Paris marathon 2007 - A huge success!

We are very proud to annouce that 13 Trust friends ran the Paris Marathon on April 15th, 2007. Your marathon team and their times:

Alan Lewis - 4:05:20
Chris Wasson - 4:22:02
Alastair Drake - 4:28:19
Graham Mytton - 4:39:34
Paul Houghton - 4:53:57
Andrew Pearce - 5:05:45
Blaise Jenner - 5:12:31
Andrew Freeman - 5:18:42
Ellie Hames - 5:29:48
Kate Valdar - 5:33:18
Owen Balk - 5:39:08
Matthew Pont - 6:00:43
Karen Anderson - 6:34:39

The weekend was a tremendous success with all the team putting in a determined and courageous effort, despite the grueling Parisian sun exceeding temperatures of 30 degrees! This weekend was the culmination of months of training and all our runners have proved to be a true inspiration to us all.

The support for this event has been phenomenal both emotionally and financially. We thank everyone who has sponsored our runners and also for all the kind words of encouragement along the way both at home and in Paris.

With the funds we have raised we plan to rebuild the Muhaka Primary School, situated in the heart of the community on the lower slopes of the Shimba hills, Kwale District.

The school consists of three classroom blocks, two of which have dilapidated floors with the third block in such devastating condition that it is no longer in use. This structure has been condemned and it is hoped to completely replace this building with a new facility to cater to the demands of the school. Many children are actually taught under shady trees as there aren’t enough desks, chairs or classrooms to house them. This has resulted in an infestation of jigger worms which bury there way into the students feet and later hatch into worms.

We will work with our friends at Camp Kenya to finance and develop this project. Camp Kenya has worked with the local community and has agreed to commit resources and undertake sustainable community projects in order to help the school and the community in general. The school is in dire need of re-habilitation and general maintenance.

We thank you for your generosity in helping us rebuild the Muhaka Primary School.

There was a panicked fortnight when we decided we shouldn’t drink (it was really going to make a difference now), we were stocking up on gels and various magic drinks that we were convinced would get us through, hoping that the training would pay off and the various injuries would not prevent us running. I think we all managed the carb loading side of things – who doesn’t love a plate of pasta? And we could eat as much as we liked because “we were running the marathon”. There was much joking, but the sickness in the pit of the stomach wasn’t quite hidden by a bowl of pasta!

Saturday morning arrived and we all met at Waterloo station, having shared various panicked texts; “are we really doing this?”, “I feel sick”. Despite various fire alarms trying to prevent us departing, off we went to Paris. We had a celeb spot on the train, the one and only Michael Caine. It didn’t go as well as we had hoped – when asked VERY POLITELY if we could get a photo, the response was “are you mad?”. Now, we were running a marathon but I don’t think that was an entirely fair comment, do you? There was a Caine look-a-like also on the train, I reckon we’d have done better with him, he looked a lot nicer! Anyway, I digress. We arrived at the hotel, checked in and headed to the expo to register. Sadly our doctor’s certificates were all accepted, we were all allowed to run, there was no looking back!

We wondered around the expo, deciding against buying any last minute kit, especially as we couldn’t see any super-light-weight fans to put on our backs to fend off the increasing temperatures. Some of us then headed for the “pasta party”, it wasn’t a big food fight with people lobbing pasta at each other, but it was nearly as bizarre, tables and tables of people heads down, not talking, just eating pasta whilst steal bands and drumming groups played so loudly you couldn’t have heard anyone anyway and then the pace makers were introduced to us. I think the “excitement” and “party” atmosphere was lost on us, but realising they didn’t anticipate anyone needing a pacemaker for more than a goal of 5 hours was quite unnerving! There was a comedy moment as a few had a defiant cigarette under the expo sign much to the disgust of the “serious” runners around us.

Most of us met up for dinner, some of the more cavalier having wine and even following it up with pernod. Much bread and pasta was eaten, there was a bit more panicking and trying to work out where our supporters would be along the route, and so to bed.

I can’t speak for anyone else but I really didn’t sleep much. The enormity of what I was about to do, I was so scared, I thought I was completely mad….and the enormity of why we were all there, not finishing really was not an option, kept me awake most of the night. So many people had pledged their support for us, so many people had come out to Paris to support us, we were running for Sally’s memory and for the hope and future we could give to the children of Kenya.

Sunday morning we all woke early to put in practice our various methods of marathon preparation - my room mate woke to find me sitting up in bed at 5.30 eating a banana and drinking lots of water, trying to get the balance between hydrated and over-hydrated so I wouldn’t need a loo stop along the way!!

We gathered downstairs in the hotel to apply Vaseline (no chaffing for us), sun block (it was already far too hot, temperatures around the mid 20’s) and the all important safety pins to put on our numbers (thanks Lucy) and off we went. I think we were all somewhere between hysterical and freaking out – if we weren’t laughing we’d have been crying. Our hotel was just by the Champs-Elysees, where we were to start. Lots of runners were warming up, trying to psyche us out, but hey, with our supporters and some cuddly giraffes we were standing firm. After the last few “goodbyes” and “good lucks” we headed to our “pen” to start, this meant finding our peacemaker flag and standing roughly near them.

