It started with a conversation in the brewery after a few beers – as many of our best ideas do. Gary mentioned that he’d like to run his first marathon in 2024 to celebrate his 60th birthday and I was all too willing to oblige.
With the promise that I would run every training run with him and stay by his side on race day, I signed him up to the Paris Marathon the next day!
We were talking about it the following Thursday and the prospect of joining the “train” with no real time goals in mind peaked the curiosity of a few others. It seemed like the perfect way to tackle the distance for the first time and before we knew it, six of us were signed up.
I drew up our 14-week training plan to help get me, Gary, Emma and Sophie across the finish line together run together with a target pace of around 6:50km/hr, whilst Ben and Wes pushed on for as close to four hours as possible.
On the 1st January 2024, we all headed off on our first long training run – a “comfortable” half marathon, leaving Ashford for the coast and a refreshing sea dip to kick start the year and our training block!
We slowly built the miles up over the next few months through some challenging elevations and gruelling conditions. Fortunately, we all had good company to rely on to get us through those cold, wet, windy, winter training runs.
British weather aside, perhaps, the first major hurdle for most of us was a challenging 20-mile run from Ashford to the Harbour Arm in Folkestone. A difficult run that was amply described in the comments as “not something I’d even want to on a bus!”
But what I’m most proud of in the three-month training block is that I was able to convince the team to run the Lydd 20 Miles – a race which has scorned me many times before and has become my white whale!
Each year it seems to be cursed with the worst weather possible – either too hot or too cold, too wet or too windy and, one year, all of the above! It is, however, an extremely flat course placed perfectly in the Spring race calendar for a pre-marathon check-in.
With the sound of “if you can run Lydd, Paris will be easy” ringing in our ears, we were all signed up.
Almost as if scripted, it rained the entire time but we were fortunate that the wind held off for us. We completed the race in just under four hours and even stopped for a photo with the infamous halfway cone!
It was then all downhill then to the Paris Marathon after Lydd as we begun tapering and turning our focus to getting match day fit.
The big day finally rolled around and it was really rewarding to see all of the usual race day anxiety and nerves slowly melt away as the KMs ticked by. We all knew that we’ve put in the training and the hard work really paid off as we skipped past hundreds of peoples who’s races weren’t going to plan, to finish hand-in-hand with consistent pacing throughout, hitting 4 hrs 51 mins – bang on goal!
Ben and Wes we able to push off and cross the line in 4:06 and 4:13 both incredible times and a solid bar to go aim for next time.
Though there were some long stretches with little support, at the cheer stations in particular, the atmosphere on the day was electric! High-fiving children, seeing double as two Marilyn Monroes ran past us, coming across Obelix himself and raving through the tunnels – there was no shortage of incredible experiences in Paris and, in the end, I think the challenging trainings runs made for a (dare I say) enjoyable marathon.
So much so, in fact, that night we were already discussing where our next marathon would be!
Welcome Gary, Emma, Sophie, Wes and Ben to the marathon club! 👏
