Oh my, who ordered a 3.45am alarm call? So tempted to just turn over and sleep, but "duty calls". Not a lot of transport about, so I decided to get a "Bolt" with a lovely guy called Ousmane, who said he had played football for QPR and was hoping to get back to it.
He was born in Paris to parents from Burkina Faso. No idea if all that is correct, but he was very chatty and very pleasant at 4.45am.
The ride was about 15 minutes and he got me to my meeting point for just after 5am. Then we had a lot of waiting around until someone arrived to brief us. So that's half hour extra we could have had at least.
Eventually we were, well I won't say briefed, but placed along the final sections of the route at crossing points. TBH probably not needed here. Though at 6am it seems to be busy with people coming home from a night out.
But the French is coming in handy as most of the others don't speak much English, though we do have a Japanese guy in the team. He did Tokyo 2020 (2021) and said the atmosphere was very different with no spectators. As he was coming here he was given pins, by the Japanese Olympic Committee to bring with him, and it's a very lovely one too.
This morning was all about the Marathon. Two categories, wheelchair and VI athletes, some running with Guides, which must be really hard over 26 miles. I was allocated a position right at the final turn into the finish at Invalides. But there was a really cold wind, so at least that should keep me awake.
Spoke too soon, security decided we couldn't be there so were shunted off the course altogether. The crossing point closed until the races had finished.
Kind of defeats the object of having a crossing point if you're not going to let people cross when there's no one around on the course. But I wasn't making the rules here.
The first wheelchair athlete arrived and I went to take a photo but all the security people on the edge of the course blocked the view. Hey ho. I got the 2nd and 3rd, just.
I decided to go for a wander to see if I could get a hot chocolate somewhere. The coffee shop I knew of, was on the other side of the road and security were letting no-one pass. Even with plenty of time to go before any more athletes were due.
Feeling cold I wandered off to find something to help warm me up, and there was a small coffee bar open not too far away, so I had a hot chocolate and wandered back a different way, so that I could join the others on the opposite side of the road (no crossing required).
We watched all the athletes arrive, heading into the Invalides to the finish. Spectators gradually filled up the stands and the roars the competitors received got louder.
(Photo pre race)We were the last marshal points on the course, so it was a long time for us to be out there.
Such a long drawn out morning with, we think, only 52 competitors in total. We were given a lunch bag. a quite nice coolbag to keep, but just a shame the contents weren't great.
Thankfully it didn't rain and the sun did make an appearance to warm us up. But standing for so long my back wasn't happy and I was incredibly grumpy, being tired and irritated by the stupidity of crossing points with no crossing allowed. (The perils of being involved in lots of events I guess)
Eventually, after the races finished, I managed to get away around 12.45 and headed to the megastore to buy a few more bits. Amazingly the total was exactly the amount to use up the Visa Go balance (a card I had euros on that could only be used in France and was needed as Visa was the only card used at the games.)
From there I headed back to the hotel to try and get a little rest before this evenings shenanigans.
What a morning. I think I could happily have stayed in bed and had a lovely relaxing morning, but I guess that's not really why I was here. And because of being part of the roads events team, I had been able to apply to be part of the closing ceremony for this evening.
See Part 2 for more details.
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