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Kate and Sam run the Paris Marathon – 5th April 2009
Having been rejected from the London Marathon ballot for the 4th time in a row, I decided that I still wanted to run a spring marathon. Sam was already entered for the Paris marathon and so that was the obvious choice. As it is earlier in April than London, ‘proper’ training started before Christmas. All the long runs went well, including a couple of 20+ milers, speed sessions at Kettering track right on target and good old Long Buckby training group on a Thursday night. Even the February snow did not affect us too much – thanks to Mary’s treadmill! What could possibly go wrong for my PB ambitions?
A cold that’s what – arriving in style three days before the race! Two days before the marathon, I really thought I would not make it to the start line.
Thankfully, by Sunday I felt marginally better and so Sam and I took the metro to the start, just in front of the Arc de Triomphe, on the Champs Elysee! Can’t get much better than that! We heard the starting gun at 8.45 and it took us just over 10 minutes to cross the start line and then we were heading down one of the most famous streets in the world.
The crowd support was much less than in London but then this marathon is not a huge charity event. The thin crowds were very vocal though and several times I heard shouts of ‘allez Kate’ (your name is printed on your running number). There were also lots of bands en route which helped to carry you through and not forgetting the Paris fire brigade cheering from the sidelines!
The weather was beautiful – a little too warm if I’m being picky but the first marathon I have run where it didn’t rain.
Water stations were at every 5km and were quite an event. You knew you were approaching one when you saw the sign showing a plate, knife and fork – so more like a stop for lunch. First you had to grab a bottle of water and then further down the table were the snacks – raisons, bananas, orange segments, sugar cubes, cured sausages – a running buffet in every sense of the word!
The route took us past the Louvre, Place de la Bastille and out to Chateau de Vincennes, then looped back into Paris, running along the banks of the Seine, past Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower and under the Trocadero. The cheers and shouts of encouragement from other runners were deafening in here, but very welcome as it was around the 30km mark when everything was hurting. Then it was out to the Bois de Boulogne. In the last 4 miles, the water stations got even more interesting. Various other marathon organisers had feeding stations which also promoted their event. One offered pieces of fruit cake but the most popular was the Bordeaux marathon’s table – baguettes with cheese, washed down with a small glass of red! By this stage of the race, we knew that any time targets were out of the window, so what the heck! I only managed a couple of sips of wine but Sam drained his glass – well they had run out of Powerade!
The finish in Avenue Foch was just ahead and we crossed the line together with a chip time of 4.46. Much slower than we wanted to be, but under the circumstances, not too bad. Despite the setbacks, I really enjoyed the race and Paris is a great, mostly flat course, even if some of the organisation could do with tweaking – like 1 toilet for 8000 runners in our starting pen!
I have to thank Sam for sticking with me and helping me along – he knows he could have run faster but maybe it was a good thing that he just plodded it, considering he’s running the London marathon just 3 weeks later.
I am now planning spring 2010 – and hopefully that sub-4 at last!
Kate
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