Paris Took Away the Paper Cups

The Paris Marathon made a decision this year that sounds small and isn't: no more single-use cups or bottles on the course. None. The disposable hydration setup that road races have relied on forever — gone, in the name of sustainability.

My first reaction was a quiet cheer. Few things sour a day outside for me like finding someone's wrapper or plastic bottle on a trail; whoever leaves those behind has misunderstood the entire arrangement we have with these places. A major event standing up and saying "we will stop producing a mountain of waste every April" is the kind of respect for the outdoors I want more of.

And then I read about Cari Brown, who has run this race eleven times and changed her plans because of the policy. Eleven Parises. She knows her body, she knows exactly how she fuels over 42 kilometres, and the new rules broke a system she's spent a decade refining. For someone out there for four or five hours, water isn't a preference — it's the thing standing between them and a medical tent.

So I'm torn, honestly, and I've decided to stay torn rather than pick a lane for the sake of it. I love the intention. I'm uneasy that the cost falls on individual runners' bodies rather than on the event's logistics. The best version of this is Paris treating year one as a draft — keep the ambition, fix the delivery until eco-friendly and safe stop being opposites. It's worth watching, because whatever they figure out, every other big event will copy.

The reading I enjoyed most this week, though, was quieter. Andy Jones-Wilkins wrote about training camps and community, and his point was simple: the miles matter less than the people you share them with. That one I can co-sign without any hesitation — the days outside I remember are almost never about the route. They're about who was there, and the conversation that only happens two hours from the car. [ANDREAS: one line about a specific person or outing here would make this paragraph yours.]

Also passing through my feed: a runner named Jonny Davies preparing for a backyard ultra, a format where you run a loop every hour until you're the last person standing — no finish line, just attrition. I read about his fueling plan with the fascination of someone watching a documentary about deep-sea welding. Incredible; not for me 😅 And the GLP-1 wave keeps rippling through the whole fitness world, gyms to supplement brands, mostly proving that how people eat is tangled up with identity in ways no macro spreadsheet captures.

Spring is properly here. Go find some people worth walking uphill with.