Waiting to start seemed to take forever as we walked closer and closer to the line, we occasionally caught a glimpse of the supporters waving the giraffes in the air, but apart from that I was pretty oblivious to the music that was booming out, but I’m told it was quite dramatic and impressive seeing thousands of people run down the Champs-Elysees to chariots of fire…..and then we were off.

I started running with Ellie. We got into a steady stride and the first 5k went off pretty uneventfully….until we got to the water point. It was hot, very hot, in the 30’s. The water point was a mess, “water” point was a bit of a misnomer, there wasn’t any water. They were however offering us pieces of orange and banana IN THE SKINS (!?!) so all the lucky runners before us who had had water, thrown it over themselves, eaten the fruit and thrown the skins on the floor had made a right royal ice-rink for us to navigate - it’s not quite so funny when you are trying to run a marathon. I lost Ellie at this point and ran on looking for her or indeed anyone with the Sally’s children running vest. I started to panic as Ellie had been setting the pace with her hi-tech GPS watch (my old school stop watch didn’t really stack up) but luckily I found Owen not too far ahead and we settled into a steady run up to about 30km.

On our way we saw most of the people who had come out to see us, and I can’t even explain what a lift it gave us just to see people we knew by the side of the road, shouting us encouragement and some even running along with us for a bit.

I’d like to be able to tell you about all the fantastic French landmarks we ran past, but I’m afraid I didn’t have a clue what I was running past, this being my debut in Paris, and the marathon organisers not having provided an audio tour guide for us (maybe an idea for next year?). I can tell you we ran past some fantastic buildings ‘tho and that Paris has a lot of cobbled streets. It’s worth a visit, but maybe just walk round and perhaps go on a cooler day?

Up to 30km I’m sad to say my biggest memory is our pacemaker making a comfort break….the French female runners way….ie…pulling over at the curb (not heading off the route like all non French runners, yes there was a clear local/foreign divide on techniques), squatting, pulling her shorts to one side, doing her thang and carrying straight on. I guess it saved time but I can honestly say I was mortified!

So, 30km, le Tour Eiffel (that’s the Eiffel Tower for us pommes), one landmark I can say I knew and actually realised I was there. We stopped here to meet a few of our supporters and found Ellie. I have to say tho, this is where I hit the proverbial “wall”. Once we started up again, I just could not run without feeling ill (and ok, yes frequently actually being ill). It was also just after this point they chose to send us up and down the underpasses, absolute shocker. Going down was ok, even running through the pitch black tunnels was ok as it offered temporary respite from the heat (although a Mexican roar effort from the runners that came up from behind was very intimidating), but coming up the other side was just awful, and they made us to it three times, THREE, in quick succession – who said this was a fun course?!?

I can’t really tell you much about the rest of it, apart from it was very very hot, we ran through a park with hardly any supporters which was quite soul destroying – sorry, did I say run? It was actually walking (well anyone near me) running would just have been showing off. There wasn’t any water (there hadn’t been since 20km) apart from firemen spraying us with their hoses (I’ll give the French this, their firemen are very good looking, at one point as we passed a group of them, Owen asked if I wanted to swap sides so I was closer to them, my response was, not to worry, I wasn’t quite looking my best – see, humour even in the face of adversity!) and it was a long long way. 26.2 miles, 42km is a LONG way.

So for the last 12 km/7 miles the things I do remember (i) the opportunity to stop and sign up to another marathon – ummmm, no thanks; (ii) as if to add insult to injury, being offered A GLASS OF WINE at about 23 miles, I would have hit the poor man if I’d had the energy, I didn’t want wine I wanted WATER (don’t get me wrong I love a good glass of wine, and it was Beaujolais, but there is a time and a place and this certainly wasn’t it!); (iii) about 24 miles we were offered sweets and a SHOT (do you see an alcohol theme?). A girl in front of me actually took a shot and walked with it to the finish, crossed the line and downed it, respect (she was proudly wearing the British flag).

I was really struggling, being sick, not really able to see, my legs were threatening to disown me. Everyone around me was in pretty much the same state, walking, just trying to get to the end, willing it to be over. There were a few people watching us, but none of them were cheering us on, as if to say, “man you are rubbish you should have finished hours ago”. Then, through my tears I saw the most welcome sight, some of our supporters standing at, what I didn’t realise was, the 26m mark. They screamed and yelled, I think I said I can’t do it, but then I have no idea what happened I managed to run the final 0.2m and crossed the line.

After what seemed like walking miles more I found our supporters and the runners who had already finished. All I can say is, it was incredibly emotional seeing everyone there, those who had run and those who had been there for us, and realising we had all done it, despite injuries and the extreme heat and lack of water, and that, because of what we had done, the children in Kenya had the chance of a better life and Sally’s memory could live on.

We had champagne and all celebrated our achievement and the charity had made us certificates to congratulate us. WE’D DONE IT.

From the bottom of my heart I’d like to thank everyone who came out to Paris and cheered us along the way, you have no idea what a boost you were and it meant so much having you there on the day.
Last, but by no means least, I’d like to say a very big THANK YOU to all of you who sponsored us. We raised a fantastic total of £16,400 and as a result the building of the school will start on 1 July 2007, and that is down to you.

Thank you, and here’s to the next event!