A BTS Look at Pacing the Paris Marathon
In which I hand over the newsletter reins to Salomon pro Annie Rodenfels.
Phewww… with Boston and London back to back, it’s been a whirlwind few weeks at The Sweat Lookbook HQ. Thank you to everyone who visited, shared or commented on The Rec Room – the reception has been wild! As they say: if you want something (a niche marathon pop-up) done well, do it yourself (with your Substack besties.) Lots of you also enjoyed my London recap, "What the Cool Girls Are Wearing to Run Marathons,” proving once again that “coolness” is currency on here. My top newsletters of all time remain “What The Cool Runner Girls Were Wearing at The Speed Project and “Running isn’t Cool.” Newsletter growth hack: put cool in the title.
Anyway, this week we welcome a certified Cool (And Extremely Fast) Girl – pro runner Annie Rodenfels – who recaps her time pacing the Paris Marathon with the Salomon road running team. It touched on Salomon’s activation there a few newsletters ago, but it’s worth revisiting in the wake of Boston and London. Rather than eke out space at the oversaturated spring Majors, Salomon focused their energy on Paris, where they debuted a race-car themed L’Art de l’Automobile Collaboration. This was a savvy play in a Majors market so lousy with brands that Vogue Business covered the buzz in a piece titled “The Big Business of Marathons.” Patrick Nava, general manager at Adidas Running, summed up the moment for Vogue’s Madeleine Schulz:
“The marathon has moved from being a single race day moment to a multi-layered cultural platform. Ten years ago, success was largely defined by podiums and performance validation, largely confined to the running niche. Today, the marathon sits at the intersection of elite sport, mass participation, culture, and innovation storytelling.”
I was asked earlier this week how brands should approach these activations. My advice (and this goes for most things in marketing) is: show up in a way that only makes sense for your brand.
Anyone can host a shakeout, assemble a panel, or sell merch. Not every brand has the cultural cache to trot out a collaboration merging rare car culture and marathon running in Paris. Salomon is wise to lean into its French DNA, cementing a winning combination of performance gravitas and je ne sais quoi that their German, Swiss, and American competitors can’t touch.
Below, Annie shares a bit more context on the activation and how it came to life via the brand’s athletes. I was keen to highlight her perspective for a few reasons, not the least of which is that she’s part of the road racing team managed by one of my all-time favorite co-workers, Kamilah Journét. As I noted in last week’s newsletter, I’m here for “cool women doing really cool shit together.” When Kamilah’s not overseeing elite athlete recruitment and partnerships for Salomon, she’s crewing ultras for her husband, Vincent Bouillard, as he runs ultras over the Alps and raising their young daughter. You know, the usual stuff.
Salomon signed Annie in 2025 after a breakout year on the roads, in which she won the 2024 USATF 6K title and her second consecutive USATF 5K Championship. Annie’s journey to the pro ranks is a compelling story of its own. A seven-time NCAA DIII All-American at Kentucky’s Centre College, she was a three-time NCAA champion and was the first DIII woman to break 10:00 in the steeplechase. Those accolades aside, American women’s distance running is diabolically competitive, making Annie’s ascendence from DIII to US National Champion even more notable. As always, Alison Wade at Fast Women has the best breakdown of her trajectory thus far.
In my ongoing effort to unpack how women dress for performance, I asked Annie about her race-day style – particularly her signature hair-do: two French braids ending in mini buns. Here’s what she told me:
“The braids/twin mini buns started at the end of college. When I first began running at the end of high school, I would sometimes wear it in two braids. In college, it slowly turned into two side braids into one bun in the back half the time.
Mostly, I hate how my hair looks in a ponytail and I wanted something different, but there’s not much I can do with my hair because I’m simply not that skilled. I played around in college for races and would do annoying stuff like three braids down the top of my head (like a braid Mohawk?) before eventually landing on the two braids down into one bun. Then, when I became a semi-professional after college, I started doing the two braids into two buns every single day. It didn’t take me long and I really liked how it looked.
I figured if I’m always going to be running and always in running clothes, I might as well look good doing it.”
We love a statement race-day look! Read on for more from Annie and her adventures in Paris.
