34th Marathon de Paris - Apr 11th 2010 by kingsolo at Garmin Connect - Details
Click the link above to see my marathon run!
The weekend finally arrived! Maria, Gracie, Mandy, Taylor & myself all loaded up in to the Toyota & headed toward Paris on Friday at about 5:30 am. Yeah, a little early, but we wanted to have some of the day to get some sightseeing done.
We arrived in Paris, and it the traffic was crazy! I chose our hotel, the Elysee Ceramic, based on it's proximity to the finish line of the marathon. It was in a great location for that, but the traffic getting there was ridiculous! It took us over an hour once we got into Paris to get to the hotel. Anywho, we got there & got settled in, after a slight run in with the lady at the counter & an additional 90 Euro for a pull-out mattress for Gracie. You can actually see our room in this picture. It's the top left room with the curved balcony railing. We really didn't spend a whole lot of time in the room of course, but it was a typical European hotel room... small, hard beds with tiny, nearly non-existent, pillows, small bathrooms, etc. At least it was clean. The gentleman at the front desk that took over for the lady I had the run in with was AWESOME! Such a helpful guy and actually saved us some money on the trip.
The hotel sat on Avenue Wagram, just off the Place de Charles de Gaulle. Even though we didn't spend a ton of time in the room, at least we had a decent view! This is the view from our balcony, looking toward the Arc de Triomphe. That's maybe 2 blocks from the Arc de Triomphe. I saw maybe a dozen or so other runners staying in our hotel, so I guess the hotels near the finish line are pretty popular.
After getting some lunch at a brasserie near Taylor's hotel, we headed to the Metro (Paris Subway) and took off to the Marathon Expo. Yeah, Taylor stayed at a different hotel, and we think that by the end of the trip, he was probably wishing he would have chosen to pay the few extra dollars to stay at the same hotel we stayed in. It was quite a walk from his place to ours... maybe 10 or so blocks away. The Marathon Expo was a mandatory stop to pick up our bibs and timing chips for the run.
The Expo was pretty large. Tons of stuff to see as far as shoes and clothes and such. We were constantly berrated by leaflet hander-outers, and to our surprise, all of the leaflets at an INTERNATIONAL MARATHON were in French. Not one thing we were handed by the folks schlepping leaflets was in English... too bad too, as some of it looked pretty interesting. So, in we go, picking up our bib packs with our bib & timing chip, then grabbed our swag bag with flyers, promo items, etc inside. We shopped around a little bit, ran in to a co-worker & his wife, then back out into the streets of Paris we headed.
We went and toured the Arc de Triomph. Taylor, Mandy & I climbed all the stairs to the observation platform on top... probably not the smartest thing to do a couple days before a run like we were about to endure, but hey, you only live once! We enjoyed dinner on the Champs Elysee at a resturant named after Visuvius, the legendary volcano. Afterward, we took the Metro over to Montparnasse tour, then went up to the 56th floor to watch the Eiffel Tower light up like a million Christmas tree lights had been turned on... it was pretty awesome looking! After that, we headed back to the hotel for some sleep.
The next morning, we were up early & out in to the streets, looking for crepes & some sight seeing. We stopped at a place called Le Fleme. It was a pretty nice place... lots of purple velvet chairs & rock music pumping out of the speakers, even at 8am. Though not my picture, you can get an idea of the place from this shot. It was a very 1970's feel to the place.
After breakfast, we took off to the Louvre. After that, Hard Rock for lunch, then Notre Dame Cathedral. We were supposed to head back to the hotel & change after our tour of the Notre Dame to go to a ballet at the Paris Opera, but the show was cancelled. It didn't say why, but I am a little glad it did. We were on our feet all day. We headed back toward the hotels and stopped on the Champs Elysee for dinner at a resturant called Georges V (George Saank). It was pretty good... I had pasta to try to last minute carbo load. The only bad thing about this place is they gave us shot glasses for water. Everywhere we went, we ordered tap water so they brought it to us in pitchers or caraffes. This place had the best water because it was ice cold, but you were constantly refilling your glass because they were so small!
The next morning, I woke up and began to prepare as best I could for what I was about to do to my body. I showered, dressed, stretched & met Taylor in the lobby right around 10 or so after 8. I don't think you can envision what 40,000 runners looks like, or what kind of mess they can make! There were so many articles of clothes thrown on the ground, plastic parkas, energy gel packets, water bottles... you name it. You really had to pay attention for the first mile to prevent from rolling your ankle on the left over garbage at the starting line. If you break out a microscope, and look all the way in the back near the Arc de Triomphe, you still can't see Taylor or me!
This crowd stayed this packed for at least the first 2 miles or so. You could move a little, well, after we crossed the starting line after about 25-30 minutes after the starting gun. Yes, you read that right. 25-30 minutes AFTER the race began, my race began! Crazy, but that's why they gave us timing chips. See, there is the race clock, which begins as soon as the gun is sounded, and then there is your chip time, which is how long it takes you to go from the starting line to the finish line. It's a little confusing, but at the same time, for a race this size, it's the only way. Not to mention, it keeps people honest, since you have to cross all of the timing mats for your race time to be valid.
So, I ran. And ran. And ran. And RAN! Do me a favor. Next time you have some spare time, drive 26.2 miles. See exactly how far it is. Use somewhere that you know, so you can get a good idea of how far this is. It's a carazy distance! Yeah, it sounds like it's a good distance, but when you can associate it with a trip to Walmart & back... 3 times, you really begin to be able to fathom how far this run actually was. It wasn't all that bad though... I did meet some people.
Judith, bless her heart, was a 50 or 60 year old lady from Scotland. She was running her first marathon. We played "leap frog" until the last 5 miles of the race. When we'd pass each other, we would make small talk, when we had the breath to do so! Mostly, it was checking to make sure each other were still doing okay, and not dying on the course. She finished her race, and beat my time in the process. Her husband finished in 2:46! Amazing!
I am going to go ahead & rat myself out. I got beat by a rat! Well, at least a little rat of a dog. Yes, I got passed by a guy running with his Jack Russel Terrier! I felt horrible after that one. This little dog was not on a leash. He would run up ahead of his owner by like 25-30 yards, sniff around the edge of the course, his owner would pass him, thne all of a sudden, this dog would race past everyone to get ahead of his owner again. I am still amazed at what God has created & what his creation can do. This little dog had legs about as long as a POPSICLE STICK & RAN A MARATHON! Yeah, it wasn't so bad that I got beat by a 50-60 year old woman, but the dog, that's just a kick to the old nads!
I was a little disappointed by the organization of the race. I had heard stories from some of the people here on base, but I had read online that the organizational "incompetence" had been fixed. Let me assure anyone who may want to run Paris in the future, some of it was organized well, but the port-a-potty issue MUST be resolved! I saw maybe 30 port-a-potties on the entire 26.2 mile course. At the starting line, there was 1 port-a-potty for each time group. There were easily 100+ people in line to use the single port-a-potty. At the 2nd kilometer, basically not very far in to the race, people were stopping on the side of the road peeing on buildings. I saw one guy making his own masterpiece (yes, drawing with his urine) on the side of the Louvre. Okay, I understand that organizers did not provide enough facilities for the runners, but there was a Metro station not more than 50 yards from where the new "art work" was being deposited. At least choose a building that is not of huge cultural significance. It was a pretty sad state of affairs though, seeing grown people dropping their pants on the side of the road and doing their business. I had to go once, but I was able to use a port-a-potty! I'm a super slow runner, so by the time I had to go, around mile 16 or 17, the major crowds had thinned and I was able to pretty much walk right up to an available port-a-potty.
At about mile 21, I hit a rather large patch of cobblestones. Paris is notorious for their cobblestone streets. Well, on this particular stretch of cobbles, right as I was getting ready to get off the cobbles back onto normal paved street, there was a cobblestone that was quite crooked. I caught it right on the ball of my left foot. I felt it immediately. I knew that it was going to be a stone bruise. After that, I was pretty much slowed to a walk. Every few hundred meters I could muster a stretch of running for a couple hundred meters, but that was about it. Every step was pretty painful.
I finally finished with a total time of 5:46. Not exactly what I wanted, but it's still an accomplishment for me. I am glad I did it. I learned alot about what the human body is capable of & what it can endure. I learned a good bit about myself. I will run another one before too long. Maybe even May!
Au revoir, Paris, bojnour marathon finisher!
Day 4 - Below is the link from this mornings run. Pretty tough run, especially the long uphill stretch as I was coming back in to Queidersbach. I haven't run that hill in a long time, and I see why. It's probably 1/2 - 3/4 mile stretch that is all a pretty decent incline grade. I powered through it, but my legs were on fire.
