To Paris for the 33rd edition of the Paris Marathon, featuring my daughter Julia and one or two other runners. This is only episodically and marginally a personal blog but I would just like to say that she acquitted herself extraordinarily well and finished, in my opinion, looking almost fresh! Of course, she was accompanied by her father for the last 12 km and it is hard to estimate how much that must have helped her…!
There were over 40,000 runners enrolled this year compared to some 9000 in 1981 when I ran the Paris marathon for the first time (I think). It’s difficult to be sure, but I felt that the bulk of the runners were better prepared than in my day. However well trained you are, of course, your first marathon will always be a leap in the dark since you can never know beforehand what it’s like to run 42 km. On the other hand, assuming that you take good care of yourself, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t continue competing in marathons until well into your ‘eighties. Some, indeed, have continued till shortly after their death.
Running a marathon with your daughter is a great privilege and challenge. I ran the London Marathon with my daughter a few years back -she was age 23 then I recall. I had returned on a very delayed flight from the HCPT pilgrimage to Lourdes, arriving home at c. 2am. Then we had to get up at c.7am and travel to Greenwich for the 9:30 am start.
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