Paris Marathon - The write up...

What a weekend!!

Over 72,000 participants in the Schneider Electric Marathon de Paris and our two runners finished (a superb achievement!) and technically came pretty much in the top 50%!

From the official results page, nearly 30,000 people didn't even get to the finish line - so very well done to Ali for walking / hobbling the last 3 miles with a bust hip, and very well done to Emma for running the full distance. If you want to see their times then they are available on the P4YTS Facebook page!

It was a glorious day to be out, especially if you were a spectator, but maybe a little on the warm side if you were running 26.2 miles..! Both runners were up bright and early, and with game faces applied were off out the door whilst the support team took a more leisurely journey to the first point to see them (via the bakery of course!).

The planned meeting point was supposed to be the start on the Champs Elysees... However, due to manic Metros and yummy pastry we ended up waving at them, and snapping the first photos with the Eiffel Tower in the far distance, in Place de la Concorde.

The plan was to see the girls at the 10km marker next, just as they ran into the first of the Parisian parks, however as you might be able to tell our plans didn't always go to plan! By the time we emerged from the Metro (after meeting up with Jamie) and fired up the phones to see where they were they were already on their way to kilometre eleven - onto the 19th km then, just as they exited the park....

Since this was only a very short walk to the exit of the park we had plenty of time to kill, and had the chance to get a few snaps of the various costumes being run in, and even managed to see a couple of impersonators (Jamie!) as they jogged along in the crowd. However, since he'd just been off with Craig to find some cold beers to cheer on the runners with we couldn't really be too peeved that he was looking like he was taking part!

Not long after the beers, our two (still very) smiley runners were on their way past, taking the high fives, and ignoring the beer salutes! 

We were then off on the travels again, following the route and wandering past the feed station just after 20km - the scale of one the food for an event of this size is one that you have to see for yourself - it must have been over 100 metres of tables FULL of bananas, bars, water and sugar cubes!

Once back onto the Metro, the support team headed over to around mile 20 (as requested), and just where the local fire team had set up some hoses to spray the runners. The look of joy on some people's faces as they ran through the freezing water really gives away quite how warm and painful the marathon was for them!

Ali's hip started to cause some real problems at around mile 17 so by the time we next saw them both they'd split up to make sure that they were both able to try and finish in their own pace. We ended up putting Craig in the middle of the road on 'Ali watch' to make sure that we saw her (and she saw us) for a bit of motivation and a health check! The smiles were still there (just!), but with only 6 miles left to go the end was in sight...

The next stop for us was just around the corner, and near the top of a cruel false flat that seemed to be the final tipping for a couple of runners, and unfortunately we saw more that one leave the race at that point - the more worrying thing was the number of ambulances that we saw head back down the field when we were waiting for Emma and Ali to come back past!

Still, come past they did - with a cheery wave, and turning down another beer(!) a final lap of the park was all that stood in their way before the finish line.

Once we'd topped up on our picnic, and then topped up on provisions for the post-race binge, the race was on to get to the finish line before either Ali or Emma got there. Safe to say we lost, blame it on blokes shopping, public transport, or Emma running too fast, but she was finished quite a while before we got to the exit of the finish area. Even Ali had crossed the finish line, after hobbling the last three miles with her hip before we finally found where Emma was taking a well-earned rest!

Congratulations to both Emma and Ali for completing the event, you did us all very proud and obviously enjoyed the event massively by the size of the smiles on your faces the whole day!

Over £350 has been raised for The Richard Cann Wildlife Foundation and The Gabrielle Gray Foundation, if you haven't donated yet then follow the links below!

One Life - Live It, Love It

The Richard Cann Wildlife Foundation

The Gabrielle Gray Foundation

Paris Marathon - two weeks to go!!

The countdown is really on now! Only two weeks to go before the Paris Marathon!!

From what I've heard it's beginning to get to be a case of "let's get it over and done with", training has been done to the best of Ali and Emma's abilities so the best way to help motivate them is to help raise as much money as possible for their chosen charities.

Please click on either (or both!) of the links below to donate.

The Gabrielle Gray Foundation

The Richard Cann Wildlife Foundation

One Life - Live It, Love It

Ali and Emma run the Paris Marathon!

I know I've mentioned it in other blog posts, but most of the time Ali is training for one event or another...

At the moment, she's training with her friend Emma to run the Paris marathon - "just for fun" to quote them both, but they'd also like to raise a bit of charity if possible.

The first charity they are running for is the Richard Cann Wildlife Foundation, a charity set up in memory of one of my University flatmates. For more information and to donate to this charity please click on this link, and to see where I've mentioned it before see this blog post.

The second charity is The Gabrielle Gray Foundation, a charity set up in memory of one of Emma's friends who passed away in 2012. To donate to this charity please click on this link.

Thanks!

One Life - Live It, Love It

Never give up - always follow your dreams

It was about this time last year that I started writing this post, and was in great sadness due to the sudden loss of one of my former flat-mates at university who sadly passed away whilst following his passion in Northern Sumatra working with critically endangered orangutans.

At the beginning of October a number of his friends and family took part in the Cardiff Half Marathon to raise money for the charity set up in his memory, to continue to support the work that he was doing. His memory was the thing that kept us all going, and told us never to give up.

If you'd like to read more about the work that he was doing, and what the charity continues to do, or would like to donate to such a good cause just click on the link below.

BT Donate - Run4Rich

And here's the post, I never published it last year because I didn't think it quite right at the time, but since Rich was the inspiration for us last weekend, I thought it fitting to not give up on the post.

"This post is written in sadness, but also in awe of what you can do when you really set your mind to follow your dream and passion.

A couple of weeks ago I attended the funeral of one of my friends from University, a great young man who always had time for everyone else and yet always seemed to be able to do the things that he really wanted to do. This post isn't meant as a long memorial to Rich as I wouldn't be able to do him justice, those of you who spoke at the funeral put it all into words better than any of us and we're all very proud of what you said and couldn't agree more with everything said about him.

I'm going to make sure that I try and live up to his attitude to everything and never give up on stuff that I really want! Whether that's the really serious things in life (that are too deep for this blog) or whether it's the next hill along the road when on the bike or a run - just have to keep thinking "never give up!"

Thanks for the inspiration Rich, you have been and will continue to an inspiration be to everyone that knew you!"

#Run4Rich