Keep on running

From Paris Marathon

It took 5 hours and 8 minutes to complete - but that does not matter because I have finished a marathon.

I actually found the day quite good fun. There were lots of supporters out on the streets of Paris. We started off lining up by the Arc de Triomphe and ran down the Champs Elysees, do not ask me when we then went other than for a long run round Paris with a lot of it along the river taking in the Eiffel tower, which I almost missed as I was not really looking where I was going by that point. There were various bands on the side of the streets, which were a great motivation.

I was pretty impressed by the organisation, water stops every 5 km with water, oranges and bananas (making the ground pretty dangerous at points as covered in banana skins.)

Many people who had done marathons told me they were a race of two halves, the first 20 miles and the last 6. This made me pretty nervous as I crossed mile 20 but was still feeling pretty good (considering) and this lasted until about 21.5 miles. However I was picked up with a nice glass of red wine - yep you read that correctly the French being French serve wine on their marathons and it kinda helps!! Stopped to walk for a bit, sip my wine and chat to who was around me then carried on with an added spring in my step.

By 24 miles I was suffering and I was really struggling. Seeing the British Heart Foundation supporters at mile 25 really spurred me on to the finish line.

And there we have it, Heather the pacemaker girl, runs a marathon - what's next? Am quite tempted to try and finish in sub 5 hours!!

You can still sponsor us for completing this event.....