Paris Marathon

I've forgotten some bits already, but here's a brief report... The mobile alarm went off at 6 am. Way too early, I'll just snooze for a bit and get up later. Oh no I'm running today, ok, better get up and follow the military-style plans devised to get me to the start line in a correct state, with the planned outfit on and the pre-packed bag on my back. After a quick shower and a hairdo that worked on the first attempt (a crokked ponytail that pinches is no fun!) I tiptoed down to reception to be let into the kitchen, as agreed the night before. The reception guy seemed very suspicious when I declined his offer of croissant, cofee and orange juice in favour of a gigantic portion of porridge that went int the microwave, but what's a girl to do?! Three portions later I nearly barfed as soon as I moved so I gave up. With backpack on and metro card in hand I headed out into the hazy morning. No sign of the promised (threatened!) blazing sun, excellent! The metro behaved like a dream (read and learn, London Transport!), we were three runners on the first train, at the station where I changed trains we were maybe 25, and at the following stations rows and rows were waiting. Eventually you could hardly see anyone without a bib which was quite cool. At the start the first pen I reached was "mine", and I headed straight in to look for one of the promised portaloos. There was one. ONE! For 8000 runners! OK, I placed myself in the queue as I had to go… 45 minutes later the start gun went off, just as it was my turn. I was pretty pleased the start line was some distance away! I didn't really feel like squatting by the side of the road like so many others did... No time for a proper warmup, although I did some drills and jumps along the Champs Elysées on the way to the start line. If nothing else this ensured I didn't trip over any of all the dumped plastic ponchos, sweaters and bottles that littered the street. It took me 12 minutes to reach the line, and I guess this counts as a reasonable warmup time, especially efter the toilet queue, but I'd liked it to be a bit different. In the first km towards Obélisque de Louxor my feet felt stiff, my calves weren't really awake and I didn't feel like running at all. I also needed the loo again, and the very straight Rue de Rivoli past the Louvre felt endless. At 4 km I spotted a toilet with three pensioners queueing up, and I asked slightly panicky if I could jump in before them, and yes of course that was ok. Brilliant! After this it was much easer to run, and just after the first water station by Place de la Bastille (5,5 km) it felt pretty good. I kept my eye on my garmin so I wouldn't run too fast, and had to slow down several times. Quit a few people were out, and cheered us runners on with gusto. Many called out the names that were printed on the bibs, which felt great. Most even pronounced my name properly, which most people struggle with here in London! Hubby and the inlaws were meant to have placed themselves at 7 km, but I didn't see them and got a bit tired as I looked for them on both sides of the road. When I finally gave up and realised I'd run past them already I got distracted by the first sponge station, but they were all gone, just piles of dirty sponges on the road and buckets of water to dip hand in. Worked ok, but a sponge would've been nice. Eight more stations to go, so I thought I'd at least get one. I was so wrong! After 10 km it was time to leave the beautiful buildings behind and head out into Bois de Vincennes. Pretty scenery, sure, especially Château de Vincennes, but by now the poker straight roads seemingly leading nowhere almost completely lacked supporters. I also need the loo once again, and someone had very conveniently planted row after row of small shrubs to hide behind. I wasn't the only one with these thoughts but managed to find a relatively fresh patch to squat on, realising too late that that particular shrub was a bit too see-through, but with a runner every three feet it didn't feel too bad. Enough with needing the loo already! At 16 km we ran past a horse racing track. No horses. I almost forgot that I wasn't feeling quite as fresh as half an hour ago as I wondered why there was no sign saying what the track was called. All forms of distractions were welcome! More woods, but now with some houses on one side of the road. Felt a bit like the suburbs. My legs were starting to complain a little, especially my left thigh which I’d landed on a few times when snowboarding. My chiropractor had ordered stretching, but it was hard to reach the particular spot and I think I’d needed more time to heal properly. I stopped for a bit of massage at 20 km, which worked like magic. Especially the lovely lotion, first the leg felt numb, then hot, and after about 10 minutes it felt like an ice pack! The halfway point was right by Bercy, which again made me think. Many of the live tunes on my mp3 player were recorded here, and I tried to get a glimpse of the arena, but of course I failed. My thigh felt ok, and I was quite pleased to have ran the half marathon in only 12 minutes over my time from last year’s GöteborgsVarvet. At 24 km we went past Place de la Bastille again, but I hardly noticed it. I was too busy looking forward to the next water station with yummy oranges and bananas as I was getting hungry. Those oranges did a great job of taking the mind of running, as I spent about five minutes after eating them trying to get the pulp out from between my teeth, and of course trying not to slip on the skins. A lot more slippery than banana skins for sure! By now both my thighs were getting tired. As we reached the Seine at 25 km I realized the rest of the race was going to be hard work, but I kept running. I’d actually only walked by the water stations so far, which was more than I’d thought I’d manage. It was also starting to get quite hot - there was hardly any shade along the river, and as I’d still not got hold of a sponge my eyelashes were quite salty and itchy by now… There were quite a few people here though, which was fun. Once again many of them shouted our names, and it was particularly cool to run past a fire engine with maybe 25 firemen on it cheering for little me! This happened several times, and was very invigorating indeed. Along the south