Paris Marathon

‘April in Paris’ but with the weather more like June and temperatures in the high 20s, Paris looked more beautiful than ever.

Before you start, I know, this race wasn’t on my race calendar. This was actually a surprise weekend away for my partner – obviously with the added bonus of a marathon thrown in for me on the Sunday!

With 35,000 runners, this is one of the largest marathons in Europe. Places for this event were sold out a long time before I was in a position to book but thanks to the gold bonded scheme, where places are awarded to charities enabling them to give them away as fund raisers, I was lucky enough to be awarded a place. Unfortunately, The CF Trust didn’t have any places for Paris, so it was on the closing date for gold bonded awarded entries to be in that I called the charity ‘Get Kids Going’. They had a spare place that was only going to go to waste and were very happy to give me one if I were able to donate make a contribution. Get Kids Going is a national charity whose aim is to give disabled children the opportunity to participate in sport by providing them with specially built sports equipment. I’m hoping the funds I will raise for the CF charities overall this year will far outweigh the cost of entering the race – which is my way of reminding you not to forget to sponsor me if you haven’t already!

Arriving in the centre of Paris by Eurostar on Friday, we headed straight over to the Expo. It was good but they had this ridiculous one way system going on and runners and non runners were forced to separate, which meant at one point I spent more than 30 minutes trying to find Alex. The best thing about the expo was that they had displays from many other countries around the world that were also hosting marathons this year – I picked up the leaflets, managing in some cases to just make out the place and the time (as they were of course all written in French!)

The day before the race, we got up early and decided to explore the city. Again, not too clever but I spent the entire day on my feet walking around – we must have walked eight miles from our hotel, taking in the Eiffel Tower as far out as Sacre Coeur. It wasn’t until the end of the day that I realised just how tired I was.

In the evening we attended a reception being held by Get Kids Going, where we found out they had they had entered the largest charity team – 250 runners. Most of them had turned out for the photocall – you can see from the photo Alex at least managed to get some of them in!

Race Day

Having previously participated in London I thought I’d know what to expect but I was wrong. It was magnificent as we came out of the metro at the Arc d’Triumph to see it not surrounded by traffic and instead in clear view as thousands of people milled around. The start pens are all along the Champs Elysees which is spectacular – until that is, you try and find a toilet. For anyone reading who has never run a marathon, repeatedly needing the loo before you set off is standard – it’s physiological – the only thing I can compare it too is if you have ever performed on stage, made a big presentation or even gone on a long car journey, except add in to the equation that you are taking on loads of fluids to avoid you becoming dehydrated! Anyway, I kid you not, the toilet facilities were non existent. I spent more than 30 minutes in a queue inside McDonald’s (who had opened early to cash in on the numbers of people milling around). As most people will know men queuing for the loo just isn’t normal and most gave up. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the site or smell of all those thousands of men all peeing on the Champs Elysees – it really isn’t so romantic once you’ve seen it like this!

The next more worrying failure from the organisation came during the race. The water stations were quite far apart – we’d been warned about this at our briefing the evening before but with the unusually high temperatures the importance of taking on enough fluid to keep you hydrated becomes even more important. Having only completed the 35 mile run in Cape Town last weekend in extreme heat I thought I’d fair OK but for the second time I was wrong. The first water station was positioned on a bend on cobble stones on the inside of the track. The stand itself consisted of very few tables. There were 35,000 people at this race – If you were on the inside - by the time you saw the water station you’d almost run by it, if you were in the middle or the outside there was no way you were going to even get close to the station – it meant most runners couldn’t get a drink for over 10ks which to me was unacceptable.

Perhaps I am being a little harsh on this marathon but to tell the truth after the brilliant organisation in Cape Town, I was severely disappointed with the organisation of what is supposed to be one of the top events on the running calendar. There is no denying that the course itself is spectacular – taking in some of the world’s best recognised monuments – but unusually high temperatures combined with lack of adaptability by the race organisers really let the event down. At one point during the race, I spotted a fellow runner all over the place – some were looking at him like he were drunk but I immediately spotted the signs – he was so dehydrated that he had completely lost it. I managed to get alongside him and get him to the side of the road where he collapsed – I then had to run on a fair distance before I could find anybody and send them back his way to attend to him.

I too was dehydrated and I really struggled towards the end. With both legs cramping I was forced to run so slow I may as well have been walking. It was at this point that I met with Clive – another runner from the UK running for Get Kids Going. I have to be honest it is thanks to Clive that I finished the race – we met around the 24 mile marker - at which point I was really feeling it. I guess it was only to be expected that having run 24 miles in such unexpected heat and only finished an exhausting 35-miler the weekend before that I would be feeling some pain. Clive, however, came by at just the right moment to boost my confidence and keep me going. He stuck by my side until the end of the race and you can see us pictured crossing the finish line together. Thanks Clive.

I’d arranged to meet Alex at the finish line 3hr 30 after she’d waved goodbye to me at the start, I didn’t make it to our agreed meeting point until almost an hour after that. Although disappointed with my time (3hrs, 59 mins) and frustrated with my body’s performance, I was pleased to have finished and knocked another 26 miles off my mammoth 600 scheduled for this year.

Fortunately, due to the brilliant chip technology and its capability being fully utilised, despite my poor time keeping Alex wasn’t stood wondering where I’d got to for an hour. It is the first time I’ve come across this, but the chip you attach to your trainers, which usually records the time you cross the start and finish line, also registered your progress at different points on the course, sending updates to pre-programmed mobile phones.

Instead of being worried or angry that I was literally running late Alex had received these updates and had worked out I was a little behind schedule. When we finally met up she was in fact really happy! In her words she explained – “no better place to leave me for four hours than in the middle of the fashion capital of the world with all your personal belongings including your cash and credit cards!” Future male runners of this marathon be warned!