L’Art of Pacing the Paris Marathon
(And looking cool as f*ck while doing so)
By Annie Rodenfels
Let me start by saying that I’m a professional runner. My full-time occupation consists of running every day (sometimes twice), lifting, and then eating and resting. It’s a cushy job, but rarely as glamorous as people think. That is, until your sponsor emails you and asks you to “Please fly over to Paris, spend a week, and run 17 miles of the Paris Marathon in a race car-inspired collab uniform.” Then, yeah, it is pretty glamorous.
In April 2025, I signed a four-year professional road-running contract with Salomon, the French brand better known for its prominence in trail. The brand has been making a push into road, signing an international road racing roster of 8 people, including me, and designing high-performance road training and racing shoes. A huge part of this initiative was the release of their newest road racing shoes (‘super shoes’ if you’re in the know), the Phantasm 3 in January of this year.
Salomon wanted to support the Phantasm 3 with a major activation surrounding the Paris Marathon, showcasing their pro team to help tout the fast-ness of the shoes. That’s how I found myself hopping on a 10-hour flight from Denver and arriving at Charles De Gaulle airport, sleep-deprived but excited for a week in Paris.
Pre-Race
Our first few days blended normal training camp activities (think easy runs, track workouts, eating meals together, meetings with the Salomon team nutritionist) and ~cool~ activities.
As part of the effort to promote the Phantasm 3’s, Salomon put together a collaboration kit with L’Art de l’Automobile, a high-end luxury car dealer, who also runs a cultural space called L’Art, celebrating hypercars and the culture around them. The Salomon road team got to go to their somewhat secret garage in the heart of Paris (complete with some insanely luxurious cars that were off-limits to social media) for a photoshoot in the collab kit. This was potentially my favorite part of the whole week.
The collab featured one of the sickest uniform kits I’ve ever seen. Salomon does such a good job at nurturing the sportstyle side of their brand, but it doesn’t always translate to the running clothes, as they care so strongly about the performance and quality of the gear. However, these kits nailed it.
I felt, honestly, cool as f**k in the racing car style with clean lines, classic auto color way (red/blue/yellows), and branding that made me feel like an F1 racer about to make her debut. The matching colorway for the Phantasm 3’s is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen on shoes, transcending both sports and style. I still haven’t decided if I should wear these for races or frame them in my house.
I can’t say that running fast translates to looking cool (in fact, it’s usually the opposite). But between the L’Art x Salomon collab kit and our brilliant photographer, Lea, who spent the week with us, the pictures from the photoshoot definitely made running look cool.
With the marathon fast approaching, the activities of the week slowed down as we hit Thursday and Friday. Several of the athletes on our team were racing the marathon, and the rest of us were there to pace them. The Salomon pro team consists of 8 international athletes ranging in distances from the steeplechase to marathon. Almost all of our marathoners—Matthias Kyburz (Switzerland), Futsum Zienasellassie (USA), and Maggie Montoya (USA) were lining up to run the full distance in the professional field. The rest of us—Djilali Bedrani (steeplechase, France), Anais Quemener (marathon, France), Camilla Richardson (marathon/10k, Finland), Jimmy Whelan (half/marathon, Australia), and me (5k/10k, USA) were pacing.
We had the chance to go visit and fawn over the new Salomon offices in Paris, and to have our annual sit-down with the shoe and apparel designers to go over the next two years of product and feedback on the uniforms. I love that we get to do this. Seeing unreleased shoes and the upcoming collections mixes two of my favorite things: running gear and knowing secrets. Plus, I have a personal investment in the new Salomon gear as it’s the only thing I can wear as a contracted athlete.
Afterwards, we went out for a team-bonding activity where we painted ceramics at a coffee/ceramic shop in Paris.
None of us were very good, but everyone’s concentration levels were through the roof (especially because the Parisian store staff were clearly annoyed by us and kept reminding us of exactly how much time we had left in the activity).
A few more runs, another meal or three, and we’re finally at race morning – the whole reason Salomon brought us all here!
The Race
5 am wake-up. Hotel takeaway bag for breakfast. As always, it’s disappointing and not quite what I want to eat before running a bunch of miles fast. And then, like true Parisians, we take the Metro to the starting line for race day.
Luckily for us, Salomon just opened a store along the Champs-Élysées, right near the start. So they it as HQ for us to leave our stuff and use the bathrooms.
