Preface

Six weeks after Marrakech saw us travel to Paris for the second of our five Half Marathons that would see us travel a joint-total of 75,000 air miles covering each of the five continents.

A relatively uneventful flight (compared with the 500km road trek in Morocco) saw us arrive in the centre of Paris mid-morning on Saturday. We found our way to the (anything but) Grand Hotel (where a Superior Room means you actually get a bed) and set off to collect our race numbers from Expo, the Paris Half Marathon race centre and exhibition.

Although heavy rain had been forecast for the entire weekend, Saturday was a pleasant spring day - it was a shame then that the race was on the Sunday (more later).

Expo sported a vast array of exhibitors, each keen to sign runners up to various long distance challenges such as the Ultra Trail Tour around Mount Blanc, a 155km jaunt which needs to be completed in under 44 hours.

I know Anita was keen by the tone in which she said, "There's no way on earth that you'll get me to do that". When you've been married to someone as long as I have you get to know when 'No' means 'Yes', although strangely, despite picking up two entry forms, I can't for the life of me find them.

We followed Expo with a whistle-stop tour of Paris taking in the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Notre Dame, the Opera House, the Champs Elysees and the Arc De Triumph, before a customary pasta meal and an early night.

Race Day

Sunday morning saw a distinct downturn in the weather and although it wasn't actually raining when we set off from the Grand (sic) Hotel, things didn't look too promising. We had chosen the hotel as it was relatively close to the start of the race, and only a handful of Metro stations away.

Line 9 from Voltaire to Oberkamp, and from there Line 1 from Oberkamp to the Chateau de Vincennes - thirty minutes tops. It seemed very strange then, that when we were sat on the Metro station at Voltaire waiting for the train to Oberkamp, that quite a few runners were waiting on the opposite platform.

I remember saying to Anita when she questioned me why they were going in the opposite direction to us, that they were either doing a different Half Marathon, or that they hadn't planned their journey to quite the level of detail that I had.

Upon arriving at Oberkamp, despite looking, we couldn't find a sign to our connecting line, Line 1. After 10 minutes and a fair bit of walking it became obvious why.

Instead of travelling west from Voltaire to Oberkamp, we should have travelled east to Nation. Obverkamp would have been the correct connecting station had we wished to go into central Paris, and I had become horribly confused with our sightseeing tour on Saturday.

A quick dash across to the other platform and a couple of connecting trains later saw us arrive in just enough time to get changed and hand our bags in. We arrived on the start line with literally seconds to go, and stood waiting for the starting gun as the Heavens opened and the wind picked up. It was going to be a long 13 miles or so.

I was keen to beat the 1:18:51 I had run in Marrakech and I know that Anita's target was to break the 2-hour mark, having run 2:01:03 in Marrakech.

Although the atrocious conditions would certainly not make these targets any easier, I felt a lot more confident about Anita's chances than my own due to me nursing a severely bruised toe on my right foot and a sore ankle on my left, probably a result of over-compensating and refusing to ease off in training.

The past six weeks had also seen Anita put in some very serious training runs, not only at the Yate track, but also at the weekend covering anything up to 15 miles with her London Marathon running buddies.

The first few miles went as they normally do - running at a pace of between 5:50 and 6 minute miling. I knew I needed an average pace of 5:56 or faster to beat the 1 hour 18 minute mark, which was really my target, and at the half way mark I was still inside of this, although only just.

The second half of the race got a lot tougher, running into driving rain, and it gradually became apparent that the best I could hope for was to edge inside of my Marrakech time of 1:18:51.

This seemed a realistic target until the last mile, when having passed the 12.6 mile mark on my Garmin GPS, I still hadn't reached the 20 kilometre mark (the Half Marathon is just over 21 kms).

As a kilometre is 0.62 of a mile, I figured that this meant that I would be running at least 13¼ miles, instead of the much shorter 13.1 prescribed by the World Amateur Athletics Association.

I eventually crossed the line with my Garmin reading 13.26 miles, a whole 0.16 miles (a sixth of a mile) longer than I expected to run, having to sprint to beat the 80 minute mark in a time of 1:19:56, placed 163rd man.

After a quick change of clothes, I set off back down the rain sodden course in search of Anita. The vast amount of runners (25,000 people started) made it very hard to pick someone out, but I eventually caught sight of Anita at around 11.5 miles and asked her what her Garmin was reading.

I knew an average pace of less the 9:06 minute miling would see her break the 2 hour mark, and at that stage she was just outside of this. With me giving her some gentle encouragement, she eventually managed to get her average pace down to 9:07, but unfortunately her Garmin also ready 13.26 miles after crossing the finish time in a heart-breaking time of 2:01:03 - identical to the second to the time she had run in Marrakech.

I eventually calculated that had the course been the prescribed 13.109 miles, she would have run 1 hour 59 minutes and 36 seconds.

I wasn't that disappointed for myself, as even if the course was accurate I would have run around the 1:19 mark, but I was bitterly disappointed for Anita who really deserved a sub 2 hour time for all of her considerable efforts over the past 6 weeks.

The next attempt is in Vancouver, ironically on Anita's birthday, and I know she is extremely determined to give it her best shot. Hopefully everything that needs to come together will and she will get the time she deserves.

We eventually got back to the baggage collection point, and set off through the rain back to the very Grand Hotel. As you can probably imagine, the rain quickly subsided and the sun came out and provided us with a perfect Sunday afternoon, during which we set about seeing as many of the remaining Paris sights as our aching legs could take.

Anita took every opportunity to replace the calories she had lost in the morning, and gradually ate her way through Paris. We eventually wound up in the Paris Hard Rock café, and (owing to the extremely poor Euro/Sterling exchange rate) were forced to take out a 25-year mortgage on two Legendary Burgers and a bottle of wine.

Postscript

Well, that's about it. Two down and three to go. Next stop, Vancouver, Canada, the Americas on Anita's xxth (censored) birthday on 3rd May. Provided you're not bothered about running an extra sixth of a mile, running in torrential rain, or paying £8 a pint, then Paris is the Half Marathon for you.

Anyone interested in helping us raise money for St Peter's Hospice can do so by visiting www.justgiving.com/5continents

Phil Westlake