side of the Louvre we ran through a tunnel that was about 1 km long. Really depressing, it was dark and dull, you couldn’t see the light at the end and the air was warm and stale. As we came out on the other side the sun had come out in full force… I wanted another massage, especially along the undulating stretch of road – we passed several shorter tunnels and even if it was nowhere near hilly it was still noticeable. One of the tunnels was by Pont de l'Alma, which felt a bit spooky. I finally spotted a massage tent by Trocadéro, just before the Eiffel Tower, and queued up by a guy with big hands. He sure knew how to use them. Mmm… Just behind the tent was the next water station, and I ate some oranges while looking at the view. As I looked at my garmin I realized I’d never ran this far before – my longest training run was 30,24 km so even if I pulled out now it’ll still mean a distance record! I didn’t plan on it though, had I come this far I’d finish, ideally running but crawling would do as a last resort. Luckily it didn’t feel quite that bad. I don’t remember much of the bit between 32 and 34 km, except that people were by now starting to walk and I really didn’t want to do the same. I was however getting a bit bored, nothing much happened along the route and by now my legs were quite tired. If I’ve a short stride normally it was even more so now! Here and there was entertainment in the form of advertisements for other marathons, there were tables and tents and people in costume and sign posts and lots more. Among the advertised races were the Marathon du Médoc, Marathon du Beaujolais Nouveau and similar, and most offered samples of local produce. I don’t know how other people felt, but the smell of wine alone made me dizzy, and I tried to run away as fast as I could, which by now meant snail pace… Can’t say I was overly keen to enter myself in another marathon right there and then. At 36 km the route led us into the next bit of greenery, first past another race track and then through the eastern part of the Bois de Boulogne. By now I couldn’t care less about pretty scenery! I just wanted it all to be over, first I wanted some powerade – it was of course all gone at the water station by 30 km, I had loads of gels with me so I was ok anyway but I’d still like an energy drink – and then I wanted to be on the other side of the finish line. At this point I was walking now and again, lifting my knees felt harder and harder and besides most people were also walking so I had to run around them which was a bit tricky. Of course there was no more powerade to be had, and also it was (slightly) uphill all the way from here! My legs had given up on running, and from the 41 km-sign I was moving on sheer willpower. I couldn’t even run all the way from there, I had to walk a little bit to be able to run the last km to the finish. I knew there would be video cameras! I tried really hard to lengthen my stride and lift my knees to not look too bad but failed completely – I felt like I did a good job but the video tells a different story… Finally across the line I almost cried because I’d done it, then felt pissed off because of my time. I’d wanted to finish in under 5 hours but the clock stopped at 5:18:36. Felt crap, I was on track most of the way but by the end it was getting harder and harder to keep up the pace, and once I realised I’d never make it in under 5 hours I simply couldn’t find the will to run. I know what I need to work on though! When I reached the chip-clippers one of them shouted my name (again the name on the bib proved quite useful) and everyone looked startled and looked at me to see who I was. Some of the volunteers were entertaining to say the least. Next stop was brightly coloured plastic ponchos, perfect as by now the weather had started to finally cool down. I had only one thing on my mind now. Massage! I quickly realised I wasn’t the only one, and joined the very long queue. It was however moving along quite quickly, the huge tent was full of masseurs! The first rows of tables were for pedicures, and I saw plenty of different styles of blisters. (Blisters were treated with big syringes full of bright pink liquid that was squirted into the blisters themselves, this looked quite interesting. I had no blisters, so didn’t have to worry about my needle phobia…) After waiting for a while inside the tent I simply placed myself by a table with two guys who looked like they were quite rough, and waited for my turn. Ahhh… I could have stayed there for an hour but was kicked out after what felt like a single minute. Off to find my supporters who were waiting under a tree. I’d hoped for some kind of goodie bag but there was only water and finally the elusive powerade! Felt a little strange. I saw others clutching skin care samples but these were of course all gone, and besides they were for men. We did get a few little things in the bags at the bib pick-up, but still, who doesn’t like freebies! Now, two days after the race, I feel a little stiff, I can almost walk normally, if a bit slowly, it mostly hurts to stand up from sitting down. It’s easy to get stuck halfway… My toes are a different story! Two on the left foot and one on the right hurt pretty bad, and the toenails are a fairly cool shade of pinky-purple. I don’t think they’ll fall off, but we’ll see. I’ll be wearing flip-flops for a while for sure… Earlier today my chiropractor said my misaligned hips weren’t too bad, considering the race. All in all it feels a bit - anti-climatic. What do I train for now?! OK, so I’m running GöteborgsVarvet again in May, but I’m not planning to follow any plans at all until then, I'll simply run when I want to, and is able to of course. I’m certainly in no rush to enter another marathon anytime soon… A few numbers: Time: 5:18:36 Place: 28702 of 30334 (1924 of 2148 senior ladies) 5 km: 33:59 (6:48 min/km) 10 km: 1:08:55 (6:54 min/km - this interval 6:59 min/km) 15 km: 1:46:13 (7:05 min/km - this interval 7:44 min/km) 21,1 km: 2:33:54 (7:18 min/km - this interval 7:49 min/km) 25 km: 3:01:01 (7:14 min/km - this interval 6:57 min/km) 30 km: 3:37:31 (7:15 min/km - this interval 7:18 min/km) 35 km: 4:21:08 (7:28 min/km – this interval 8:43 min/km) 42,195 km: 5:18:36 (7:33 min/km - this interval 7:59 min/km) Pulse: average 158, max 178