I'm done neglecting my blog. I'm honestly going to do my best to keep this thing up to date even though I have no readers. My last post was regarding my fundraising goal (which I friggin met. winning.) so that means I have soooo much to tell about my trip to Paris and the actual race! So, brace yourselves. This is going to be a long one.
A few days prior to departing for Paris, I received my race gear after my last TNT group run. This was kind of a sad experience for me as I actually felt like part of the team on my last run. I didn't really feel so connected to anyone throughout this whole experience so when I received a lot of hugs and support on the last day, I felt a little sad to go. The Paris group was to run 6 miles this day which was the shortest distance out of all the groups. I finished.... FIRST. YESSSS!! That is probably the only time that will ever happen but hey, I'll take it. Anyway, I received my race packet and my purple TNT running jersey! I got home and tried it on and, sadly, it was giant. I also decided that the t-shirt may not have been the way to go as I thought I might experience some chaffing in the underarm area where the sleeves hit. So I made a trip down to the local LLS office and swapped out for a singlet. The small looked like something a toddler would wear, and the medium was a little big on me. No happy medium here...so I took the medium and figured it was better than wearing a tiny shirt that would accentuate my amazing body love handles. This meant I only had one day to decorate my singlet prior to departing to Paris. My TNT/running friend Christeen came over and we got to work.
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I put my Aunt Terry's name on the back. I think she would have liked that...
So we departed from Salt Lake City Wednesday afternoon, stopped briefly in Chicago, and arrived in PARIS (omg) on Thursday morning. I slept the whole flight to Paris so I was actually fairly adjusted to Paris time when we landed. It caught up with me later, but for the first two days I felt pretty good.
We took the train to our hotel (Marriot Rive Gauche) and ran into some other fellow TNTer's in the lobby. The hotel was pretty busy since people were coming in from all over for the marathon. Our room wasn't ready so we left our bags behind and set out to find breakfast. We stopped at a cafe just down the street and had some delicious toast topped with ham and cheese which was paired with a salad with dressing that didn't taste so great.
After refueling my body with a healthy, balanced breakfast an abundance of carbs, we spotted a sign that said "CATACOMBS" and had an arrow pointing to the left. I figured they must be nearby so we decided that would kill some time while our room was being prepared.
The Catacombs. Were. Awesome. I was not allowed to use my camera flash to take pictures, so I had to try to use the available lighting to make due.
I wasn't sure whether to smile or what in this picture?? What are you supposed to do when you are standing in front of a bunch of human remains that have been intricately stacked underground and are now a tourist attraction?
After exploring the Catacombs, we emerged from the dark and hopped on the metro to go see the Eiffel Tower. Christeen had previously been to Paris so she had already seen the tower, but this was my first time (Paris virg). Needless to say I was peeing my pants with excitement super excited. We hopped off the metro, walked a ways down the street, turned the corner... and there it was...
I know it's not the greatest picture, but this was my first time seeing the tower so I think it was appropriate to forever capture this moment on digital SD memory.
We walked around the base of the tower for a little while and I tried to just take it all in. Seeing the Eiffel Tower in person really made it real for me. PARIS. It was epic. Or epic-mazing, as my brother would say.
We crossed the street to check out the Seine River and figure out where to go next.
The sun was out, it was warm, and we just started walking. Christeen knew of a quaint little street called Rue Cler and we decided we would have lunch there. After walking a mile or two in the opposite direction, we figured out where we were going and finally found Rue Cler.
Christeen and I shared a jambon et fromage ham and cheese crepe (holy crap, so good), got some patisseries pastries, did a little shopping, got ice cream from an adorable girl who spoke decent English, and then made our way back to the hotel. My feet hurt so incredibly bad by the end of day one...apparently my must have "cute new shoes for Paris" were mos def not "walk all over the place on the first day" friendly. What gives? We were pretty tired and felt pretty nasty after flying all day/night and then walking around Paris in the sun for a few hours.
After getting checked into our room (around 5 pm), showering, and feeling much better, we decided to go check out the Eiffel Tower at night and get some dinner somewhere along the way. We took the elevator to the top of the tower and kept our bags close since we were continuously warned about pick-pockets.
The view from the top was amazing. Seeing the city lit up at night was breathtaking. It was crowded at the top of the tower and people were pretty rude and pushy, so we took the elevator down to the lower level and then took the stairs to the ground. We crossed the street and got another delicious crepe and some the best vanilla ice cream I've ever had and settled in to watch the tower sparkle. 11 o'clock rolled around the tower began to emit bursts of light from all over. It was one of the coolest/prettiest/awesomest things I've ever seen. The epic vanilla ice cream made it that much better.
