My annual 10k run in Nice, France
The magnificent dual carriageway bordering the Mediterranean in Nice is called the Promenade des Anglais. (Its name arose from the fact that, after Queen Victoria holidayed in Nice, Brits started frequenting the city and that’s where they were to be found promenading.) It stretches from the center of Nice to its airport, and for about 25 years there has been a 10k run organized for the first Sunday in the new year (with some exceptions depending on how early in the year that Sunday falls). The run goes 5k from the city center in the airport direction, then switches to the other carriageway and goes back to the center. It’s called the “Prom’ Classic”. I’ve run it (almost) every year since its inception.
This year I didn’t run it. Actually I didn’t last year either, but I had intended to. I slipped, running to cross the road (I don’t do that any more!), in a crack in a sidewalk in London a couple of days before the race, falling hard and landing on my left knee and right cheekbone, and decided that it would be safer not to run, in case there was an injury. Fortunately there wasn’t, as my doctor in Toronto confirmed when I returned and saw him. “I must have solid bones,” I laughed; he retorted wryly, “And very good luck.” I have no doubt his explanation was much more accurate than mine.
This year I made the conscious decision not to do the Prom Classic. Last September, for Canada’s Terry Fox day, my dear friend Richard and I did our usual 10k charity run, and I found that, after 7k, I had to walk for a couple of minutes before I could continue. And I resolved that that would be my last 10k run. So, no Prom Classic at the start of 2026.
The weather is usually very pleasant in Nice at that time of year, so my wife and I went for our usual long weekend anyway. We arrived on the Friday afternoon, and did our usual stuff checking in, and dining at my favorite Indian restaurant, Noori’s, where over the years we’ve got to know the owner and the head waiter.
As we strolled around our usual haunts on the Saturday morning, I felt a strange and lovely feeling inside me. I felt that I had been there very recently (which I hadn’t, of course), and all kinds of familiar sensations of being there filled my mind. It was as if my mind was re-creating past moments in the present, and I was re-living old experiences. I suddenly had vivid memories of visits with family and friends. That has never happened to me before. As I say, it was strange — but lovely.
That vanished for the rest of the day. My wife observed that I was somehow only remembering the good times, forgetting the problems we had experienced over the years: when the front door wouldn’t close, when we had plumbing problems, and so on. True.
On the Sunday morning I walked early from our hotel to the Prom to see the race, and encountered the usual closures to accommodate the logistics for the 10,000-plus runners. This year, of course, I didn’t have to warm up for the run, so I simply wended my way around everything and got to the broad sidewalk along the Mediterranean, and walked up and down, watching the start of the race for the several groups of runners who are segregated by their anticipated finishing times, and walking a couple of kilometers to the place where we used to stay in Nice when we were there regularly every year, stopping to enjoy the large group of drummers who encourage the runners as they approach the finish… And that strange feeling from the previous morning hit me again, and I re-lived so many wonderful years of running the Prom Classic (one of them, ten years ago, with Richard). Again, it felt both real and unreal, and I loved it. And again, it was just for the morning, while surrounded by the race atmosphere.
I’ve no idea how and why those feelings hit me. It has never happened before, anywhere. But I’m not seeking an explanation. I’m just happy and grateful to have experienced them, and to have felt so realistically some of the joys of the past. I give my thanks to the source of those feelings.
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I have written about retirement planning before and some of that material also relates to topics or issues that are being discussed here. Where relevant I draw on material from three sources: The Retirement Plan Solution (co-authored with Bob Collie and Matt Smith, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2009), my foreword to Someday Rich (by Timothy Noonan and Matt Smith, also published by Wiley, 2012), and my occasional column The Art of Investment in the FT Money supplement of The Financial Times, published in the UK. I am grateful to the other authors and to The Financial Times for permission to use the material here.
Beautiful post Don. I love that feeling too!
Thanks very much, David.
A gem. Probably your best and most artfully written reflection.
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Thanks — I had no idea, it was just a reflection on something personal.
Don, it’s a very heartwarming post. And it is lovely and an honour to be mentioned in it. However not as lovely as being able to savour the memories of this, and the many other, 10Ks we have done. I cherish them. Thank you for being my partner in them all.
Thanks, Richard. I wouldn’t have run those 10k’s without you doing them too — thank you. As you say, wonderful memories!
Lovely post Don. I am so very impressed that you have kept running 10ks for so long!! I have only done a handful while in London and thought they were really long!! Lovely that you have so many beautiful memories to think about. xoxoxo
Thanks very much, Chantal. I’m finding that memories are playing a bigger and bigger part in my life.