Kim's Paris Half Marathon 2013 - "Allez les filles!"
We arrived in Paris on the Friday, and headed straight to the Château de Vincennes esplanade to register and pick up our Race Bibs - the realisation of actually having to run 13miles in a couple of days finally hits me at this point.
On the Sunday, we arrived - late as usual - and took the obligatory Instagram pic with Adam of Harbour runners and got ready for the 21 km ahead (my last post said 23km- I'm an idiot I know).
The music was blaring, the crowd were vibing and my adrenaline was pumping! We were ready to do this! Lets go...
Soon after starting I met a new pain in my leg, how nice of you to show up now. 10km later...why havent you gone yet! I bit my tongue and didn't say a word to the girls, we had come so far I couldn't let them down now. Luckily the pain soon went away - not sure if it was because of an adrenaline kick, choking on orange segments or the bright blue Gatorade I was chucking down my throat at the water stops - whatever it was it did the job!
Before this I had never ran more than 14km, I was more than scared! The crowd helped pull us through: "ça c'est Kim!" , "Allez les filles!" is all I heard. I thanked my secondary school French teacher for the little, but vital, bits he taught me.
There was one thing I was looking forward to most - more than the finish line - it was the big 18km. My Food and Lycra sisters were going to be there waiting alongside the cheer dem crew. I was franticly looking around everywhere for them!
Of course they saw us first and came running out with their banners! No sideline cheering... They actually RAN with us! Shouting and taking pics at the same time, I was overwhelmed. Seeing their faces gave my legs the extra bit of energy they needed.
Nothing can compare to having that feeling I felt when I saw them, I can replay the moment over and over again in my head. Rachel's worried face and her huge Food&Lycra banner, Selda popping up every minute with her huge quadruple zoom camera, Emma running along trying to get action shots with her iPhone, Laura grabbing a banner and running along with it, Jay running for ages and filming at the same time... Classic! I honestly could not have asked for anything more monumental than that.The memory is locked up for safe keeping.
We continued and finally saw the finish line, I did the most painful sprint of my life- it was worth it! All I could use was my mind to fight through the pain and just run. At the end tears were shed, emotions were high and my legs were fidead, but it was more than amazing.
Definitely something I would do again.
