Today, I have been part of the Odyssea Paris 2017 race. Odyssea is a charity created in 2002 to support research on breast cancer. It does so by organizing races every year, and donating all the participation fees to research institutes.

With my wife, we ran the 5km race “allure libre” (which translates into free pace). I am going to give a quick description of how it all went starting from our way to get to the “village départ”.

Getting to the race

The 5km race was programmed at 11am. So that we could get some warm-up before the actual race, we had to get our bibs before 10.45 am. My wife and I could only get ours at 11.05am. Well, it is true that we left our home already a little late, but we also were stuck for 10min waiting for an empty shuttle bus to come and pick us up. I think the organizers did a great job having these shuttles. They just probably did not plan on having so many people using them…

The shuttles were going from Château de Vincennes to a stop near the village départ. It was already 11am when we hopped off the bus. Walking a few steps, and looking at our right, we could already see the stream of pink jerseys crossing the starting lane. We were not yet there the the race had already started…

We rushed to the village départ, got our bibs and jerseys (without showing any proof of registration), and headed towards the starting lane. By chance, we managed to find my brother and his wife in the middle of all the runners. We chatted for a bit, while walking to the starting line.

The actual race

Ok, first of all, disclaimer: I do not even know when I ran for the last time. I registered mostly because my wife wanted to participate in a short race. Going to run a 5km race without training? Sure, why not? Running is not my favorite activity, and the Strava record of my race can testify for my lack of experience.

Of course, I went way too fast during the first kilometer, setting up an unmaintainable pace for both my wife and I. During the race, it was also pretty hard to keep the same pace. Lots of people were walking (free pace, remember?), and the road was a bit narrow. We had to walk a few times (to catch our breath, or because it was too crowded in front of us), but still ran most of it. In general, the atmosphere was really nice. Bands were playing alongside the track. People were cheering for us (and it felt strange). I did not really feel a huge sense of achievement at the end of the race, but I really like being part of it.

So now, my objective (and my wife’s) is to run a longer distance. We will probably look for a 10km race. For that one, I will train for sure!

Oh, and have I told you that I wanted to do a triathlon next year with my brother? No? Well now you know about that too. 2018 is going to be pretty sporty!