COLLEGE STATION, Texas — A local mom is one 20,024 athletes across the world to run a mass participation marathon on the same route as Olympic marathon runners.
- Noel Gomillion has completed weekly challenges for the last two years to get a chance to run in the Paris Marathon Pour Tous, or the mass participation marathon.
- The start times will be spaced out from 9 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Saturday night.
- You can track Noel's progress live here.
Broadcast script:
From College Station to Paris. One local mom is running among the best athletes in the world.
“I'm so excited but so nervous… so the big kicker is that this they're saying it's one of the hardest marathon routes that the Olympics has ever had.”
Noel Gomillion is one of 20,024 runners from across the world who completed different challenges for the last 2 years to qualify to run in the Paris 2024 Olympic mass participation marathon.
“[It] starts at 9:50 and then we have to finish by 4:30 in the morning.”
Saturday night, these athletes will run on the same route that Olympic marathon runners use during the day. And for this College Station runner, that route will be a bit different.
“I think they said a 300 meter elevation gain or so almost 1,000 feet of elevation gain and 1,000 feet of elevation loss. And you know, college station's really flat. So I'm always like, 'have I done enough to get my legs ready for it?' But I'm super excited.”
The marathon will take the runners through a historic route through Paris: the Women's arch on Versailles during the French Revolution. And this Saturday, Noel gets the chance of a lifetime to run this course, after years of training.
“I'm fairly sure I can finish with the amount of time they've given us. So mostly just have fun and relax and enjoy it and make some new friends.”