A couple of weeks ago, Saucony invited 13 running crews to take part in ‘The Maze,’ a secret race hosted in an old parking lot in downtown Paris to present their new shoe, the Endorphin Elite 2.
Four of us from Peckham Pacers—Kurt, Harry, Molly, and me—had the chance to participate, spending a wholesome weekend doing our favorite thing: running… and eating plenty of carbohydrates.
On Wednesday evening, we jumped on the Eurostar, and in no time, with Harry keeping us awake with his endless chatting, we were in a taxi way too big for three runners with backpacks stuffed with more running gear than normal clothes. It was late, but considering London was one hour behind, we didn’t hesitate to have a pint in the bistro bar down the corner. We genuinely attempted to order alcohol-free beer, but as the waitress couldn’t understand us well, we just got regular beer and sat outside à la française, staring at the people in the bar across from us smoking and drinking with style.
Molly and I were awake earlier than the boys, and since we didn’t hear from them, we decided to head down for the hotel breakfast. Unable to choose just a few things to eat, I had a bit of everything from le buffet—scrambled eggs French-style (which are… let’s just say hard to describe), granola, yogurt, some fruit, bread, and a pomegranate juice I didn’t drink after realizing it wasn’t watermelon.
Despite everyone (except moi) being semi-injured, we went for a nice and easy 8K along the river, ending up with a coffee and a visit to the Distance shop, where we stayed for a while trying to decide which color socks to get.
Had a really nice vegan sandwich from Land&Monkeys, a fully vegan coffee shop, and came back to the hotel to get ready for the event. It was nice to meet more of the Saucony crew, see friendly faces from YFR, and meet other crews from Europe.
We finished the day devouring a couple of pizzas in the hotel patio, and we were so tired that we didn’t even go for a drink that night.
On Friday, our last day, it was Molly and I who woke up later; we chose not to set an alarm, confident that we are ‘morning gals,’ and ended up waking at 9 a.m. with a ‘whatthefuck’ in our mouths. We stuck to our plan of doing 16K to the Eiffel Tower and back, where my ambition to take some decent pictures almost cost me my life as I unconsciously jumped over the bike lane more than twice. We finished the run by going back and forth along the street where our hotel was—just to keep Miss Strava satisfied.
We got some lovely pastries from Petite Ile and coffee from Typica. Walked around the block and République just to kill time before our booking at Kubri, a Lebanese restaurant where we all agreed we’d just had one of the best lunches of our lives.
After visiting the Circle shop—where we had a nice chat with the founder and Molly’s friend—we walked along Canal St. Martin, a place I keep coming back to every time I visit Paris. The golden light was beautifully setting on the bare branches of the trees and the rusty metal of the bridges, announcing a pink sunset where the statue of the Republic stood tall with grace.
Got back to the hotel and grabbed our stuff to head to the train. Right when we sat down on the Eurostar, I realized I didn’t have my camera with me. After calling the hotel twice—where they couldn’t find it—we managed to get in touch with the Uber driver who had taken us to the station, and he confirmed the camera was there. Agathe, from the agency that organized everything for us, kindly got in touch with the driver and had the camera posted to me—hence why this post comes a few weeks later.
Major reflections and silly conversations happened during this trip, but above all the event and the free gear we got, nothing compares to being able to share this stupid obsession with other weirdos—where you can just talk about shoes and miles and don’t have to over-explain why you need to eat a lil' carby snack every other hour.
Big thanks to Saucony for having us.