The rest of the pre-race goes like this: a team warm-up in our kits. Another emergency last-minute bathroom stop. Choking down a gel on the starting line.
One thing I should probably explain: I’ve actually never run a marathon. In fact, the longest I’ve ever raced is one half marathon, which I finished about a month ago. I signed up to pace 27km (almost 17 miles) at an average of 3:30 per km / 5:37 per mile. I’d never used bottles during a race. Never consumed a gel at this pace before. Never been on an official marathon starting line. However, I felt up for the challenge and even excited about it.
Then the gun goes off.
Maggie and I leap off the line, with what felt like a million sub-elite men on our heels. We’re running through cobblestone streets, past a bunch of sights I probably should be looking at and admiring, but my brain can’t comprehend because I’m just trying to make sure Maggie has the space she needs and isn’t getting cut off by any of the men.
The first few miles go by fairly quickly, both in terms of literal pace and my perception of them. The three of us pacing Maggie form a sort of triangular shield around her, with Vincent, the Salomon trail manager, leading and flanked by Anais and me. With the excitement of the race and a slight downhill over the first 3 miles, we clicked off a few miles faster than Maggie’s goal pace. By the fourth mile, we had settled in and started ascending the small hills that make up most of the rest of the course.
Around 9 miles (15km to be exact), Anais’ pacing duties are over, and she drops to the side of the course. We pick up Jimmy and Victor, who’d taken the men runners as far as they could. They join our formation, and suddenly, we’re even more of a squad in our matching kits and V-formation. I’ll be honest, we look cool as f*** and everyone tells us so.
Each mile, the momentum and excitement continues to build. As we leave the Bois de Vincennes Park and hit the streets of Paris again, heading towards the heart of the city, the crowds grow larger and the cheers more elated.
My final miles spent pacing Maggie truly take the cake for the best moments of the race (at least for me). Somehow, despite clicking off an average of 5:34 miles (3:28 per km), I feel relaxed and, dare I say, energetic?
I high-five a few spectators as we run by and punch a sign that I’m fairly certain says something along the lines of “hit here for a boost!” (in French) with a Mario Kart symbol. I’m laughing and talking to Victor in front of our formation and even speak to Maggie a bit to check in with her (she’s so relaxed and chill, letting us do all the work for her). I try to truly enjoy the last two miles, running along the Seine with a view of all the old architecture and buildings and people cheering us on every step.
Finally, at 17 miles we pass under a bridge and run through the Salomon x L’art activation area where I’ve planned on dropping. I give a final allez allez allez to Maggie and pacers and step to the side: 17 miles at 5:34 pace.
I’m feeling pretty thrilled with that — both with the ability to help a teammate out and the way it felt. What could this mean for my own marathon chops? My marathon plans are just beginning to take shape. Maybe not next year, but the year after. So this opportunity was all about gaining experience and learning.
We spend the next hour partying at the activation zone and tracking Maggie and the others’ final miles on our phones. Screaming at the masses of people running by in their own marathon is always fun. It’s even more so when you’re standing on the side of the Seine.
One by one, the Salomon marathoners cross the finish line. Mathias crosses first, in 13th place overall, with a time of 2:08.37. Not a PB by a solid time for him on a moderately hilly course. Futsum is next in 15th place in 2:11.55. Not the time he was gunning for either, but he rallied hard after bonking around 35km. Finally, our girl Maggie crosses: 9th place female and a MINUTE PB of 2:27.04!
From my perspective, Salomon achieved what they wanted with the week. We spent time coming together and bonding as a team: valuable for a small crew of athletes who rarely race the same events or distances and live across the world. We set up our marathoners to try and have the best day possible in Paris, a location and market that’s one of the cornerstones in Salomon’s plans to rise to the top of both sportstyle and performance. The collaboration between L’art de L’Automobile and Salomon was flawlessly executed. I had numerous comments, DM’s and people reaching out to say just how cool the clothes and shoes looked. Asking about where they could get a pair and commenting on the collab pictures from the garage that we all posted to our socials.
And, most importantly, I had a freaking blast! I’m an easygoing person. I like to think of myself as someone who can have a good time doing most anything, but pacing the Paris Marathon in the coolest kit with a bunch of my teammates and Salomon people is definitely very high up on my list of ~cool things I’ve done~. I’m not going to forget about this week anytime soon (or shut up about it).
