PARIS, France — An East Texas physician will be in Paris this weekend participating in the public Olympic marathon event called the 2024 Marathon Pour Tous (Marathon For All).
Dr. Julie Haygood, a Christus Health clinical informatics medical director and hospitalist in Tyler, was just one of a little over 10,000 female runners worldwide selected to participate in the marathon happening Saturday, Aug. 10. She is one of around 20,000 runners chosen for the race across the globe.
Haygood said she was speechless when she opened the email confirming her lottery selection, according to an announcement from Christus.
“I kept reading the message to make sure it was real,” Haygood said. “To me, it was like winning the golden ticket from Willy Wonka.”
This is the first time that the Olympics has held a marathon for the public during the Summer Games. The public marathon will follow the same route that the Olympians are running beginning at the Hôtel de Ville at 9 p.m. on Aug. 10 and finishing at Les Invalides. They will finish just a few hours before the Closing Ceremony of the Games on Aug. 11.
As she runs 26.2 miles, Haygood will pass through nine districts in the city: Paris – Boulogne, Billancourt, Sèvres, Ville d’Avray, Versailles, Viroflay, Chaville, Meudon, Issy-les-Moulineaux, Christus Health said in a news release.
“This is one of those races where I am not thinking at all about running a certain pace or trying to set my personal best,” Haygood said. “It’s Paris, at night. This is a once-in-a-lifetime type of opportunity.”
Haygood completed her first half marathon in 2023 and completed her first two full marathons this year. Christus said Haygood had low expectations when entering the lottery system. She had to complete 25 running challenges to secure her entry. She received an email confirming her selection in December.
She called her supervisor, told her family and then ran 26.2 miles at Rose Rudman Park in Tyler.
“I was never a runner. It was just not something I was very good at,” Haygood said. “I picked up running to try and break a sedentary lifestyle, and it turns out that I loved it. I feel that runner’s high when I run, and I realized that it is possible to learn something new at any age.”
