This is how i experienced the semi mara. Big experience and a lots of feelings along the way.

All began in 2010 when a friend and I decided to run an half marathon in 2011. At the beginning, we wanted to run in Rome at the end of februari but the website was kind of weird, so i thought it would be a good idea to change the city and some weeks later the occasion was given to run in Paris, so i registred the 2 of us. It was a funny phone call we had this day.

Me: hello, look at your mail.

Her: WTF!!!??? is that a registration for the half mara in Paris?

Me: exactly!

It was 126 training days left, so everything was about to keep the motivation high and run hard. Which i did pretty well during the hard winter in Sweden and withouth my friends from Vilsta IK, I wouldn’t. Thank you there for the strenght and inspiration!

Saturday the 5th of march, it was time for us to pick up our startnumbers. Time also to check how long we needed with the metro to go to the start and check where the WC was and where we would meet our personal cheerleaders at the finish line and stuff. I felt the pressure going up, i even bought a yellow tee shirt, which has the same yellow as the swedish flag. It felt less lonely than in Malmö, i could express my excitement with my friends and i really was looking forward the day
after.

I slept pretty good this night but woke up totally excited. All these days of training would be put on the judging line! It was a very sunny morning and on our way to the Chateau de Vincennes, we were not really alone.

Of course, we needed to pee before the start. And i wonder one thing. Why oh why there are always so much WC there… Like 5 for 30000 runners. This is about obligatory for everyone to pee before the start, no? OK, the guys can go in the bushes but for us girls, it’s like more… hum… NOT! We had the time there to chatt with a lady before us, she had a startnumber for the grupp 1h45, but she seemed well, hard to say, but it seemed ambitious. But she was nice and i was pretty excited, which means very happy. And it was kind of cold too, so after 30 min waiting for the WC to be

free, we were frozen too.

Then, it was time for us to go in our startgroup. We had the ambition to run under 2hours. We landed at the end of the group but thought “ah well, no problem, tile will be taken with the chip, so it will be all OK”. We passed the start approximlatly 20 minutes later than the champions. I had all my fingers frozen. People threw away their extra tee shirt and stuff, so the start area and the first kilometers was like a garbage space. It was also very SLOW!

I ran the first kilometer in 6min30 and it was not because i wanted to be slow, only because there were slow people everywhere. I began to think that it would be very difficult to come ahead the 5min30 per kilometer i had as goal. I needed 27 min to run the 5 first kilometers but it felt  like I spent these first kilometers running back in my normal time and saying “sorry” to people i was beating with my elbows. Pretty irritating if you ask me. Plus i recovered my fingers around the 7th kilometer and it was hurting as hell. But the legs felt good, the heart too.

At the 8th kilometer, we left the wood and arrived in the city. There was a nice view on Paris but honestly, i focused on the ground and not to run on somebody. At the 9th kilometer, Rue de Taine, there was a big upphill and i felt so strong! I ran away a lots of people, feeling like i was flying up the hill and i was also screaming to people about to walk “ALLEZ ALLEZ ALLEZ!” some of them did run again but everyone was surprised that someone shouted some cheering at them. It was going all down at Avenue Daumesnil and i was still feeling super light and running like the wind. I was checking my time and it was pretty ok. I passed the 10 kilometers line after 53 minutes running. I was happy, smiling and even singing to some entertaining songs. I had for example Agnes screaming in my hears and i did sing it ahah

The avenue Daumesnil was long though. Before to arrive at Bastille, it felt heavy and hard. I was about to walk and had problem to keep me running. I took some pictures to think of something else, but they are as disturbed as i was.

And then, suddently, i saw 2 guys, Julien and Matthieu (was written on their tee shirt) running on my side. They were at the start with my friend and I, so i thought i would stick with them. They helped me to run through Bastille, to run up the quai des célestins and i remembered to look at the landscape and see Notre Dame de Paris. My cheerleaders were at bastille but i missed them. I also tried to watch the marie de Paris (cityhall), which is a nice building, but it was a hard time there too.

When we turned right rue de Rivoli, i felt better. I had lost Julien and Matthieu but felt a little bit better. I passed the 15km line after 1 hour 21 which was exactly what i planned to do. It meant that i succeded in running back the minutes i lost at the beginning. The puls was high, about 195 but i thought “shit, i trained so long for that, i will not give up now, i will keep on
doing a good work”.

Rue de Reuilly was an obstacle though. A 2kilometer looooong uphill, i thought i would die, specially because it began where your brain is thinking you were totally crazy to register this race, kim 17. Really long. Luckily, i had some girl from Norway singing in my hears “hold on be strong” and i can tell you, music makes wonders! i run upp the hill all the time.

After the km 19 we were in the parc de Vincennes again. Long roads but i was still running over some people, giving me strengh with every step. It was also a place where people who were tired tried to run, then walked then tried to run again, so i just cheered everyone i could to make them make some further running steps and it worked pretty well. I had Eddie Vedder in the hears and thought i would make it within the time i planned to, so i felt happy, even if my legs were hard like concrete.