VIIS - PARIIS — Run for Fun Club

5 PARIS

APRIL 2019

Sous le ciel de Paris
S'envole une chanson mmmmm
Elle est née d'aujourd'hui
Dans le cœur d'un garçon
Sous le ciel de Paris
Marchent des amoureux mmmmm
Leur bonheur se construit
Sur un air fait pour eux …

It was my fifth marathon and once again a fantastic experience. But in order to talk about today's events, then first of all, let's go back a year when the registration was opened on 12 April 2018 at 12 a.m. sharp. The Paris Marathon is very popular and to secure your place in it, you must not only be fast on the race course, but also on the computer.

In November 2018, I started collecting training kilometres, a total of which over the five months amounted to less than I had planned, only 360. Winter running wasn't really a piece of cake. Minus degrees, slippery roads and headwind dominated the outside. My thighs frozen solid I repeated the mantra in my head: „Not giving up, not giving up, not giving up.“ „Train hard, fight easy.“ I'd rather have been warming my toes in front of the fireplace and sipping some mulled wine, but training kilometres needed to be collected, and every step took me closer to the big dream, to run a marathon on the famous Avenue des Champs Elysees.

I trained for the marathon in snowy Estonia by running and skiing, during the winter in summery Florida and even on the Caribbean cruise.

When visiting a book shop in January, I noticed Alexandra Heminsley's autobiographical book Running Like a Girl in the bargain counter. It flew right into my shopping basket without a second thought, and already in the evening of the same day, I devoured the pages of the book eagerly. At times, I felt like this book had been written about myself. Alexandra speaks about her struggles with the trainings and first marathons without any stigma. How she fought with tears and thoughts of quitting at the race, and how she thought for a second after the first marathon that she will never run a marathon again. I had it pretty much the same way. The Tokyo Marathon was an enormous effort for me. Even though I was struggling with foot cramps from the 20th kilometre till the end of the course, I never thought about quitting. However, after the marathon followed a sleepless night due to foot pain, and on the next day I could move my feet forward only 5 cm at a time. I was completely sure that it was my first and last marathon. Years later though, similarly to Alexandra Heminsley, I was at the start of my second marathon, this time in Valencia. Directly before the Valencia Marathon, I learnt from the webpage that the course time limit for finishing the race was, at that moment, totally unreal for me, and if you don't fit in the time frame, you will simply be disqualified. It had been years from my previous marathon, and my level of fitness had not improved in years, but rather to the opposite. I was terrified of being eliminated from the race. Ashamed that I wouldn't be able to finish the marathon, I'd have to turn back home. What added fuel to the fire was my running mate saying to herself: „If I should run over five hours, I'm going to get off the course and quit.“ As if running a marathon time over five hours is something awfully terrible. Anyway, that one sentence was enough to make me feel even worse.

Nevertheless, I was welcomed by the sight of the blue carpet at the finish corridor, and the soundtrack ('What a Feeling') of the movie Flashdance could be heard from the speakers – „Take your passion and make it happen.“

During the last couple hundred metres I fought with tears of joy because I was genuinely happy that I was able to finish the race. I still secretly believe that I could become a runner one day.

Alexanda Heminsley: „The only answer I had for those who said they would never be able to make it farther than 5K was: „You have to decide to. You just have to want to.“

To a beginner marathon runner like me, it was a very interesting and educative read. I had barely finished the book when Enn Sellik's, one of the most famous Estonian long distance runner, autobiography Jooksja found its way onto my nightstand. A fantastic story about a man who believed in himself and trusted his instructor. No one knows how far he would have got if he didn't have to train under the strict regime of the Soviet Union.

Who would have thought that I, who previously packed my sailboard equipment on top of the roof of my car at the slightest gust of wind and speeded towards the sea, would now read books on running with great interest instead?

Five months prior to the marathon, the organisers created a closed group on Facebook for the female runners #ParisMarathonGirls. It was wonderful to read the posts written by other runners. Very many members of the group were over forty years old. There were also women who were over fifty and sixty years old, and Paris was only their first marathon.

Harriette Thompson, the world's oldest marathon runner, is living proof that it's never too late to start running a marathon. A pianist by profession, who survived cancer several times in her life, ran her first marathon only when she was 76 years old. She ran her last marathon when she was 92 years old. The title of the oldest half-marathon runner among women also belongs to her. She was 94 years old at the time.

Age is just a number in the passport!

Let's get to Paris now. You should definitely arrive a day or two earlier at the marathon destination, and of course everybody has some favourite places where they enjoy spending time in Paris. I love to visit Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the Latin Quarter, because there you can find the best places to eat in Paris, and the gorgeous Luxembourg Gardens is only a stone's throw away.

The best place for breakfast is in cafe Les Deux Magots in the district of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. In the olden days, the regulars of this cafe included Camus, Picasso and many other famous people of the time, and the scent of the era is still tangible there even now.

And if you love seafood, then you should absolutely try out the mussels in restaurant chain Leon.

There are many street artists in Paris, the district of Saint-Germain-des-Prés as well as the riverside of Seine are conquered by them.

There is a small market opened for garden enthusiasts, in the street by the riverside of Seine, near the Louvre, which is like an oasis in the middle of the desert. It's especially nice to walk through the place in the summer heat, letting the moisture of the plants pleasantly cool you.

During my last visits to Paris, I've stayed near the Latin Quarter. This time, though, I chose a hotel as close to the starting point of the marathon, the Champs Elysee, as possible. A lovely hotel on Rue du Faubourg Saint Honore, in the eighth district of Paris, became my Parisian home. That narrow street is one of the world's most luxurious and modern because of the boutiques of the many famous fashion houses that are represented there. The area is safe due to the embassies nearby. There are also numerous art galleries, and there was also a very beautiful alley of umbrellas with sculptures in the side street of our hotel, making it a good place to rest one's feet.

The race numbers were distributed at the grand runners' EXPO, which was open all three days before the start. It was an excellent chance to purchase new training equipment or other necessities for running. In order to be allowed at the start in France, you must have undergone medical examination. If you don't have an active medical certificate, you will not be given a race number and you will not be allowed on the course.

The start area was about a kilometre's walk from the hotel. In the morning of the race day, the streets were deserted and closed for traffic. The closer I got to Champs Elysee, the more I could see runners from every corner heading towards the same direction. Fancy shoppers and tourists were replaced with slim runners.

Last night, when others enjoyed some good French wine with their food, I drank water and thought, why am I doing all of this? But when I was in the starting lineup with all the other thousands of runners, I realised at once that I was in the right place.

Marathon runners are all together like one big friendly family. You go running with your friends and if you're alone at the race, you'll make friends with other runners. At the start of the Paris Marathon, there were in total a bit less than 50,000 runners, who were from 160 different countries.

The spectators of the Paris Marathon were simply amazing. They cheered you on every step: „Allez, allez!“, „Courage, courage!“, „Bravo!“. It was easy to run because, in addition to the cheerers, the course passed through the most beautiful places of Paris.

And the darkest tunnels.

Parisians really love dogs. If I had had the time to take pictures, I would have come back with a full album of dog photos taken from the sides of the course.