions. I had noticed how 1 youngster kept his head down most of the time. After the exchange was over, I asked the teacher about this particular young man. Sadly his father had sent him, when he was 14, out of Pakistan for a journey with his cousin to Paris. The migrants’ journey. It’s as well I didn’t know the story beforehand, I would never have been able to talk about the joy and exhilarating freedom of being on the road… it’s all a matter of perspective.

At my former school – more popular now than back in the days!

At midday, I made it to “College Barbey d’Aurevilly” where I spent my 4 years of “college” (the equivalent of middle-school in France) from 1987-1990. I met my maths teacher from 33 years ago and it was very moving to have a chat with him! For the next 3 hours, I was at the school’s conference room, answering questions from the students – they all rushed to me at the end of every hour asking for autographs! A novelty – but then I understood it’s because mobile-phones are not allowed at school, and the next best thing after a selfie was to get my signature! 

Rouen’ing, the local Park-Run

Then came Saturday 17th, which was my celebration day. The morning started with the launch of the weekly “park-run” of Rouen. The mayor and representatives of the local running community were present to welcome me. Most of my friends and family had put on their running kits to join the dozens of other runners on the Seine quays. And last but not least, Serge Girard was amongst us! 

With Serge and Franck

After the run was over, Franck and I invited Serge for a drink in downtown Rouen. We chatted for a few hours. How very inspiring was it to hear from Serge! He has so many projects, his eyes send sparks of joy all over the place when he starts talking about his plans and the feeling of being on the road. 

Olivier, Sylvain and Xavier – Playing the world-run songs to the 50 guests

Later that afternoon I finally made it to my sisters’ place. She had organised the party with all my friends and family. And what a great job she did! As the party was underway, 3 of my longtime friends (Xavier, Sylvain and Olivier) plugged their guitars and microphone and delivered two songs about the world-run (and Lootie of course) in French and English. I had never had a song written about me, let alone two. And these were beautiful (we are working on putting images to it and as soon as it is on my YouTube channel, I will share it here). Beatrice read a very beautiful and moving poem written by her sister – about how to let things die to give them a chance to renew. I attach the text (in French) in the gallery. 

We met at school when we were 14… best friends ever since

I have been absolutely spoiled by everyone. Each of them had supported me in their own way – and (along with my few Blog’s readers) are the very reason why I never felt alone on the road. Saturday 17th was the final fireworks of that fabulous journey around the world.

I am now settling to start my work and get cracking with the writing. My next blog post will be the long overdue summary of the world-run data. I’m also starting work on the website (to archive the world-run properly). So… stay tuned for more news soon!