One of the great things about running is you have a good opportunity to discover new places, twelve Wreakies traveled to Paris last weekend to enjoy the ‘Semi Marathon de Paris’, lots of PBs, vin, and sightseeing, a super weekend away had by all!
[slideshow_deploy id=’2463′]We took the Eurostar through to Paris, one group stayed in an apartment close to the Pompidou centre in the city centre, whilst the other group stayed in a hotel close to the race start.
Race day was a beautiful dry, cold, sunny, spring morning. At the start we separated up into the different race pens (based on our predicted finish times), some of us managed to get into the elite zone at the front (!), close to running legend Haile Gebreselassie (two-time Olympic 10,000m champion and former marathon world record holder!), who gave the starting signal for the 37,408 people running the Semi de Paris.
The race starts in Bois du Vincennes – a huge park in the eastern suburbs of Paris, passing a zoo, Bastille, and then once in central Paris (at Hotel du Ville) we looped back along the River Seine past the Ile di Cite and Notre Dame, we then returned back to the Bois du Vincennes along wide tree-lined avenues.
The Kenyan Cybrian Kotut was the winner in the men’s category in a time of 1:01:04. The women’s race was won by Ethiopia’s Dibabe Kuma, in a time of 1:09:22. The 11 Wreakies who took part couldn’t quite keep that pace, but each put in a great performance, with 5 PBS!! Dave Rose was first back for us (1:21:41, a PB), next up was Matt Franklin (1:21:59, PB), Luke Smith (1:26:42, PB), Phil Wilson (1:30:03), Gavin Speed (1:30:26), Hayden Strong (1:30:46, PB), Ian Hillier (1:31:41, PB), Jon Finnemore (1:32:32), Scott Beasley (1:35:38), Zen Kurys (1:53:31), and Lyndsey Wilson (2:02:23).
Afterwards some of us took to the bars of Paris to sample the local beers, whilst others explored more cultural aspects of the city.
Another great Wreake Runners trip away, we’re all looking forward to the next one! Join us here to be a part of it!
The full results were:
3XXth Dave Rose (1:21:41,PB)
412th Matt Franklin (1:21:59, PB)
1021st Luke Smith (1:26:42, PB)
1821st Phil Wilson (1:30:03)
1904th Gavin Speed (1:30:26)
1997th Hayden Strong (1:30:47, PB)
2244th Ian Hillier (1:31:41, PB)
2491st Jon Finnemore (1:32:32)
3841st Scott Beasley (1:35:38)
15625th Zen Kurys (1:53:31)
22867th Lyndsey Wilson (2:02:23)
Julie F (race support!)