Marathon de Paris 15/04/07Paris in Springtime - who would want to be anywhere else? For the first time ever I'd followed a 16 week training schedule to the letter, and I'm feeling solidly prepared for my first big city marathon. At last an escape from 4 months of pasta and doing nothing but eating, sleeping, working and running!
The course is largely flat, out down the Champs Elysees and back along the Seine. It starts and finishes near the Arc de Triomphe, and passes many of the sights, not that I notice even the Eiffel Tower, given that it seems very crowded the whole way round. The start is well-organised - I am over the start line only 5 minutes after the gun - with runners strictly grouped into pens depending on predicted finish time: this is shown by colour-coding the numbers, and the marshals are determined everyone stays in their right pen. Alas there is no way of checking folks' predictions - some 20,000 have said they would run 3:30 or less, whereas I've gone for 3:45. This means there are slower folk in the way the whole way round - on average I pass someone every 6 metres, making it hard to find a rhythm, and I never find someone to run with or draft off. Twice in the race the course narrows to the extent we have to stop entirely because of the crush.
There are water stations every 5k followed by sponge stations 2k further on: they offer some odd fayre - no energy drinks, but figs, dates, sugar cubes, quartered oranges and bits of banana. There is even wine on offer at the 40k station. 70 bands hammer out "encouraging" drum beats round the course, with apparently 200,000 spectators yelling "allez, allez" or "courage"! Four "Pacers" for each split carry big balloons and run fixed paces to achieve 3:00, 3:15; 3:30, 3:45, 4:00 etc, so if you can find them, you don't have to worry about pacing. For the entry fee, you get a T-shirt, start and finish poncho and large medal: but perhaps the best thing about Paris is that if you enter in time, you are guaranteed a place - there is no ballot, you get a place if you are one of the first 35,000 to apply (this year it filled up just after the London rejections went out).
I'd been most worried that I'd start too fast - the plan was to run 7:50s for the first half, 8:00 for the next quarter, and 8:20s for the last quarter. But the start is too crowded for this to be a problem - first two miles are 8:16 and 8:11, with loads of dodging about. It wasn't till mile 8 that I "catch up" with my schedule, and from there to mile 16 I run solidly and comfortably - all between 7:40 and 7:50, going through the half in 1:44:10. I am already getting worried about the lack of energy drinks at the water points (promised in the pre-race info!) and the rising temperature, which peaks atop 80 just after midday. My parents have loyally come over to support me, and I'd asked them to be just after the 29K mark with a hat and a drink. Of course the 29k marker turned out to be inside one of a number of underpasses in the third quarter of the race - but they are as close to it as they could be.
The underpasses also kill off my garmin, which is a surprisingly big psychological blow. Particularly after the 30k mark, I am no longer able to do the mental arithmetic to see if I am on time, and losing my "virtual Birt" leaves me open to those mid-race feelings that you're not going quite as fast as you should be. Fortunately the "blue balloons" of the 3:30 hares have just come into sight in the distance, and it should be enough just to keep them there. I get to 36k bang on 3 hrs - the good thing about a 3:30 target is that it is almost exactly 8 minutes per mile and 5 minutes per kilometre: 6 more five minute ks will be enough, but the heat is taking its toll, and I am into a curious shuffling gait rather than running freely. Still, I make no special effort for the next k, and lose only 15 seconds, so feel I can still make it. 5k to go, and I step up the pace. I catch the last of the blue balloons and push on - but the heat keeps coming, and with 4k to go, it becomes clear I can't keep pushing, and it is suddenly a question of whether or not I can get to the end. Only in the last km does some energy return, by which time I am for some reason aiming for 3:33:33. The finish line springs out as something of a surprise round a couple of tight bends, and I get over it in 3:33:17 and 4725th place. The blue balloon I've overtaken is still behind me - even the "professionals" are suffering. Similarly in the elite ladies' race someone pulls clear only to die in the last few miles and miss the podium - though the elite men run fast enough (2:08 for the winner) to win the double prize money on offer for times inside 2:11.
Although I've run the last four miles at about 9:00 minute pace, in reality it is the slow start and the heat that keep me from breaking 3:30. I'd said before the start that anything under 4 would be OK, and anything under 3:45 would be better than good - but I'm close enough to 3:30 to have mixed feelings. At the finish itself, the overwhelming feeling is simply relief that it's over - I've run the whole way except for walking through the last water point where I drain the bottle, and am so drained myself it takes me 15 minutes to walk through the finish area to get to the meeting point. The last hour has been hard: and I can't imagine the extra effort of those who keep going for another two or three hours in the midday sun - the last finisher I can find on the results comes in 6hrs 46mins, by which time I am gratefully back in the hotel asleep!
Report Richard Dennis
Results here
