Last Sunday, I ran in the Paris marathon. It was my first marathon in 5 years and I was unsure how well I would do. My training had been going reasonably well, although there were a couple of gaps when I didn't go running for a couple of weeks - around Christmas/New Year and also when I went to Hong Kong. I only had the one run of around 30km when I managed to run the whole way. For other long runs, I had hit the wall in terms of energy levels and ended up walking much of the way home. In that context, I wasn't sure that I could run the whole marathon, but nonetheless that was my goal.

I wasn't feeling nervous about the run at all. I really only became excited about it when we were on our way to Paris and when we got to the running expo on the Saturday. It was amazing how long the queue was at the running expo, just to get inside. It must have been a kilometre long.

On the race day, I woke up at 6am and ate a breakfast of All Bran and a couple of bananas that we got at a convenience store the night before. It was hard to eat the All Bran mixture with the very tiny spoon I found in the hotel room. I had a coffee downstairs at the hotel lobby, because I needed the caffeine hit to wake up and my experience is that coffee is good to have before a long run.

We left the hotel to get to the starting line well before the start time. I soon appreciated how it was good to stay in a hotel not so close to the start: we could catch the metro when it was not so crowded. When we reached the stations close to the Champs Elysees, there was no room for anyone else to get on.

It was overcast and a bit chilly at the start. It never really changed from that for the rest of the day. I was wearing long track pants and a jumper over my running clothes, which was a good idea. I also had my black gloves which I wore for the rest of the run. After applying Vaseline on the high-risk chafing areas, I said my goodbyes to Angel and made my way to the starting area. There were fences blocking off the footpath from the main street where we would start and it seemed to take ages to get there. There were only a few openings and people seemed to just be standing around. When I was in the starting area, I noticed all the old clothes strewn on the ground. I would notice it all again when we were running down the road after the start.

I kept a good pace for the first half of the run. To help me maintain a focus, I tried to run each km in 5 minutes and 40 seconds. When I got to each km marker, I would recalculate what my target time should be for when I got to the next marker. Looking at the split times online after the race, I realised how consistent my pace was: almost exactly 28 minutes 30 seconds for each 5km split, up until the 15km mark.

There was no issue of not having enough food or drink. There were generously stocked stations every 5km, where you could have water, orange pieces, banana and sugar cubes. I never felt thirsty or hungry, but it is sensible to have food and drink before you reach that point. When everyone had finished the orange or banana, they threw the leftover peel on the ground. I was surprised that I didn't see more people slip over on that stuff. 

The support of the crowd was a highlight. Except for the park sections, the whole course was lined by the public supporting all of the runners. I noticed lots of flags for France, the UK and Australia, but I didn't notice any NZ ones. It wasn't until the 38th km that I noticed someone with a poster with a kiwi message.

Each runner had their first name on their number, so I heard a few calls of "Allez James!" during the race. This was nice to hear in the earlier part of the race, but a bit embarrassing once I was on Avenue Foch and all I could do was walk gingerly towards the finish line.

My feet started to feel painful around the halfway mark and I did my stretch routine at around the 22nd km. I set myself a target of reaching the 30th km before I did any more stretches which I almost achieved. I started walking more than I was running in the Bois de Boulogne. Whenever I found a bench where I could stretch comfortably, I did so. It was disappointing to have to walk so much at that point.

I got to the 30th km in around 3 hours and I was aiming for a 6min/km pace of just over 4 hours 10 minutes. But as I walked further, I had to readjust my goal. I was at 38km when I passed 4 hours and I remember calculating that I would need to walk as fast as 7.5 min/km if I were to break 4 hours 30 minutes. One kilometre further on and I had taken another 9 minutes. So I wasn't going to beat 4 hours 30 minutes; I would just need to walk until the end and see what time I would end up with.

The last 200m had the most supporters and it would have been awesome to be running at that point. Instead, I shuffled over the finish line with a time of 4 hours 43 minutes and 17 seconds. This is my 2nd worst time of the six marathons I have completed so far.

I picked up my medal, t-shirt and a powerade. I walked over to the agreed meeting place to wait for Angel, but I had missed her. After about ten minutes, I made my way back to the LV shop on the Champs Elysees which was our back-up meeting spot. Angel was indeed there and I got into my track pants and jumper which Angel had been carrying with her. I had cooled down a lot and it was difficult to walk. It was the most difficult to walk downstairs: I had to twist my body 90 degrees for each step and I relied a lot on the handrail.

We got back to the hotel at around 3pm and I was allowed all the time I needed to have a shower and get pack up our stuff. I was pleased with the hospitality, because the actual check-out time was 12pm.

It has been a week after the marathon and the pain in my legs has gone away. I am still not going to do any exercise this weekend, but I will be ready to do some next week. It is the London marathon tomorrow. We are going out for lunch at 12pm, but if there is time beforehand, then I would like to help support the runners.