My excellent adventure: Day 15, From Paris to London, by Larry Eder

All good things must come to an end. I left Paris mid morning on Tuesday and headed to London. After nearly a week in Paris, I headed to London to begin coverage of the Virgin London Marathon. If Bekele started the marathon season with his fine debut, Mo Farah would be the next focal point for an entire week!

Tower of London Bridge, April 2014, photo by Larry Eder

Charles De Gaulle is one of my favorite airports. The flight between Paris and Frankfurt was about fifteen minutes late.

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You know you are in trouble when, in Frankfurt, your flight gets announced and they ask that all ticket holders get to their gate. I arrived in the A gates, then had to go to B gates. Not a fifteen minute walk on a good day.

The quickest way to get to the B gate required six flights of stairs. So, I took the stairs. It was like a long hill. By the time I hit the fifth flight, I knew it was going to be close.

I made the flight by one minute, just as they were closing the flight.

Frankfurt is pretty amazing. One could not make flights that in the U.S.

While I was on the flight, my bags were having a Wurst in Frankfurt. They would arrive on Wednesday morning in London.

Heathrow is one of the largest airports in the world. The big challenge is trying to get around London from Heathrow, as traffic in London makes LA traffic look tame.

Taking the Express to Paddington Station, then, one has to take a taxi to the Tower of London to reach the HQ hotel. I met the Travel team, managed by Harry Fry, and grabbed a car with one of the elite wheelchair racers.

A team of drivers, made up of London’s finest, drive the elite athletes from Paddington Station to the Tower Hotel. We found one of those times in London when traffic in the central city was tame, and we made record time.

The Tower hotel is situated right underneath the Tower Bridge, one of the my favorite sites in the city.

Week three of my travels begins.

My week here has one question to be answered: how will Mo Farah do against one of the most loaded marathon fields in London, or anywhere, ever?

Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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