After that we headed back to the hotel to SLEEP! (End of day 1)
DAY 2
We got up relatively early and headed to the TNT breakfast hosted at the hotel. The food was pretty good if you don't mind eating cold eggs, bacon, and potatoes. We met up with some fellow Desert Mountain States TNT members at breakfast and decided to go to the Running Expo together to pick up our bibs.
After exploring this area for a little while and getting some lunch, we decided to go check out Champs Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe. We made our way to the metro station, later arrived at the Arc, took a few photos, walked down Champs Elysees, went into a few stores, then decided we were plum tuckered and decided to head back to the hotel for some rest. Both Christeen and I were complaining of sore feet and legs, which somewhat worried me since we were running a marathon in a day or so.
After taking a nap, we decided to check out a pizza place near the hotel. The atmosphere was nice and the waitstaff seemed friendly. There came a point in the evening where the waitstaff became a little too friendly and it was time to go. Outside the restaurant, we met some local Parisians and they invited us to go get a drink with them and hang out for a little while.
It got late really fast and we made our way back to the hotel to get some much needed sleep.
We were pretty tired on day 3 after doing so much walking the first two days and still trying to recover from the flight/time change. We took it easy for most of the day and slept pretty much all morning. We were planning on taking the train to Versailles in the afternoon but then remembered we had the TNT inspiration dinner to attend around 5. Bummer, cause we didn't end up making it to Versailles. (Oh well, there's always next time). To kill some time before dinner, we walked around near the hotel and bought some fruit from a little shop. We sat on a bench in the sunshine and did some people watching (GREAT people watching in Paris). The strawberries I bought were hands down the best strawberries I've ever had, and that's saying something because I'm a big strawberry eater.
We also bought some after race snacks at a nearby grocery store because we figured we'd be ridiculously tired after running 6 million miles 26 miles and would probably not want to continue to live go anywhere.
At the TNT inspiration dinner, we learned that the Paris TNT event alone raised $756,000 for the Leukemia-Lymphoma Society. How effing amazing is that???
After dinner, we had a meeting with the rest of the DMS TNT team and Christeen and I realized we were missing one crucial piece of equipment: a fuel belt. We decided to quickly run to the running expo to buy some so we could have something to hold our gu for the race. After that we were going to try to make it to the Notre Dame, but decided it was too late and called it a night since we had to be up early for the race MARATHON!!!!
So really day three was pretty boring and consisted of lots of sleep, grocery shopping, epic strawberries, TNT inspiration dinner, frantic fuel belt purchases at the running expo, and a nice glass of water at the hotel bar with fellow TNTers just before bed.
Holy crap. This was it. The day before race day. To say I was nervous would be the understatement of the year CENTURY. Christeen and I laid everything out, pinned our bibs on, attached our time chips to our shoes, and were as ready as we could be.
I laid down in bed and was able to actually drift off pretty quickly...
We were up bright and early as we had to meet the rest of the team at 6:30 in the hotel lobby. We went and picked up our breakfast bags and were ready to go. We snapped a few photos in the lobby just before heading out.
On the metro, heading to the race start.
Team Utah!
We eventually found our places in the race start and I was feeling PUMPED. There was music playing, people all around...the whole scene was just incredible.
There were 60,000 some odd runners lined up along Champs Elysees getting ready to run their butts off.
The first few miles were amazing. People were cheering, percussion bands were playing, the sights were incredible. We came to the first aid station and there were no more fresh bottles of water, but big tubs filled with half empty ones that had been used by runners ahead of us. Gross, I know, but water is important and it was hot out so I chugged one down. We kept going. I felt amazing and was just trying to take it all in. There were a few times where the experience was kind of overwhelming and I couldn't believe what I was actually doing...so I got a little choked up. Naturally. I was running my first marathon. In Paris. That's kind of a big deal.
