Paris Marathon

Last weekend we went to Paris, mainly for me to do the marathon but it was also a good opportunity for a bit of a holiday and to catch up with my parents as they were also in Paris as dad was doing the marathon.

On the Friday Jackie and I went for a walk around Montmartre, the suburb where we were staying before going to meet up with mum and dad, we all went up to level two of the Eiffel tower.

Photo from level 2

Photo from the bottom

Photo of Eiffel Tower at night

For dinner that evening we went back to the suburb where we were staying, where we went to a great restaurant called Chez Toinnette for dinner. We all had red meat, I had rack of lamb (which was more like lamb chops but nice all the same) Jackie had a delicious lamb shank, mum had a stuffed veal roll and dad had the pigeon. I tasted all of the meals, they were all great but I think dad's was the best. It turns out that the restaurant is rated number 5 out of more than 6,000 restaurants in Paris on tripadvisor ratings.

Next morning (after loading up on croissants) we went to the marathon expo where we picked up my race pack before going back to catch up with mum and dad for lunch before going on a river cruise. The river cruise was ok although the seats weren't particularly comfortable, it was extraordinarily hot, the view wasn't the best from the seats we had and the river had a really bad smell, so all in all probably not a highlight. After agreeing on plans for meeting before the marathon the next day we went our separate ways to have our final evening meals before the run. Jackie and I went to an Italian restaurant up the road from where we were staying with a couple of friends, one of which was also doing the marathon.

I had an ok but not brilliant sleep before the marathon. Everything went well in terms of getting ready, getting on the train and finding dad before the marathon, getting to the start was easy enough and the start went quite well too. It took us 16 minutes to get over the start line which was about what I would have expected. The number of people running at our pace made it difficult to keep a consistent pace but we did pretty well. The heat was clearly going to be an issue, it was warm in the sun at the beginning of the run, it was undoubtedly going to get hot before long.

Before the start in front of the Arc de Triomphe

Before long we managed to bump into the Bixley's who are Jackie's parents accountants. The usual conversation transpired between people wearing identifiably NZ clothing which went something like "where are you from... oh really, do you know so and so.... " and sure enough we knew people in common. Jackie had told me about these people doing the marathon before hand but I didn't know what they looked like and even if I did the chances of seeing them in amongst 40000 other people running the marathon would be slim to none, but there you go, further proof it is a small world after all!

We carried on, seeing Mum and Jackie at the 9km mark. Mum had fashioned herself a device to be spotted more easily amongst the crowds - picture a lot of bird scaring metallic tape attached to the end of an umbrella - that's exactly what mum had, and it was very effective too!

Me and dad (cut off on the left) at 9km, feeling fresh

Mum with her bird scaring tape device

After seeing mum and Jackie we ran around the first of the two parks, which involved a slight hill but we managed that fine. We next saw mum and Jackie at 19km, spotting them early thanks to the bird scaring tape. Dad got rid of his glasses here and we powered on, still in good shape.

At 19km, still feeling ok

However before long we hit some undulating roads as we went under road tunnels which involved a down hill and flat bit through the tunnel which was easy, followed by a relatively steep incline out of the tunnel, that was the tough bit and took its toll.

It was at this stage that we were running past some great sights, although I'm not sure dad was enjoying them as much as I was! We went past the Notre Dame cathedral, Eiffel Tower, original Statue of Liberty, Roland Garros tennis complex and probably lots of other notable sights along the river Seine that I didn't notice or know about.

Just after going into the second park we saw mum and Jackie again at 35km, probably a bit later than they were expecting and I think they got the message that it might still be a while before we get to the finish, but we will get there. And so we carried on through the park with the crowds urging everyone along and the kilometres slowly counting down.

Finally we turned into Avenue Foch leading towards the Arc de Triomphe and the finish line. We had enough left for a sprint to the finish line which is always important and we were done! It was such a great experience to run a marathon with my dad, I hope that I will do many more marathons in my life and I'm sure I'll do faster times but I don't think anything will ever compare to running the Paris marathon with my dad, truly a once in a lifetime experience.

After picking up our finishers shirts dad sent me ahead to let mum and Jackie know that we were alive and that he would join us shortly, along the way I had to perform my chivalrous duty as a young French lady had injured herself on the run and needed assistance to get to her meeting place, I duly provided an arm for her to lean on as we limped to our respective meeting points.

Not long after I found our supporters did Dad arrive, looking much fresher than when I'd left him.

After the finish, back where we began the day, in front of the Arc de Triomphe

After going home to freshen up (and have a snooze) we went back to mum and dad's hotel where they were having their 'debrief' with their Kerre Woodham tour group before we went for dinner.

The next day Jackie and I went to the Louvre, as is the case with everyone we made a bee line for the Mona Lisa which was quite underwhelming. What was impressive were the vivid colours of a lot of the other much older paintings, which you would generally associate with being relatively dour in colour. We didn't stay long at the Louvre, it was impressive but the crowds and tired legs meant we couldn't really enjoy it. We went back to Montmartre to soak up more of the atmosphere and had another great meal before getting back on the train to London.

Lunch on our last day was a highlight