Its been almost a month since I ran my marathon at Paris- The City of Light and have been dying to do a write up for it but just kept procrastinating it. Damn me, other jobs always took over priority. But today I decided come what may I definitely write my experience at Paris.
This was the 3rd marathon in which I have participated, the first and second being Barcelona and Berlin respectively. Let me begin how I decided to run at Paris. After the Berlin marathon in 2011 I was quite excited with my timing and was looking forward towards another exciting challenge and thats when I though about why not run at Paris. By the time I had made up my mind I was quite late for registering, all the early bird registration slots were filled up so I had to pay a whomping 95 Euro registration fee to participate in it. I had the option of registering for either Vienna or Rotterdam (which would have costed me less) but I though I must run at Paris first. So thats where the journey began, I registered myself and prepared a training plan for crack Paris under 4 hours. Let me remind you this is one of the most popular marathons in continental Europe after Berlin, the registrations were closed down 5 months prior to the D day. So just imagine how prestigious this event is.
I started way back in November 2011 with my training. I did not use any specific training plans from the popular running website but just made my own on the Excel sheet and stuck to it. This time I incorporated two new items in my training, one was 'Speed Training' with 3 min of fast run followed by 1 min of slow run or trot and then again 3 min of fast run with repetitions of 7 to 10 times. This gave me additional speed during my long distance runs because I slowly trained my body to run fast. Unless you tell your body and make it accustomed to running at an elevated pace it will not get used to it. The second one was I did 'swimming' for cross training as well besides biking. The reason for that is swimming provides necessary exercise for the upper part of the body and also is good exercise during winter months when biking might not be that comfortable.
Mind you its always tough training during winter. I have two good reasons for that (my personal view), first when the atmospheric temperature is below 5 degC the body is not comfortable with it and feels lazy and secondly lack of sufficient sunlight can be demotivating. But as the saying goes "where there is a will there is a way". I kept the ultimate goal in my mind and self motivated myself to train in this cold. If one has to be fit and fine during the beautiful spring season then one must train during the winter and thats what I precisely did.
So days passed by and I looked in good shape , achieving all my training goals 90% of the time. Ofcourse there were times when I skipped a run because I was too tired. Always remember 'Listen to your body first' never over work it. Another motivating factor was the weekly emails from the organizers giving valuable tips and advice and also the some of the great achievements made by my fellow runners back in my city- Chennai. I am silent reader of the Chennai Runners group and have taken valuable tips from the greats like Ram Vishwanathan, Navin, Shankar and Bala.
I booked my tickets for Paris two months in advance and ofcourse by bus. Eurolines offers the cheapest means to reach Paris, the to & fro ticket costing me just 25 Euros. The accommodation was a problem though. All good hostels were very expensive for a single person, rates starting from 25 Euros a night and going till even 50 Euros a night but thats when my good Dutch friend Eva suggested that I stay at "Ausberg Internatinal des Junes", a nice and cozy hostel with cheap rates (just 19 Euros a night).
So I left for Paris on 13 April, my birthday with well wishes from my mom and brother. My dad never cared that I was running a marathon, he was more interested in me finding a job or something as quickly as possible. But my mom always supported me for my runs and I wanted to dedicate this marathon to her as mark of gratitude for all that she has done for me through these years and being there for me whenever I am feeling low. THIS ONE WAS FOR YOU MOM :)
I reached Paris at 21:00 hrs the same day and reached my hostel safe and sound. The bus was two hours late in reaching Paris. I checked into the hostel, a 3 bedroom hall which I found empty when I checked in. I was quite thrilled at that and thought I can relax at peace until someone else knocked on the door at 24:00 hrs.I thought OMG but anyways I didn't care much. There were 3 beds in total, out of which two were on top of each other like the dorms and the other one was single. Since I came first to the room I chose the single one but found it quite uncomfortable and later switched to the upper bed the next day. Thank God the third person had not come that night.
The next morning I left for Port de Versailles, thats where the marathon expo was being held and I collected the formalities of collecting my running number. I was keen on buying new shoes so I also did a feet scan at the ASICS stall and purchased new running shoes, The GEL NIMBUS series. Trust me they are amazing quite light, 300 grams and superb. Aaah I almost forgot, one tip for all your runners may be you already know it. Always try to make it to the marathon expo as early as possible for eg if they open at 9 be there at 9:15 or maximum by 10. Thats when it will be least crowded and you can get easy access to all the free stuff and do not have to wait in long queues. There was a serpentine queue at 13:00 hrs when I left the expo.
I purchased my new shoes and also a running short, typical Paris marathon merchandise and left the expo happily.
I went back to the hostel, took some rest and then went out in the evening to have some snacks and then check how long does it take to reach the starting point from my place. It took me exactly 30 min and then another 10 min to walk down to the area where I had to deposit my bags. That set I headed back to my room and got pasts packed up on the way for my dinner. I hit the sack early enough so that I could get sufficient sleep but there was a twist in that. As the room has only one key I had to endure the disturbance of the second guy knocking on the door and later at 1:00 am a third guy spoiled my sleep. That was the most frustrating part of the accommodation. Anyways I managed some good quality sleep and got up at 6:30 in the morning and got myself into my running gear. Everything in my running gear was pre-set the previous night itself.
I reached the starting point Champs Elysee and deposited my bag at Foch Avenue and then joined the crowd to the starting point. The sight of so many amazing people around me inspired me. OMG there was a sea of runners around you and may be thats why Paris is one of the biggest in Europe. The mood, the atmosphere, the crowd, the cheering everything was excellent. My block started off 30 min later after the professionals made their start. This is generally done to ensure smooth flow of runners else there will definitely be a stampede and someone might get seriously injured and thats the last thing the marathon organizers will ever want.
I started off with my run quite well, keeping the pace that would take to the finish line under 4 hours. Mind you there was constant cheering all around but I wish I had some of my friends or family out there shouting "Go Viku" you can do it, but never mind I always self motivate myself. The first half of the route was quite amazing and the second half even better. The second half took us through the banks of river Sienne, and Eiffel tower and finally to the finish as Foch Avenue. I was on track for a sub 4 finish until 32 Kms but after that tiredness started kicking in. I kept pushing myself but could not be on track for a sub 4 finish after 35 Kms. Then I resorted to alternate walk and run to finish the whole distance.
It took me 4:10:34 according to my watch but the official time was 4:13:08 hrs. Never mind that I still bettered myself by 21 minutes from my previous best at Berlin so I was happy but the sub 4 finish still eludes me.
I got my finishers medal and finishers T'shirt and collected my bag and left back for my room on the wonderful Paris metro. Paris was a great place to run and I am extremely happy that I did and completed it successfully.
PS: I most often keep some runner as my tracker who is faster than me so that I can follow them till the finish and most often I choose a girl coz I feel I get motivated even more and get more energy pumping in.
