Race - AnnaTheApple

May 6, 2014November 8, 2018

Cars, bikes and a snowman

Oh man what a weekend. There were a fair few ups and downs I have to say!

Friday ended appallingly. I was driving home from work and just before getting on the motorway and I was stuck in the usual stop-start traffic. The roads were wet and the car in front put its breaks on a little sooner than I was expecting. I slammed my foot fully to the floor and watched as my car slid forward and knocked into the back of the car in front. My poor little Corsa didn’t stand a chance.

The other person’s car was fine – no superficial damage anyway. He was a nice guy but I felt terrible. So embarrassing and stressful 🙁

But anyway, I was fine, he was fine. The only thing not fine was my car. The damage isn’t too bad but I’m pretty sure it’ll be a write-off as it’s such an old banger. Ironically, I had spent some time looking at car insurance reviews on Consumers Advocate not too long before this happened. Ben and me came to the decision that a brand new car would probably be better for me considering my mileage to work everyday. I need something a bit more reliable, safe and economic. Every silver lining, eh? Fairly rubbish way to start the bank holiday weekend though.

Saturday we had a pacing event on at our local Parkrun. I had volunteered to run the 24 minute pace. I was quite excited about doing this as I’d never paced before. But I was very nervous as I was being relied upon!

My bib was huge. I looked sort of naked!!

As we headed to the start I was suddenly followed and surrounded by people hoping to achieve 24 minutes or there abouts. No pressure…

I had planned to run 7.50minute/miles as this would give a bit of lee-way for the ‘nubbin’ of 0.1 mile. I kept fairly consistent to that pace, though I slowed on the up-hills and then sped up on the down-hills to compensate. One guy ran up next to me and said “you do know you’re going slower than you should be for that target?” This hugely panicked me. I checked my watch. Nope, I had gone through the first mile in perfect time. I tried to say no I was fine but he didn’t believe me. He told me I should speed up. I didn’t, but I kept panicking.

My group dwindled a bit as the run continued and this made me panic a bit more but also feel bad because there was nothing really I could do for them. I had to stick to the plan whether they kept up or not.

I finished in 23.45 with a consistent pace. I got thanked by a fellow runner for helping him PB and other runners said they still kept me in their sights despite dropping off. This hugely boosted me. I was so chuffed! The man who had criticised my pace came up and apologised me afterwards as well, saying he misjudged my pace. Mmm, yes, thanks for stressing me out!

After Parkrun we got ready quickly and then headed out to find some road bikes with a friend. We went to quite a few different shops. Big ones, like Decathlon, and small local ones. We got some good information from the different salesmen (what gears were good, what frame sizes we should be looking at, price differences, etc.)

We tested a few out as well. In the end, the price was right and the spec looked good (from our limited knowledge!) for two Carreras from Halfords. We’re not after all singing and all dancing, or top of the range. We wanted something in our price range that fitted well and met our requirements. It had good reviews on the website so we bit the bullet!

TDF for Ben, Virtuoso for me. Maybe these aren’t the best bikes in the world, but for now they’ll be fine I’m sure. We’re hardly going to use them every day or rock out a 60 miler on them any time soon!

On Sunday we did the Dorset Marathon relay race. I was part of a team of four ladies and Ben was in a team of four men. In our running club I think we had four teams in total? And we had several guys running the whole marathon. I’ll do a recap in another post. It went well though and was such a fun day.

Monday was my first ever riding experience on a road bike. Though we’ve bought our new bikes, we haven’t collected them yet so I was borrowing a friend’s bike and shoes. I went out with three other guys from the club and it was good fun!

I was definitely the slowest by far and probably holding them up a fair bit. But it was a fun, sociable ride. The weather was lovely. But it was tough, don’t get me wrong. Jeeze, you think you’re fit until you try something new!

And quite hilly. But the down hills were so much fun! Wind in the hair, crazy speed (for me), exhilarating fun!

I don’t really know what’s fast or not at this stage, but what I do know is it felt more like a long run in terms of endurance rather than a speed session (which I guess you can see from my average speed). And I didn’t fall off once amazingly. I got used to the clip-on shoes and started getting the hang of gears and positioning on the bike.

I was shattered though afterwards. My bum hurt (despite wearing new padded shorts), my legs felt tired and my wrists actually ached a bit as well. Then it was off out to look for new cars.

After going round different car dealers I’m pretty much 100% decided on a Fiat 500. A very iconic and ‘girlie’ car perhaps, but small and dinky enough for me (and very safe, economical and eco-friendly). We’ve spec’ed up what we want so it’ll be a wait yet. Ho hum. Well, I say ‘we’ spec’ed up. Ben pretty much did this for me as I literally don’t know anything about cars. Ben had a lot of fun though as you can imagine 😉

We then went to Nando’s and had chicken. Perfect day, really! Topped off only with an evening of lolling on the couch in a chicken-induced coma watching Frozen. Ben’s face when the characters started singing was hilarious. He’s very much a Disney novice and didn’t quite expect how much singing there would be. He did enjoy it though and I heard him singing “Do you want to build a snowman?” while getting ready this morning. Excellent.

Have you ever paced a race before?

What car do you have? I’m such a car novice. Ben did all the talking in the dealership!

What’s your longest bike ride?

Have you seen Frozen? I loved it. Disney doing what Disney does best. And any film with a Princess Anna (though said ‘Arrrrnnna’) is fine by me.

April 28, 2014January 5, 2017

Last week’s workouts

Last week was a weird running week. I sandwiched a tough run (the first RR10 race) between two fairly easy runs.

I took Monday off as a complete rest day. I think it’s so important to rest your body. It can be so tempting to just run all the time but I know from experience that this never works out well for me.

Tuesday I could have gone to the interval session with the club but I had the RR10 on Wednesday night and really wanted to try hard. So I went for an easy 6 miles after work. Nothing remarkable.

Wednesday was the RR10 in the evening. This is basically Hampshire’s set of league races that are around 4-5 miles long and tend to be fairly hilly and off-road. Like clockwork the rain started as soon as I left work about two hours before the start.

Ben dropped me off at a fellow club friend’s house so I could do a mile warm up run. I can’t just start flat-out race speed without warming up first. My legs de-friend me that way. Ben’s knee was giving him a bit of grief so he declined the extra running.

The RR10 was located at our local Parkrun in Netley Abbey so I was familiar with the area.

Sadly the toilets were locked at the time of the evening and I was desperate for a wee (sorry for TMI) It wasn’t even like a safety wee, it was a ‘genuinely-required-pee situation’. I had to dash off to find a bush, which was such an effort as most of the bushes were a bit scarce in their foliage and there were so many flipping dog walkers. Anyway, I found one of the necessary criteria. Hmm a whole paragraph on my peeing situation – apologies.

We did a bit more warming up. Anyone else just feel terrible during warm ups? Like every ache your body has ever experienced rears its head. I felt so de-motivated and tired.

Anyway we all headed to the start (our running club was looking strong with it’s red white and blue vests and such a great turn out). I planned to line up fairly near the front so I wouldn’t get caught behind people (RR10s are based on positions not time). Then we were off.

It was painful, fast, muddy, slippy and the whole time I was just thinking “this is hard.” and “I could slow down, that would be nice”. I decided not to look at my watch because a) I was concentrating on not falling over with all the mud and b) I just didn’t have time. It was one of those races I just kept my head focused the entire time.

Amazingly I came 10th female, and first female in my club. Judging from how tough the race felt and my race photos, it’s clear I worked hard for it!

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Still have my name on my vest from the marathon. All the cool kids are doing it 😉

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Are race photos ever flattering? This is on the last 100m. I remember seeing the photographer and in my mind briefly thinking “Oh jeeze this is going to be bad” as I desperately tried to sprint to the finish.

The next photo is one of my favourites. Not because I look nice or anything like that. It’s just the evil daggers I’m throwing at the photographer.

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I look seriously grumpy!

I was so chuffed with my position and after grabbing a drink I stood and cheered as other club runners finished.

Ben finished 192nd out of the men. There are always a lot more men than women unfortunately for Ben. He was chuffed though as his knee hadn’t caused him any issues. Whew.

Safe to say it was a very muddy run!

Then cakes appeared. Well, obviously I was there in a nano-second. Would you be surprised if I said I had four cakes? Yeah I’m not either. To be fair though two of them were quite slim biscuits. The other was a regular sized (amazing) cookie (with mini eggs in it?? WOW) and a slice of iced sponge.

I went home buzzing as you can imagine!

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It took ages to fall asleep that evening. Maybe it was the cakes or my aching legs but I really struggled.

Thursday I woke up tired and achy, but in a satisfying way. That evening I went to running club with the absolute iron intention of an easy run. I ran the mile down there at a nice relaxed pace enjoying the sunshine. I tagged along with the normal group I go with but telling myself over and over again not to go to fast. My options were limited with groups – it was either an off-roader (the one I went with) or a 7 mile 8-8.30min/mile group, or the much slower (than me – it’s all relative!) groups.

In the end I think I’d chosen well as we took it nice and easy and the terrain was very similar to the previous night’s RR10 so speed just wasn’t an option. Whew. But my legs felt very heavy and tired. I almost dashed off home as we past near where we live. It was a good 8.5 miles though in the end with an average pace of 9mins (a couple of those miles 10mins so that was good).

Friday was another rest day. I had intended on a strength workout (this week has been terrible for that) but it just didn’t happen sadly. You win some, you lose some. I did have a sports massage though on my calves. My left calf was feeling tight and almost a little niggly so I wanted to nip that in the bud quickly.

Saturday I got up earlier than usual and ran the 4 miles to Parkrun to help set up. I ran the extra miles because Ben and me were off to a wedding later in the day so a Sunday run was never going to happen 😉

On starting the run I felt so tired and my legs so heavy (still!). I was not feeling it at all. I made Ben make me a coffee that he’d take with him so I could drink it when I got there. He’s lovely like that.

He took me a black coffee and my water bottle. Very handy having him go by car. I saw him pass me when I was about 0.5miles away and it definitely made me run faster “need coffee!!!”

I got to parkrun, we helped set up and I was dragging my feet a bit. It was cold and I just wasn’t in the mood. However, when we lined up I put some music on and just got into it. I ran 22 minutes flat! It was crazy, I suddenly just decided “let’s do this”.

Not my fastest, but the course is the three laps with the hill and some fairly boggy grass so I was chuffed. The effort was definitely there! I was pleased I went for a speedy run.

After that, it’s two days off and then strength workout tonight (Monday night) and then hopefully intervals with the club Tuesday evening.

How was your week in terms of work outs?

How do you motivate yourself to work hard? Music tends to help me and also the ‘race environment’ gets me going.

How often do you work out and what’s your balance between cardio and strength? I try to do at least two strength sessions a week and usually 4-5 runs.

April 16, 2014April 16, 2014

Le Paris – before the marathon

Here’s my recap of what we did in Paris before the marathon. I know this is probably so uncultured to admit but… Ben and me really only went to Paris for the marathon. For a bit of an adventure to run an iconic marathon in a different country. I won’t lie, if there wasn’t the marathon we wouldn’t have gone. So we didn’t really do any planning for the actual non-marathon related times. That’s not to say we didn’t have a good time though.

We left on Friday afternoon from Southampton airport – which for us is literally a 15 minute drive away. As you can imagine, this was a dream. The day before I decided to panic buy the 220 Garmin from Amazon and as I have Amazon Prime I was really hoping it would arrive before we left. I could have hugged the postman when he turned up with it!

Wearing my lovely slipper boots there

We had a couple of last minute things to do before leaving…

Like ironing on our names to our running club vests. [Side note: because our running club colours are red, white and blue when I was running the marathon quite a few French people clapped me on the back and said things like “Vivre le France”. Mildly amusing.]

Anywho, we got to Paris without any issues. After getting to our lovely hotel, we then took a taxi to get to the marathon expo. We thought it’d probably be wise to do it Friday evening rather than Saturday when a lot of people would also be there.

We walked past the barriers (bottom left photo) feeling quite good that we didn’t have to queue there//In the bottom right photo there’s a man standing as a mannequin and jumping out at people which was very funny

Having never been to a race expo before I didn’t really know what to expect. I was neither blown away nor disappointed. We got our marathon bibs and our t-shirt for the next day’s race (the Breakfast Run – you used your t-shirt as your race entry). Annoyingly they had run out of small t-shirts for the Breakfast Run so I had to settle for a medium. It was quite the tent on me!

Here’s the expo haulage:

Not too shabby. The white square thing is a sponge which you could take around with you during the marathon and dunk it in buckets of water to sponge yourself with. Purely my own personal preference, but the thought of doing that after thousands of other sweaty people was definitely not my cup of tea. The fact that I saw people dunking their entire heads and drinking the water from the buckets during the race really freaked me out!

