Day 261 – EU – France [Les Sauvages to Roanne]


21/12/20

33.4km

  From Les Sauvages (France) to Roanne (France)

Europe


A short running day, a broken wheel and a happy ending

The light was beautiful as I left Les Sauvages this morning. Today was set to be an easy day, mostly downhill and also a shorter distance. It was less than 4 degrees Celsius as I hit the road, and every now and then, some light rain drizzled, some of it resembling melted snow. It was beautiful and serene.

I once again was able to avoid the major traffic axes and got the luxury of running on country roads all morning. I passed by farms mostly and small villages, surrounded by endless fields and little cattle. I got to run on forest trails for a while and it was very pleasant, it’s always a good time for the legs when I get off the road. It’s very noticeable that I am not engaging with many people since Covid19 restrictive measures are in force. In these rural areas of the country in particular, there are not many people out and about.

As I approached Roanne, I was planning to run around the city, since today was very low in kilometers. But at km30, I noticed a strange noise coming from one of my wheels. I paid close attention and eventually stopped to examine in detail. To my dismay, the wheel was moving sideways on its axle about half a centimeter. I looked closer: one of the steel rings was gone! How is that possible? These things are unbreakable! I was gutted: I had purchased new wheels during the confinement, these are brand new (and the previous one ran 10,000kms with me). Frustrated, I elected to head home first.

I was very lucky to find a DIY store, with a salesman that was a skilled handyman and very willing to help. We found another ring that could fit, he insisted on fitting it and checking that it was all working fine. He got me, for free, a spare steel ring and wished me luck. I’ll be happy when I reach my parents’ place in 2 weeks time to get a fresh replacement wheel!



Check my daily run GPS data on or

Here is the map of today’s run: