Anaïs and Maggie are among the first runners of Salomon’s international road running team. Maggie is 28. Anaïs is 32. They both share the same love for running, and they were both on the starting line of two of the most famed marathons in 2023.
Maggie started running track in university, leading her school to the NCAA Championships, before moving to Boulder, Colorado to join the Roots Running Project where she would meet fellow Salomon road running athlete Noah Droddy. She likes to run short and fast, with her current 5K PR standing at 15’01”, and her 10K PR standing at 32’06”. But she also performs on the 42km format, with a 2h29’ time at the Houston Marathon in January 2022, and a 2h28’ time at the Chicago Marathon in October of the same year. Feeling confident, she was headed to the Boston Marathon in April 2023.
Anaïs ran her first marathon in 2013, and loved it so much that, supported by her father, she started organizing her years around more marathons, dreaming that one day, she could run one under 2h40’. She has been crowned French Marathon Champion in both 2016 (2h55’26”) and 2022 (2h40’37”). After 13 marathons since 2013, 2023 saw Anaïs take on her third Schneider Marathon de Paris, hoping to run a new PB.
After my first marathon in Rotterdam in 2013, I immediately told my dad I wanted to do more, so we started looking at what races were coming up to build a plan.
Anaîs Quemener
Just like Anaïs, Maggie admits that training runs over 20km are her favorite. Running track in university, Maggie knew she liked the long distances, even though she was a short distance runner at heart. After moving to Boulder, and being encouraged by her teammates, she decided to take on two marathons in the same year, scoring two sub-2h30’.
Anaïs fell in love with her first marathon and, even if she still runs 5 and 10K races, showing how polyvalent she can be, she says that she loves marathons best.
HOW TO PREPARE FOR A MARATHON
Leading up to the Boston Marathon, Maggie said she didn’t want to run too much. She ran two half-marathons that didn’t go as planned, sustaining small injuries in her knee and her Achilles, just a few weeks before the race. Still, she came into the race with confidence garnered from her Houston and Chicago marathons the year before.
Speaking about her club, the Roots Running Project, Maggie reminisces about her co-runner and fellow Salomon teammate, Noah Droddy.
"I didn’t know Noah was part of the running group when I joined, I just remember seeing him at the 2013 trials with his long hair! Fast forward and I’m joining this group not knowing that he was part of the team. He’s a great teammate, he has a great energy, never over the top, it’s an energy that everybody enjoys.”
I wouldn’t have been able to handle Boston if it was my first! Having two marathons under my belt, knowing how it’s gonna feel, allowed me to push all the way until the end, even when it got really tough and dark.
Maggie Montoya
Anaïs has a different approach: she says that if her body was able to, she would race every weekend!
“My dad usually has to stop me and remind me that I can’t race every single week! So I try to pick one or two marathons, one half and two 10Ks to run in a year.”
Her training consisted mostly of runs with her dad or on her own, as Anaïs works the night shift, which can make it hard to find running partners. She is also part of her own running club, La Meute (the Pack), with over 90 members, and Jean-Yves Quemener, her dad, as the head coach.
They sign up for races together and train together. “Some days, someone doesn’t feel like running, until they see 10 people who are, and everyone gets motivated. There are runners of all levels, and everyone has something to bring to the group!”
RACE DAY, RAIN AND RESILIENCE
Fast forward to race day. The skies in Boston and Paris were both grey, with rain menacing to make things more difficult for everyone.
Maggie recalls a sprinkle of rain during the first few miles, but what left the biggest impression on her was the crowd, cheering on at every point of the race. Looking to fight the cold, Maggie shares that her bottles were filled with carbohydrates and caffeine at the start, before switching to soda for the last kilometers.
The Schneider Marathon de Paris is no news to Anaïs, as this was her 3rd participation. She could feel the pressure from running with all this exposure as a Salomon athlete in one of the most competitive marathons in the world. But she was also on home turf, and the stress was soon replaced by the joy from the cheers
The crowd was a huge help! Sometimes I thought that I would be faster just walking, not trusting my legs, but then I would look up and feel revigorated by all these people yelling and cheering.
Maggie Montoya
Looking for a time of 2h30’, Anaïs admits falling to the rookie mistake of starting too fast. Fueled by natural honey sticks (3 for the whole race), she had to fight mentally to keep a steady pace, kilometer after kilometer, until she hit the “30km wall”: “It started being tough around km34, because I started too fast. I could have run a 2h30’, my first thought at the end of the race was: I f*cked up. But I still end up beating my PR by 5min, which is crazy!”
After the race, Maggie recalls getting a piggyback ride from one of her friends because her legs were so tired. The next hours included some walking around, and the following 2 weeks included lots of sleeping.
Anaïs went to debrief her race with her friends and her dad around a well-deserved pizza. “I love pizza, I can even have it before a race as it’s full of carbohydrates, just need to stay away from the ones with too much cheese! I usually go for a classic Margherita with a lot of spicy sauce!”
Despite the weather and the hardships, Maggie finished 21st with a 2h31’19” time in Boston, and Anaïs finished 11th with a 2h32’12” in Paris. In September, Anaïs ran the Berlin marathon in 2h29'01", further improving her time.
THE SALOMON ROAD RUNNING TEAM
Anaïs and Maggie are among the first runners part of Salomon’s international road running team. Maggie says she really enjoys how close the team is: “Everyone is so friendly, and I got to meet so many people, from runners to product developers. I also love the group runs with the whole team!” Anaïs also only has good things to say about the team: “Everyone listens to everyone! They were super eager to know how I felt about the gear during the race, and how to make it better. I even gave one of my bibs to Félix Dejey (Salomon Road Running Product Developer), as the result was partly thanks to him!” She is also a big fan of the S/LAB Phantasm 2, which led her to beat every single one of her PRs.