Then we walked to find somewhere to eat. Ideally we were looking for a cheap place to just grab something easy. But we struggled with places not having English translations on the menu (yes I know, how very ignorant of me not knowing French and being such a tourist with my expectations. I feel suitably ashamed). In the end we picked a place because the menu didn’t look too expensive (in Paris terms) on a very quick cursory glance and it had pretty lights on the front. Yep, key important restaurant necessities.

As we sat down we suddenly realised it was fairly posh. This was further clarified when a group of four sat near us covered head to toe expensive designer clothes and jewellery and the men had expensive laughs (you know the kind) and cravats.

At this point we felt a little underdressed… The restaurant (Bistrot Jadis) was lovely. The service impeccable, the food…oh the food! I had some sort of soup to start which was creamy and rich, but very tasty. I wish I could tell you what it actually was but see above about me being an ignorant tourist. It was definitely fish. Then I had a steak with anchovy sauce and stuffed mushrooms for main. I could have licked the plate. For pudding we both went for a passion fruit crumble thing. Basically passion fruit custard on a crispy sweet biscuit with meringue, er, mini rods?

All in all, deeeeelicious. However, very very rich. My poor tummy felt a bit hard done by later that night, but nothing major. Just a very heavy and queasy feeling. This made it clear that we were to take no risks the night before the marathon.

The next morning we were up early to go to the 5km Breakfast Run (organised by the Paris marathon, 5 Euros to take part in – bargain!)

Sorry I couldn’t resist this photo…

There was such a great atmosphere for the start and entire race.A bit like a Parkrun, but filled with so many different nationalities. Ben and me discussed our game plan: run together, nine minute miles and no faster. Keep it nice and easy.

However, this became a joke because the leading car (blaring out crazy music) didn’t let people run faster. So we were running 10-11minute miles. Hey, fine by me! It did make me laugh though – Saturday 9am and this car is belting out Sean Paul dance songs stupidly loud down residential streets in Paris. Bet they loved us.

There were a few stops here and there so lots of photo taking opportunities. This was good because I didn’t take any photos during the marathon – although I had planned to. It was just too complicated to navigate getting the phone out with gels and headphones. Plus I was terrified of dropping it during such a big race.

The route was different to the marathon (thankfully – what a spoiler that would have been otherwise!) but it did go under the Eiffel Tower which was cool.

At the end there were stupid amounts of croissants, pain au chocolats, coffee, bananas and water. Nicely done. We then had a fair walk back to the hotel (an hour’s walk)…meaning my banana and Ben’s pain au chocolat became breakfast and after we’d showered and got out of the hotel it was lunch time!

Can I just put it out there now… I did not go to Paris for a culinary adventure. I wanted to keep things simple the day before the marathon. And finding my favourite salad on the menu ticked all my requirements.

Chicken Caesar salad with bacon, a hard boiled egg, croutons, shaved parmesan and a delicious dressing on the side for my pouring pleasure 😀

I’m also going to hold my hands up now and say we went back to this cafe twice more and I had this salad each time. It was that good.

Then we met up with some friends and sat in a lovely bar/cafe for a while catching up. After this we then made the error of walking a lot…to the Arc de Triomphe, down the Champs-Élysées and back on the metro. I was starting to panic about how far we were walking and also I was having huge doubts about the next day. After saying goodbye to our friends, we had dinner (pizza) and headed back to the hotel (where my panicking would continue).

The next day –> The marathon.

I’ll (finally) finish up Paris with what we did post-marathon and the day and a half after 🙂

Have you ever been to Paris before?

Have you ever gone to a foreign country to run a race/take part in an event?

Do you enjoy French food?

April 14, 2014

Running and supporting

Happy Monday! And congratulations to all you amazing people who ran in the London marathon.

I definitely felt I was crawling by Friday. I was so tired. Normally when my alarm goes off I’m bang awake. But last week’s mornings were a big struggle. On Friday night Ben and me went out for an Indian with friends for a charity evening. But by 9.30pm I was shattered and we just had to go home. I was in bed fast asleep by 10pm.

Saturday morning Ben and me were up early to help setup our local Parkrun.

