Race Date: Saturday 24th May 2025

I clearly missed the memo that said all Striders were holidaying in Scandinavia this half term and had instead packed myself off to Paris for 10 days.

In normal circumstances I’d have left my running kit at home, but I have an at-least-one-run-a-week Strava streak to maintain. I’d also spotted a local running festival was taking place 30 minutes from where I was staying that offered a choice of 3 races: la course famille, a 5km, and a 10km.

The decision to enter the 10km was made in the typical Davies style (very last minute), but luckily entry on the day was pretty seamless despite my woeful French.

The 10km course itself consisted of three twisty loops through the Parc Herni Sellier with some random residential streets thrown in just for fun. Much of the twisting park sections are shared with the other two races that take place earlier in the day.

I really wanted to enjoy my first race abroad, but I’m an inherently lazy and mardy runner at the best of times, and the combination of heat, humidity, and a deeply confusing set of kilometre markers (I passed 8k, 2k, and 4k in the first mile) zapped all my will to live – let alone race. Deliriously miserable, I found myself looking forward to the tarmacked sections (a statement I never thought I’d say), as they at least provided some relief from the energy-sapping loose gravel of the park’s paths.

I’ve never been more relieved to see a finishing line and even high-fived some French children as I bounded down the final home straight.

The end of the race was as seamlessly organised as the start, with all competitors handed orange boot bags and directed towards tables pilled high with bottles of water, energy drinks, fresh fruit, and snack bars.

I was about to toddle off home but, on the way back to the bag drop, I saw a banner with a QR code which linked to the live results. Scanning so I could update my Strava, I was surprised to discover I was 3^rd lady, and my nationality was now French!

Naturally then I hung around for the prize giving. It wasn’t a pick your bottle of wine affair in the back room of a pub, but up on a stage with an actual podium where I received a trophy and bouquet of flowers – all very cool and glamorous, but still not enough to convince me to return next year.

There were 379 finishers. First male: Franck Guillemot 33:34. First female: Nais Viste 41:44. First Strider and (possibly) first Brit: Harriet Davies 45:02.

Strider Results: