Made it! I achieved my dream of running along the Champs Elysees, and went on to run my 16th marathon.
My preparation was disrupted by an illness in the last few weeks, but I had done sufficient long distance running prior to that to carry me through, even though a nagging cough kept me worried until the very last day. So my plan this time was quite simple: treat the marathon as a very long run, without any time pressure and without at any point trying to run faster than my standard comfortable pace. The sole objective was to keep running from start to finish.
The day dawned rather warm and sunny. That was an advantage during the normally shivery half hour before the start of the race, but less so as the day progressed and the sun reached higher up in the sky. The anticipated excitement was all there. Crowds everywhere cheered the 43,000 participants. We set off in separate groups to facilitate handling of the large numbers. I had indicated a finishing time of 3h45 so I started with the purple group at 9:30, ten minutes later than the scheduled 9:20.
From the Champs Elysees we went to Place de la Concorde then left towards Rue de Rivoli. The sun was straight ahead for a good long distance. It was the one thing that bothered me a bit in the beginning. But it was ok. I was thrilled about running a marathon in Paris. I kept looking at the street names to keep track where we were, but soon gave up as we entered unfamiliar parts of the city. I was looking forward to getting a glimpse of Sue and Gianluca at the 12 km mark, where they had planned to go to cheer me on, and sure enough they were there! Two high-fives gave an excellent boost to my morale.
The biggest surprise for me, and a matter of considerable concern, was the fact that the feeding stations did not provide any energy drinks. This was a major factor that I had been banking upon to keep me going. I always take a belt with an energy drink for my long distance runs, but this time I relied on the fact that in all my previous marathons these were provided by the organisers. But not in Paris! There was water (thankfully in bottles) plus bananas, oranges and dried fruit. After the second feeding station without any energy drink I decided that I had to replenish my muscle fuel reserves by taking banana. It was a risk, as I had never before eaten anything while running, but it was less risky than not taking anything at all except water. It worked. The two banana halves that I took combined with the increasing heat made me very thirsty, but this problem was resolved at the next drinking station 5 km later.
It's the problems section of this post. Please bear with me. The good points come later. I need to mention the main problem I encountered in the Paris marathon, which was of course the overcrowding. There was a queue to enter the bag storage area (compounded by additional security checks because of those beasts the terrorists), another queue to enter the 3h45 finishers' group starting corrall, and similar queues on exhausted legs to retrieve the bags and simply to get out of the area after the finish, this time compounded by well wishers and spectators who were blocking the way out. And during the run itself... I had to slow down or weave my way around slower runners, not just at the first couple of kilometres as is normal for most races, but all the way from start to finish. Ok, I'm not getting any younger and certainly not any faster with the advancing years, but there's a good probability that my worst ever finishing time for a marathon, 3h55, is partly due to the constant weaving in between slower runners resulting in an actual distance run that was even longer than 42.2 km. The strange thing is that I was overtaking other runners all the time. All of these slower participants had started either in my own corrall, i.e. stating that they would finish in 3h45, or even in a faster corrall, expecting to finish in 3h30, but in actual fact they must have been grossly overoptimistic because at a slow 3h55 I beat them all by a good margin.
So I'm still learning lessons from my 16th marathon at 53 years of age; (1) the big city marathons are too crowded for my liking, and (2) you have to state an overoptimistic finishing time to avoid slower runners getting in your way, because everyone else does it.
Gripes over. I'm hugely pleased with myself, for the following reasons:
1. I actually ran the Paris marathon, having promised myself to do this and having missed the previous edition.
2. I have completed my 16th marathon. No mean achievement for a common mortal.
3. I was overtaking other participants from start to finish.
4. I didn't experience too much discomfort at any time. Well... quite some discomfort during the last 10 km, but not too much. At the 32 km mark I used the old mental trick: I'm now beginning a 10k run, something I've done thousands of times. This will be yet another one. One kilometre later I started a 9 km run, and so it went on. As time and distance wore on I imagined myself doing the final stages of my standard long run at home: the Arboretum in the forest, the Jezus Eik church, Brusselsesteenweg, the bridge over the E411 motorway and the final one mile stretch before reaching home. It wasn't easy - it's a marathon we're talking about! - but I never experienced the overwhelming urge to slow down to a walk. On the contrary, I was seeking to overtake slower runners who were blocking my path even in these late stages of the race.
5. Final position no. 12,427 out of more than 43,000 starters and 41,757 who finished the race. So, at 53 I placed in the top third of the final overall classification.
6. 11,1766th of 31,651 men who finished the race.
7. 1564th of 5612 in my age and sex category - that's in the top 28%.
But I know that with better luck in my preparation and if I choose a less crowded marathon, I can do better, So, bring on the next marathon!
My preparation was disrupted by an illness in the last few weeks, but I had done sufficient long distance running prior to that to carry me through, even though a nagging cough kept me worried until the very last day. So my plan this time was quite simple: treat the marathon as a very long run, without any time pressure and without at any point trying to run faster than my standard comfortable pace. The sole objective was to keep running from start to finish.
The day dawned rather warm and sunny. That was an advantage during the normally shivery half hour before the start of the race, but less so as the day progressed and the sun reached higher up in the sky. The anticipated excitement was all there. Crowds everywhere cheered the 43,000 participants. We set off in separate groups to facilitate handling of the large numbers. I had indicated a finishing time of 3h45 so I started with the purple group at 9:30, ten minutes later than the scheduled 9:20.
From the Champs Elysees we went to Place de la Concorde then left towards Rue de Rivoli. The sun was straight ahead for a good long distance. It was the one thing that bothered me a bit in the beginning. But it was ok. I was thrilled about running a marathon in Paris. I kept looking at the street names to keep track where we were, but soon gave up as we entered unfamiliar parts of the city. I was looking forward to getting a glimpse of Sue and Gianluca at the 12 km mark, where they had planned to go to cheer me on, and sure enough they were there! Two high-fives gave an excellent boost to my morale.
The biggest surprise for me, and a matter of considerable concern, was the fact that the feeding stations did not provide any energy drinks. This was a major factor that I had been banking upon to keep me going. I always take a belt with an energy drink for my long distance runs, but this time I relied on the fact that in all my previous marathons these were provided by the organisers. But not in Paris! There was water (thankfully in bottles) plus bananas, oranges and dried fruit. After the second feeding station without any energy drink I decided that I had to replenish my muscle fuel reserves by taking banana. It was a risk, as I had never before eaten anything while running, but it was less risky than not taking anything at all except water. It worked. The two banana halves that I took combined with the increasing heat made me very thirsty, but this problem was resolved at the next drinking station 5 km later.
It's the problems section of this post. Please bear with me. The good points come later. I need to mention the main problem I encountered in the Paris marathon, which was of course the overcrowding. There was a queue to enter the bag storage area (compounded by additional security checks because of those beasts the terrorists), another queue to enter the 3h45 finishers' group starting corrall, and similar queues on exhausted legs to retrieve the bags and simply to get out of the area after the finish, this time compounded by well wishers and spectators who were blocking the way out. And during the run itself... I had to slow down or weave my way around slower runners, not just at the first couple of kilometres as is normal for most races, but all the way from start to finish. Ok, I'm not getting any younger and certainly not any faster with the advancing years, but there's a good probability that my worst ever finishing time for a marathon, 3h55, is partly due to the constant weaving in between slower runners resulting in an actual distance run that was even longer than 42.2 km. The strange thing is that I was overtaking other runners all the time. All of these slower participants had started either in my own corrall, i.e. stating that they would finish in 3h45, or even in a faster corrall, expecting to finish in 3h30, but in actual fact they must have been grossly overoptimistic because at a slow 3h55 I beat them all by a good margin.
So I'm still learning lessons from my 16th marathon at 53 years of age; (1) the big city marathons are too crowded for my liking, and (2) you have to state an overoptimistic finishing time to avoid slower runners getting in your way, because everyone else does it.
Gripes over. I'm hugely pleased with myself, for the following reasons:
1. I actually ran the Paris marathon, having promised myself to do this and having missed the previous edition.
2. I have completed my 16th marathon. No mean achievement for a common mortal.
3. I was overtaking other participants from start to finish.
4. I didn't experience too much discomfort at any time. Well... quite some discomfort during the last 10 km, but not too much. At the 32 km mark I used the old mental trick: I'm now beginning a 10k run, something I've done thousands of times. This will be yet another one. One kilometre later I started a 9 km run, and so it went on. As time and distance wore on I imagined myself doing the final stages of my standard long run at home: the Arboretum in the forest, the Jezus Eik church, Brusselsesteenweg, the bridge over the E411 motorway and the final one mile stretch before reaching home. It wasn't easy - it's a marathon we're talking about! - but I never experienced the overwhelming urge to slow down to a walk. On the contrary, I was seeking to overtake slower runners who were blocking my path even in these late stages of the race.
5. Final position no. 12,427 out of more than 43,000 starters and 41,757 who finished the race. So, at 53 I placed in the top third of the final overall classification.
6. 11,1766th of 31,651 men who finished the race.
7. 1564th of 5612 in my age and sex category - that's in the top 28%.
But I know that with better luck in my preparation and if I choose a less crowded marathon, I can do better, So, bring on the next marathon!
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