It was a lovely morning. Crisp, sunny and clear. I had no plans for the Parkrun. Just take it as I fancy. I was stood next to Ben and some other guys from the running club at the start and as soon as we started BOOM Ben was off. I was doing 6.30ish min a mile (not for long!) so I was happy to let him go.

Ben has come on in leaps and bounds with his running (his 10k PB is only a minute off mine currently – though I haven’t run one since June ;-)) I’m so pleased for him. He’s chipped away at his Parkrun time each week which is a clear indication that his speed is really improving.

Anyway, I was happy to sit nicely at 7.10min miles and didn’t feel like I was 100% blasting it, which made me feel really happy! I ran on Thursday evening as my first post-marathon run and though it was more tiring than usual, my speed was there surprisingly. I’m very pleased but I also know to take things easy and not go crazy while I’m still recovering.

In the end I finished Parkrun with a time of 21:40 and third woman, and Ben got 22:28. Not too shabby at all!

We helped clear away, had a quick cup of tea with the guys form the club and then dashed home for breakfast, showers and housework. At lunchtime we headed to my favourite restaurant…Jamie’s Italian to have a nice lunch with my parents.

I’m not even going to post a photo of my main because I had what I always have (Turkey Milanese). If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. But my starter was something new.

Vegetable crudités on ice with a delicious lemon yogurt dip.

We had a nice quiet evening where we chilled out on the sofa watching Jerry McGuire (never seen it before – bit of a classic) and then an early night.

Sunday morning we got up early to get a run in before the TV coverage of the London marathon. I went for a solo 10 miles listening to my film review podcast. It was so lovely. I just ran how I felt and though it felt more tiring than usual everything felt good. The sun was shining and I was in the comfort of knowing that if I didn’t fancy 10 miles I could run 8 or 6 or whatever really. No training plan, no pressures, no stress. Just easy, enjoyable running.

In the coming weeks I’m aiming to improve my speed, keep my long runs under 13 miles and just tick over nicely.

I got back in time to quickly jump in the shower and then watch the London marathon.

I had my crib sheet next to me of the elite runners: their PBs and accolades, and my two British flags. I was ready to go. The women’s race was more exciting than the men’s I must say. I was really rooting for Tirunesh Dibaba as it was her debut and I was devastated when she dropped her water bottle. A nice tense finish though for the Kiplagats at the end.

I think we all knew Mo Farah wouldn’t win the marathon but I did think he’d break the British record. Sadly I think he made some mistakes (not being in the front group at the start for example). BUT that being said, he did amazingly for his debut. The commentator really needed a slap for what he said (“stick to the track, Mo”). Who judges someone on one race? Jeeze give the guy a break. It was good to watch and I’m pleased for Wilson Kipsang – he just looked so comfortable the whole time.

We were also tracking a lot of different people, either from the club, friends, bloggers… everyone did fantastically. Well done! You guys made me so jealous 🙂

Anywho, the rest of the day we spent seeing my sister, brother-in-law and nieces, having a long walk with Alfie and then just relaxing. Perfect!

Did you run or watch the London marathon? I desperately want to run it now!

Did you make the most of the lovely weather (if it was lovely for you)?

If you know there’s a meal in a restaurant you love, do you stick to that or try something new? I’m so boring but at least I know I’m guaranteed a good meal.

April 9, 2014October 28, 2016

Paris Marathon 2014

Let me begin by saying this ends very happily 🙂 I had the best marathon experience I could have ever have wished for. I’ll try my hardest to keep to the real ‘meat’ of the marathon in my recap and I’ll talk about the days before and after a bit more in another post.

Day Before (briefly)

Ben and I had signed up for the Paris Breakfast 5km Run the day before the marathon as a ‘shake out’ run. I wanted to stretch my legs a bit having been on a plane and travelling the day before.

I won’t talk too much about this run as I want to focus on the ‘real’ run. But it was a fun way to start Saturday morning. However I was so nervous and I was over-thinking every single twinge. My calf felt tight (as it had done all week really) and I started to panic.

In retrospect our day before the marathon was textbook stupid. We ran 5km in the morning (albeit very slowly with lots of stops) and then walked a fair amount as we met up with some friends. They knew we were doing the marathon and we said we didn’t want to walk too much but I think as non-runners ‘not walking too much’ is all relative. In the end we did almost 30,000 steps. Not good.

