Plan: about 3h30m and it’s also the pace group that i chose in autumn. No expectations. Just to enjoy myself. And to find a long distance feeling, after New York Marathon disappointment.

Weather:
Cold in the morning (only one 5C), and slightly warmer during the day (maybe 8-10C). Great running weather, in contrast to the last year’s heat. I was a little worried with being “underdressed”, but the decision to start with the T-shirt, proved to be excellent. Only problem was the wind, especially when running around Bois de Boulogne.

Before the match:
I got up late, at around 6:30. Quickly ate some corn (choco) flakes, an energy bar and went to the toilet. Start of the marathon was at 8:45, but luckily I live not too far with the metro – just some 15-20 minutes away, on direct line. However, again, i repeated my mistake from a previous year and went again 15 minutes too late. Therefore everything had to be done in a hurry. As it is usual in Paris, there was huge crowd in the morning and drop-off for luggage was really far away (from L’arc de triomphe – an advice – if you are going to the start with metro line 6, go out at the metro station Kleber – close to the entrance!). What was again traditionally low was the number of portable toilets, though this year they added several urinals. But not enough, men still preferred to use nearby trees and fences. From drop-off place to the start on the Champs Elysees is at least one kilometre, so it’s a good opportunity to warm up. When entering starting lots, there was more order this year (they introduced controls), however that made also a huge pile-up of people outside the starting lot. But when you were inside, you were relatively OK. In addition to previous years, they introduced waves this year, so they let each group with some lag. My group (3:30) went with a lag of 6 minutes.

Running:
As usual, the Paris Marathon starts on the Champs Elysees. Avenue is fortunately wide enough to ingest a large amount of runners. In addition it goes down a bit towards place of Concorde, so the first kilometre was excellent to warm up. And crowd took me away, and we started with a good pace of 4:33 per km. Soon you go on the Rivoli, past Louvre towards Bastille. This is the time when you need to find your own pace, and you can already see some people pushing as hard as they can. Since the group started in the 3h:30m pace, I thought it was a bit too slow. In the first 5 kilometres I had really nice pace around 4:45 per km, just a whisk under 24 minutes. Shortly before Bastilla there was already a first snack bar, and I should really commended French. This and most of the following snack bars had almost everything a runner could want. Water in small bottles (very convenient, you get more into yourself than onto), fruits (bananas and oranges), raisins, biscuits, sugar… Only energy drinks were missing until the km 35.

Around the 6th km road starts to go uphill a bit, but nothing difficult. First people already start slowing down after blazing start, and I keep my pace to reach km 10 in around 48 minutes. Heart rate stabilised below 160 bpm, and soon we run past Chateau des Vincennes. I eat my first gel around here. The number of spectators is minimal in the park, fortunately roads here are wide, so there is no problem running or overtaking. Nevertheless to spectators, there are several bands to play live music to keep the runners in the pace 

To be honest, I don’t remember much what happened between km 12 and 17… it just went fast. Running with ease in not to fast pace. And from km 17 towards the halfway points we got to run downhill… what a joy!

At half everything was inside the expectations. Time around 1h42m, that means a pace around 3h25m. Ok. Time for second gel and some more bananas. At km 22 road turns towards the river Seine, and crowds started to build up here. Mood was excellent. This road beside the river Seine offers excellent views, tunnels (one is over 1km long ), nor is it boring. It goes constantly a little bit up and down. At km 29 we pass Eiffel tower (on the other side of the river), pace is still good, just it starts to feel crowded. Yes, people are already starting to slow and roads are getting narrower.

The real marathon begins only after km 30. Then the road climbs again towards the Bois de Boulogne. More and more people walking, some are stretching their aching muscles. At km 30 I say to myself, that less than 3h25 is very much doable. A year ago (with a similar pace) I slowed down here. One more gel, and here we go as fast as before. It is also time have a glass of energy drink (blue colour – better not to know what is inside), and soon I see on the km 35 mark. As good as I felt, a glimpse onto my watch disappointed. My pace slowed well down, and I ran my last km in 5:10 per km pace. Damn. Have to pick up speed. And I did. And from here to the end only overtook people. I felt great, muscles did not hurt, just a sore toe – but you don’t really feel this when running (apparently I will again have to change my running shoes). Pace was good and km 40 was the second fastest on the entire marathon. Excellent. Last two km were of similar pace, though they dragged a bit – maybe because i was constantly counting in my head how many minutes is left until the end.

Goal reached. 3h24m48s. Satisfied. Pleasantly tired, not even close to the limit or exhaustion. If needed, I would be able to continue running. I was pleased to find out to run the second part of the marathon in almost the same pace as the first. This time, it was not final time what counted, but consistency. I’m sure, I would be able to run today around 5 minutes faster, and that without too much of effort.

Epilogue
Happy and cold in the end. Yes, it is only 400m to my bags, but it is getting cold. At least it is not so far as in New York, and you get (healthy) stuff to eat at the end. Muscles and joints were fine, and was happy to meet some fellow Slovenians in the finish. Getting out the venue was typically French – chaotic and disorganised, but OK. And when I took a metro back home, at Passy some runners were still running. And they had still around 12 km to go. Oh, well… I was rather dreaming of pasta.

Official statistics …
Runner Number: 14733
Category: Senior Men
Place: 4487th
Official Place: 4666th
Category Place: 2085th
Time: 03:24:48
Official time: 03:31:52
Split at 5 KM: 00:23:58
Split at 10 KM: 00:48:07
Split at 15 KM: 01:12:41
Split at 21,1 KM: 01:41:59
Split at 25 KM: 02:00:53
Split at 30 KM: 02:25:32
Split at 35 KM: 02:50:16

+ Garmin stats:
Distance: 42.48 km
Time: 3:24:48
Avg Pace: 4:49 min / km
Elevation Gain: 186 m
Avg HR: 163 bpm (85% Max)