Last weekend I was given the opportunity to go to Paris for the weekend with Nike…..I am still pinching myself if I am honest. The whole weekend went by in a crazy blur of amazingness, I am not even sure if that is a word but I feel like it sums up my weekend well, so I am sticking to it! So here’s the story; I got an email a few weeks ago inviting me (The Nutritionista) to Paris for a weekend of fun Nike filled adventures, so I said YES obviously. Small matter being that one of the activities actually involved running the Paris 10k on the Sunday! Now is probably a good time to mention that I had never before run a 10k, so the idea was slightly daunting, but I’m hardly going to turn a weekend in Paris down am I? I mean, don’t get me wrong I exercise a lot and I would say my fitness is pretty good, but I have never been one for running long distances, when I run its normally around 5k maximum. However, I love a challenge and seeing what my body is capable off…..so I accepted this as a challenge and off I headed to Paris!

The week before we departed on our weekend adventure I got an email through from Nike with a schedule of activities, however this schedule lacked in some details as they said they were keeping some surprises! I think I may of annoyed my housemate/family/work colleagues a lot that week as all I could think about and talk about was Paris, I think excited was an understatement. Paris is one of my favourite places in the world, I honestly would love to have a little flat out there and be able to just pop there for the weekend (one can dream right?!). So for me, combining one of my favourite city’s, with Nike and exercise and The Nutritionista was just the perfect combination.

On the Saturday morning, we arrived at Eurostar and meet the group we were travelling with, at this point I had no idea who else was going so this was very exciting! There was the Nike team, 3 bloggers myself included and Kim from Food & Lycra and Lucy from The Fashion Fitness Foodie who are the nicest girls! It was so great to meet other bloggers, we spent so long discussing taking the perfect food picture…girls after my own heart ha! There were also a fair amount of journalists from a variety of titles including Cosmo body, The Huffington Post, Stella, Runners World and Men’s Health a few guys from Runner’s Needs and then a lovely group of girls who had won a Nike+ competition with their running crew ‘crewtwerkout’. What an amazing prize, being taken to Paris for the weekend!

Once we had all assembled and had been given a big bag of goodies full of Nike workout clothes and trainers (AMAZING), we popped on the Eurostar and before we knew it we were in Paris and on our way to the hotel. We arrived at the hotel and it was like a Nike takeover, all the other countries were staying there also- Nike Italy, Spain, Germany etc. We were then told we had 15 mins to get changed and ready for the 5k warm up run with the rest of Nike! I ran up to my room which was amazing, but I had to quickly get changed and race back down. I did stop to take a few instagram snaps which made me almost miss the coach to the run which would of been embarrassing- social media taking over my life as always haha!

We arrived at our meeting point, which was a Nike store opening, we all squeezed into the store and were treated to a speech by Carl Lewis! For those who need reminding who he is Carl is a former track and field athlete and United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, who won 10 Olympic medals….no biggie? We then ran the warm up 5k which was amazing as it was like a quick sightseeing tour around Paris, the weather was beautiful the sun was shining and the city looked at its best. It was such a crazy atmosphere running around central Paris everyone wearing Nike and there were a few of the guys running with boom boxes on their backs which made it even more fun! We stopped for some sprints by the river, I am not made for sprinting I can tell you that, I tried though and thats what counts right :)

Once we were back at the hotel it was another super speedy get ready session! When I walked into my room I found another box of goodies on my bed from Nike, they really spoilt us! This one had a hoodie, some macaroons and some info about the 10k. It was such a beautiful little box, I didn’t even want to touch anything in case I spoilt it. So once we were all ready we departed to our evening destination (this part was the secret). We arrived at what seemed a closed shopping centre, still none the wiser we got in the lift and went to the top floor and entered a stunning room with stained glass ceilings a bar in the middle and a Nike globe hanging from the ceiling….all very surreal! The night consisted of a private Ellie Goulding gig which was so much fun, I honestly felt like I was in a dream, I’m in Paris, at a Nike VIP gig with Ellie Goulding, yep this is actually happening!!

So then Sunday came around pretty quickly and the big day was upon us! I was a tad nervous in the morning, as I mentioned, I had never run a 10k before I got the email from Nike through, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from the race ahead. I decided that I was just going to have fun and enjoy myself, me and The Fashion Fitness Foodie decided to run the 10k together as she had never run a 10k before either so we were in it together!! Once we warmed up before I knew it it was race time and I was running through the streets of Paris with 10,000 other runners.

I can tell you now it was the most amazing experience! I literally loved every minute which really came as a surprise. There was a combination of factors which I think helped contribute to making it such a great experience. One I was in Paris so I kept getting distracted with the cities beauty which helped make the time fly by, two I was running with a friend which I believe made such a huge difference, we ran the whole thing and didn’t stop to walk once and really motivated each other. I really recommend a running parter, whether it is for a race or you just want to get into running, it’s so fun having someone to share the experience with. Three the atmosphere is electric, with all those people running beside you its such a great feeling and the crowds cheering you on I kid you not I ran around the whole course with the biggest smile on my face! Then to top it off, the feeling once you have finished the race, which by the way I did in 1:09:23 which I was pretty pleased with! The feeling you just can’t beat I definitely had that post run buzz, I was even sad that the race was over and wanted to do it all again.

Post 10k Selfie

 The weekend was over far too quickly but I had the time of my life! Not only did I meet the most wonderful people and get to share this experience with them. I also ran further than I ever had previously and realised that often when you think you ‘can’t’ do something its all your mindset. Before this weekend if someone had said can you run 10k in 1:09 I would have said no I can’t. But now I realise that I am actually capable of a lot more than I give myself credit for, as cheesy as this may sound, our bodies are truly amazing things and can really surprise us when we push them. This weekend did exactly that, my body showed me what it was made off and I have Nike to thank for helping me push myself and discover that! I can’t thank Nike enough for bringing me along with them, I am truly a converted person I want to really get into running and have started looking into the Nike running clubs! So this is a new beginning for me, and who knows where it will take me, maybe I will be doing half marathons next…..haha getting a bit ahead of myself there!!

So I guess the moral of the story is never say never, always push yourself that bit further and believe in yourself and you could be amazed with the outcome!

Lots of love,

The Nutritionista x

P.S check out my Instagram and Twitter where I was documenting my weekend, and theres even a video below for you guys :)

Me the Food & Lycra girls + The Fashion Fitness Foodie post 10k selfie