For dinner we sought out a pizzeria and had a really tasty pizza. I went for a tuna, egg and vegetable one and Ben had his standard margarita.

I’m not proud of this, but that evening I went into meltdown. I was freaking out. Worst case scenarios were just filling my head. I was suddenly convinced I wouldn’t finish and would have to stop. I got very upset and panicked and Ben had to calm me down. Bless him, he ended up reading from the Paris marathon handbook thing they gave out at the expo which really helped. I did manage to fall asleep about 10.30pm though.

Morning

I was awake before my 6am alarm. We had stacks of time as we didn’t have to leave the hotel until 7.30am. I basically floated around the room in a dazed state. I had a black coffee and porridge that we’d packed from home. I even brought chia seeds with me to add to it.

Then we left. It took about 30 minutes to walk to the Arc de Triomphe, which was a nice warm up.

It was crazy because cars were still driving round, the road wasn’t closed.

My major gripe (of which I was aware of beforehand having read a few Paris marathon recaps) was that there were probably less than 30 loos. Ben and me stood in a queue for about 10 minutes before I started to panic and decide I’d use the ones in the actual pens (again, I’d found this out beforehand).

The weather was cool but not that cold. But I’d bought a huge hoody from a charity shop just in case.

Then Ben and me said our goodbyes and went to our respective pens. It’s laughable as I was in the 3:15 pen (Ben in the 3:45). When I signed up I was optimistic that I would be aiming for 3:30 but wanted to make sure I wouldn’t get held up so went one further. Now it was a joke as that wasn’t my aim at all.

When I got to the pen (now having about 40 minutes to wait until the start) I stood in the line for the SINGLE loo. I was lucky enough to have managed to go before the race began, but honestly it was a joke.

The sun was now beating down quite strongly and was right in our eyes. We started bang on time.

The Race

I had quite a structured plan of the paces I wanted to stick to (which I had written down, laminated and kept in my sports bra for the race). I knew it would be very tempting to blast it out right at the beginning, especially considering the speedy wave I was in. But I held on to my nerve and kept, thereabouts, to what I wanted. I was probably 10 or seconds faster but I was comfortable with that.

The sun was right in our eyes for such a long time it was quite hard to see around me. We ran past the Place de la Concorde, but again it was tough to see because of the sun. It’s funny because from mile 1-10 I was still convinced I wouldn’t finish.

I ran without music or podcasts and just tried to enjoy the first 10 miles. My first milestone I was aiming for was 10k because I knew my time would get pinged back to my parents at home who I’d signed up to receive a text for my times. Then my next milestone was mile 8 where I took my first gel (I held three gels in one hand and my wireless headphones in my other – this was fine as I don’t mind holding small things when I run though my hands got very sweaty).

There was lots to see and quite a bit of support (but nothing like I imagine London will be like; it reminded me more of a bigger half marathon level of support in the UK). Also the supporters seemed only to be supporting their significant others rather than cheering everyone in general. Though my name was on my bib, only two people shouted “allez Anna” the entire race.

At around 10k, when we got into a lovely park (after passing the Place de la Bastille and Chateau de Vincennes) I started to get very hot and thirsty. Luckily there were drinks stations at every 5km. I have another gripe with this. There were signs to say it was coming up but no real direction (that I was aware of) of which side of the road they were at. It was manic around there as well. My technique was just dive in with my hand out, catch the eye of a volunteer, grab a drink and get the hell out of there asap.

At first I just had a few swigs then binned the bottle. But later I realised I needed to hold the bottle and keep it with me as I’d get thirsty so quickly again and 5km was too long to wait for another.

At 10 miles I put my podcast on. I needed to take my mind off the running. The running was fairly easy, I was maintaining a nice comfortable pace but it was wearing on the brain. I was keeping a very close eye on my pace constantly reminding myself that though I felt great now I would feel terrible later at the same or perhaps slower pace. This really kept in check my speed. It would have been very easy to have gone faster at this point.

My next milestone was 12 miles where I had my next gel. I didn’t feel I needed the gels but I was terrified of bonking later so took it regardless (in retrospect, I won’t take more than one gel because it made me feel quite sick). Then I aimed for half way (another point my time went back to my parents). I must say I can’t remember too much about the race at this point. My goal was purely just to keep focusing on a steady even pace and listen to the podcast.

