I am tired, I have a cold and the fur­thest I have run in one ses­sion since Octo­ber last year, was 13.1 miles. These were some of the thoughts that were run­ning through my head as I boarded the Eurostar at an ungodly hour on Sat­ur­day morn­ing.  I was not feel­ing the least bit pre­pared! How­ever, as day­light greeted me and my fel­low Clapham chasers on the other side of the chan­nel, I decided to not dwell on the neg­a­tives, but look for­ward to see­ing Paris as one should — by foot!

Any feel­ings of appre­hen­sion soon dis­ap­peared as I made my way to the front of the starter pen.  I had man­aged to upgrade my start­ing posi­tion to the sub 3hr group, as I knew that if I didn’t get a good start, then I would be held up.  Annoy­ingly, as I had not stayed with the other Chasers in their hotel, I only man­aged to find one Chaser at the start line.  How­ever, any thoughts of run­ning with him soon dis­ap­peared when the starter gun went off.

More to follow!