By looking at these, I think it's clear that there were some issues. I don't want to make excuses or point any fingers, but this is what happened. My running pal Christeen got sick pretty much the day we arrived in Paris. She got worse and worse as the days progressed and come race day, she just wasn't feeling good, at all. I told her we would finish the race together no matter what as everyone told us that for our first marathon, the goal was to finish and not beat any world records as we had previously intended. We ran the first few miles together with no problems. She started to get tired and we walked for short periods here and there. Obviously, mile 17 was where we had some problems, considering this was a 27 minute mile for me. We were falling back pretty far at this point and started talking to some other TNT people we came across. One girl had heat stroke and was going to take the metro to the finish when she got to the next station. Christeen looked at me and said that there was no way we were going to finish in time (we were told there was a cut off time of 5 hours and 40 minutes) and hinted that she wanted to take the metro as well. I told her that it was more important to me to finish the distance than to ride the metro to the finish just to get a medal. She didn't seem to agree with me and I know she was feeling pretty badly. I had a decision to make, so I made it. And took off.
Mile 18 was definitely my favorite mile of the race. We were running along the Seine River at this point of the course and looking over and seeing the Eiffel Tower was just surreal and amazing. This is another one of those moments where I got choked up. It was just such an amazing experience.
At this point, I had my iPod blasting and I was just jamming along. At the aid stations, I would grab orange wedges, water, and raisins. I was taking a gu every 45 mins to an hour at the beginning and then spaced it out more at the end. It was hot and I was sweating a lot, so I had a few salt packets as well.
I don't know if I was distracted by the sights or if I was just on some kind of first time marathon high, but I was feeling pretty good. I kept thinking about the 5 hour, 40 minute time cut off and kept moving as best I could. I definitely stopped and took walking breaks. It was hot, I was getting really sore, and I had to try to get my mind back into it after having to leave my friend behind (sad).
When I saw the marker for mile 20, I was relieved. Little did I know that the next 6 miles were going to be what seemed like the longest six miles of MY LIFE. The last part of the course wrapped through a park and holy mother, that park seemed never ending.
I was run/walking at this point and was experiencing some sharp pains in my right hip and knee. My IT band was pretty mad at me and running on concrete and cobblestone for miles on end did not make my body happy at all.
Finally I saw the mile 26 marker and I dug deep to sprint to the finish. I was fighting back tears and getting emotional, so my heavy breathing turned into wheezing.
I knew it would be over the faster I made it to the finish line. And I kept telling myself that as I approached it...
And that's that. I finished. I did it. My chip time was 5:49:46, just minutes after the 5:40 cut off time which, come to find out, didn't actually exist. I'm not sure when they actually stopped giving out medals, but there was a ton of people that finished behind me that were still getting them. I hobbled along and went and collected my finishers t-shirt AND my ****MEDAL****. I looked around for a familiar face. I couldn't find any (surprise). I did spot some purple TNT jerseys so I went and hung out with them for a while and was going to walk to the metro station with them since they were in the same hotel. They were waiting for some other teammates to arrive so I took a seat on the curb. It was painful to sit down, but felt so nice at the same time. After sitting on the curb for a little while, I saw Christeen!! She did it! She finished!! I was so happy for her, but also felt so bad because I knew she didn't feel good at all. We limped to the metro together and made our way to the hotel. We each took an ice bath, showered, changed, and ordered room service. Bacon cheeseburgers. Yum. I was able to pack my bag that night since we were leaving the next day. I also tried to stretch some since my legs were insanely sore and extremely mad at me.
I did it. I finished. So incredibly proud of myself.
Day 5 - Time to go home
To finish up our time in Paris, we had our last TNT hotel breakfast, packed, checked out, and headed to the Eiffel Tower to take victory pictures with our finisher shirts and medals!
And that's it. We then made our way back to Salt Lake City. Christeen went to the doctor upon returning and found out she had pneumonia. Seriously?!?!
Anyway, Paris was incredible. My first marathon was amazing. I met a bunch of really great people. I am completely hooked on running and I can't wait to run another race. I have been experiencing some sharp pain in my right knee, however, so hopefully it's nothing serious. I signed up for my first 5K which is coming up on April 30th. I also registered for the random drawing for the Nike Women's Half Marathon in San Francisco in October. I don't have any plans on doing another full anytime soon, but I am thinking about possibly doing the Rock n' Roll Las Vegas Full Marathon in December.
I will definitely do another full marathon. I will definitely be returning to Paris in the future. I will definitely make sure my next trip to Paris is longer than 4 days.
I know I can get a better time if I do another full because I didn't train very hard for Paris. I did my best to juggle work/school/life, but I should have ran way more than I did. I was also really sore from walking so much the first few days in Paris, I was hungry from not having access to familiar foods, and I tried to finish 26 miles with someone who had a different pace/stride than me and who was also sick.
I definitely learned a lot from my first race and I know that next time, I can get a better time and perform better all around. My goal this time around was to finish.
And I did.
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