The main fundraising event took place in our local cinema, the Rex, Wareham. We hired out the venue to show the LEGO movie – ‘the second part’. Julie at the Rex had arranged the event for us and we had over 70 people attend. With prizes donated from local businesses we had a cracking raffle, a good bar running and some delicious cakes! Add this to a good family film and the afternoon was a real success.  

The training for the marathon had gone very smoothly and the miles had been clocking-up nicely. Finally the day had arrived! On a very sunny, but very cold morning there were some 60,000 runners waiting to face the challenge of the 26.2miles around the very picturesque city of Paris. Absolutely perfect conditions for the run and lining up on the Champs-Elysees, after a delayed start, we were off.

First around the place de la Concorde, around the Palais Garnier, past the Louvre, past Bastille, through the wooded area of the bois de Vincennes, then following the river Seine taking in the Notre Dame (its last day before the fire), the Grand Palais, a spectacular view of the Eiffel Tower, out towards the bois de Boulogne, past the new Louis Vuitton foundation building. At mile 25 I managed to see family and friends, which was just fantastic, giving me the last little boost to get to the finish in a time of 3hrs 28min.

A BIG thank you to my sister, Julia – it has all been for her, who managed to phone me at about every 10K or so to see how it was going and have a chat! It really did make a difference and boosted me each time, thank goodness for Bluetooth earphones. Thanks also to the help and support from Rhianne Watson of CRY who provided great fundraising resources and made the cinema look great with balloons, stickers and posters.  

It really was a fantastic way to see the city and all of the many impressive buildings and parks – I can recommend it to anyone! The crowd was fantastic and there were many thousands of people lining the streets, pretty much every step of the way. Despite there being so many runners, which was busy, it made for a very enjoyable run and a fantastic atmosphere.