When the line, this long-awaited finish line, is crossed, it’s easy to recognize a hero who has completed the Paris marathon. After having swallowed the 42.195 km of the test, he walks like a duck because he hurts all over. During this curious 43rd km, he grimaces, looks at his watch to measure his time, makes a phone call to those close to him, looks for them and walks forward, his eyes haggard. In case of failure, the Red Cross awaits him a stone’s throw away. This Sunday, fortunately, she did not have too much work.
We are not talking about the winner, the Kenyan Elisha Rotich, who smashed the event’s record in the morning in 2:04:21. Him, he ended up as fresh as a roach, or almost. He just returned to the place of his triumph at the stroke of 6 pm to welcome the very last competitors.
But we think of all the others, those we still recognize by their strange outfit. Because if by chance, the marathon runner is proud by hiding his cramps, he does not go unnoticed with his disguise. He wears all the paraphernalia of the 43rd km: a beautiful finisher’s medal around his neck, a fluorescent green poncho from the organization to protect him from the cold and a T-shirt that he will not lend to anyone. It’s his and he has no price: “Wearing this jersey is a nameless pride, summarizes Romain, from Auvergne. It says there that I finished the Paris marathon. I am now a marathoner for life. Among the runners, now there is me and the others, those who have done a marathon and the others. It’s awesome. “
After the finish banner, the marathon is not quite over yet. There is nothing that takes you straight home effortlessly. You still have to walk, sometimes for a long time, to go up Avenue Foch (Paris XVI) and get out of the crowd: “There are many things that cross our minds at that time,” says Claire, who finished in 4:32 his first marathon. For my part, I can already see my race unfolding again. I think of my children who are waiting for me somewhere. I have no particular desire or really badly. I just want to find mine, go home and sleep. “
However, some requirements await him before: first swallow a piece of banana, the umpteenth of the day, drink water to rehydrate, recover his medal and his things carefully kept a little higher. If necessary, physiotherapists and podiatrists are also waiting for him to calm the pain: “We will do without it,” smile Fabienne and Pascal, sixty-year-old alerts who are completing their second marathon. In terms of pain, it’s okay. We will go and stretch quietly and forget everything that hurts us. Monday, we will not be able to go down the stairs, but too bad. “
“We forget everything else, we don’t even really know where we are”
“The same for me,” continues Vincent, who comes as a neighbor of Seine-et-Marne. The pride of finishing outweighs everything else: I don’t feel my little ailments. I know they’re there and will remember me, but I’m telling them damn for now. Completing your marathon paper is an absolutely incredible feeling. I recommend it to everyone: it’s a fantastic energy boost. I want to go and enjoy it with my family. This is all that matters now. “
Lea, in her thirties who finished in less than five hours, abounds: “The emotion that you feel when you pass the finish line, under the banner, in the middle of this crowd of people who have suffered like us, is indescribable, says she does. We forget everything else, we don’t even really know where we are. Personally, I had been waiting and preparing for this moment for two years. I just want to cry… ”
Crying, savoring, screaming, eating, sitting down, laughing, talking, confiding: to each his own method. “Eating is complicated,” slip Patrice and François, two young bearded men in their fifties. We are hungry but we swallowed so much stuff during the race, fruit, water, that our stomachs are a bit woozy. “A stone’s throw away, two friends, Isabelle and Fati, have a more prosaic concern:” Recovery, we’ll see that later. We will walk past the podiatrists without saying hello to them. We come from Lyon and we have a train to catch in an hour. “
We must not forget to listen in the long finish zone either. In the distance, behind the barriers, the “bravo daddy, we are proud of you” or the “bravo mom, we love you” are numerous. The marathon is a challenge that you do not take up alone, when you have to go out to train in any weather, at any time, for months. On arrival, it is also celebrated with the family. Falling into the arms of his wife, his husband, his children or his parents is a natural gesture: “My desire, there, now? asks Pascal. It is simple: quit the race and go drink a good foam with mine. And above all not to run any more, not for a long time.