There was a tunnel we went under and were in for a fair amount of time that I really did not enjoy. It was so hot and muggy that it was quite uncomfortable. It was also very dark with lots of psychedelic flashing lights. This made me feel even more sick.

My next mile stone was 18 miles. Psychologically I wanted to get there because this was where everyone says you struggle. Out of the entire race though I would say I struggled half way to 17 miles the most in terms of mentally staying on track. The effort of running was becoming harder, not in terms of fitness or lungs or whatever, but the pounding on my body. Suddenly little niggles were cropping up. I felt a tightness in my hamstring and my knee was occasionally niggling. But it never felt really bad or worrying. Just simply that by this point I’d been running well over two hours, almost three.

At 18.5ish I knew my time would have gone back to my parents (little did I know they were tracking my every 5km on the Paris marathon app). At this point I was actually feeling quite good and suddenly felt confident I would finish (I know this sounds ridiculous). As I closed in around 20 miles I started doing the maths for what time I could achieve. I knew I’d added on distance for my winding and just generally not running the exact tangent so I tried to estimate that.

At 20 miles I popped on some music. And let me tell you what a buzz that was! Suddenly my whole body got into gear and I was ready to go. The music really got me going and I was loving it. Hitting every new mile was a huge buzz. I ended up running next to a girl who was at my speed and we stuck together. I vaguely remember seeing people handing out champagne and dried meats but I kept focused and kept going.

The girl was brilliant. She really pushed me forward. At first when I was next to her it seemed a bit of a coincidence of pace, but then after waiting for each other at the drink station it was clear we were both helping each other (though really she was helping me). As I hit 25 miles I knew I probably had 1.5miles left. I started to lag a bit and told the girl to go on but she turned and said “no, no, stay behind me. Keep going”. In the end though her pace was too much and I thanked her and told her to go – she smiled and ran off, I wish I could have thanked her later. That last bit…was just like pure physical and mental pain; harder than I’ve ever had before. My pace wasn’t crazy but it was just such hard work. I got to the 26 mile mark and started counting down the minutes.

I turned round the corner of the Avenue du Foch and saw the finish. Head down, keep pushing. Every single single.

Then it was over.

I stopped as soon as I hit the line. Watch switched off. Relief. Accomplishment. Happiness. Sheer shock. 3:41:18

And then the zombie march began. Every one around me was stumbling, hobbling and crawling forward. I immediately rang my dad. He told me he’d been monitoring the whole way through the app (bless him). After grabbing a water I collapsed to sit onto the curb. I felt sick, dizzy and knackered.

After chatting to my dad a bit and getting an update on Ben (as he was also tracking Ben) I found my finishes t-shirt (small and it fits!), my medal (but of course) and a huge green tent/poncho. It’s amazing how cold you quickly become.

I floated around aimlessly. My legs were unbelievably achy, but nothing in pain (HALLALEUIGH!). Getting up from the curb was a feat in itself. A French guy nodded at me sympathetically as I attempted to get up.

I saw some funny sights as I walked forward to get out of the area.

It seemed anything went! I felt incredibly sick and foolishly had half a banana, which only made me feel so much worse. I kept sipping water and walking forwards. Then suddenly, bam, in the middle of the road were so many food carts.

I couldn’t even think about food let alone smell it. I tried to get out of there as quickly as possibly.

I knew Ben was a bit behind what he’d hoped so I went to our meeting point and laid on a bench.

Near the Arc de Triomphe of course. I was getting very cold at this point and was desperate to know how Ben was. I stretched a lot and kept my feet up and just waited.

Ben text me when he was done and after 30 minutes we met up. He had been aiming for a sub-four but after unexplainably tight quads from mile nine he missed his goal. He got a very respective 4:22:11. A very significant PB (by about 50 minutes!).

We both staggered back to the hotel grinning from ear to ear.

Done. Done. Done.

I’m so pleased. I can’t believe it went so well. I did enjoy it, it was tough obviously, but at no point did I think “I hate this” or “I hate running” or “never again”. I’d say my approach was first 10 miles ENJOY, second 10 miles IGNORE (trying to take my mind off the hard work), last 10k FOCUS. I kept to my paces, I made no mistakes and everything went smoothly. Thank god. Thank you for all your support as well 🙂

More to come on the Paris trip itself, the post-marathon experience and what’s next…