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Paris Marathon 2013
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Evening all - seems to be a very lively thread this one.
I have been lurking for a little while wanting to ask a few questions about Paris but it seemed bvery rude to break into the discussion which seems to flow quite nicely.
I am hanging out on the various RW Forum Six threads and have entered Paris this year.
I have previously run the VLM (2011 and 2012) and decided that this year I would start venturing overseas.
I am assuming that some of you have run Paris before. How does it compare to London ? Is it relatively flat and what is the crowd like ?
Where is the best plavce to stay and do people tend to go travel there on the Friday or Saturday ?
How easy is it to register the day before to pick up your running number ?
Apologies if you have answered these questions for others, there are alot of pages to go through to find out.
Thanks for any advice you can give. I have a target time of 3:45 and with my recovery run in the morning will have hit 40 miles this week.
Welcome Carl
Most everyone here has done Paris before, and I think it says a lot that we are all doing it again and again... This year will be my second, coming over from the US.
The course is very flat. Large crowd, but not inhibiting. You can certainly run a very good time and there are folks here who have sub-3 times in Paris. It does get a little crowded at the food/drink stations though.
ATM and RS will provide you with all the logisitical info about places to stay, travel etc. We stay as close to the Arc as possible as it is walking distance to the start and finish.
Carl - Welcome to the thread. I've not ran London yet, so can't compare Paris to it. The course in Paris is pretty much flat, but there are a few minor inclines I wasn't expecting and the only hills as such are the ramp in and out the tunnels you run through on the second half of the course.
I've heard the expo can be busy on the Saturday, so try and get there early if possible. I went on the Friday last year and it was pretty quiet for picking up the race pack.
The crowd is good at Paris, but others would be better at giving details as for the most part I tend to not notice things like that on race day.
I'd say if you can travel on the Friday then its a good option, but plenty do it on the Saturday. If you are going on the Saturday just make sure you leave plenty of time to get to the expo. I think a few of our London based forumites are getting the Eurostar over first thing on the Saturday.
Where to stay depends on budget. If you want close to the start/finish area the stay near the Arc. If you are on a budget then stay further out, but pick somewhere with good metro links to that area. I staying in Montmartre again, which was ?? short m??tro ride from the start area.
Weedy: accumulated miles over last month is about 116 which is not horrendous. Ive always been a 3 run a week man but increased to 4 for a few weeks and maybe it took its toll. Stopping my Lsr short today was the right thing. It feels ok now, may try a few slow miles or a walk tomorrow and then have a few days off. Might try that RICE/WARM as well Orbs if I have any irritation tomorrow.
Hi Carl. I'm going on the Saturday and back on the Monday morning, staying at the Cujas Pantheon. Crowd's good, altho it thins out a bit in the forests. Expo's dead easy, but if you go on the Saturday afternoon you can expect to queue for up to an hour to get in. As RR says, it might be worse this year.
TD - good going.
Don't worry about interrupting the conversation Carl, we're easily diverted. SQUIRREL Message ATM with your email address and you'll get her notes on everything Paris Marathon. I'll be updating the supporters notes and will send out closer to the time (supporters have a shorter attention span).
Kaz - you need to get bigger books
Love that you didn't let the kids win.
Carl - welcome to the forum.
Jimbob - I've got my acronym wrong, it should be HARM Heat, Alcohol, Running and Massage.
It also looks like I'm back on the bench again. 8.5k done, 400m from home and my calf cramped badly. Damn. I'm going to have to scratch the Half that I've entered on the 20th.
I'm going to have to lay off running for at least another week - at what point should I get concerned about Paris?
Carl - welcome
Orbutt - DV will be along in a minute to tell you to be patient....you have aeons yet....
How was the calf feeling before it cramped up?
Dannirr - how are you feeling today?
High drama in the Maj household last night - one of our kittens disappeared and stayed out all night. I don't worry about our 4 year old cat who occasionally stays out but Riley is very young. We did the 1 am walk to see if he'd been hit by a car, so assumed he'd been locked in somewhere when we couldn't see him in any of the surrounding streets. He arrived at 9.30 am filthy dirty and starving with a "What?!" expression on his face. Wee demon, I lost a night's sleep for him....
8 miles ran today. Average 9 minute miles and found it incredibly gruelling - stopped 4 times and an hour after finishing was still bright red in the face. When I finished I felt like I'd just been running intervals my heart was pounding so fast.
On the plus side that's my first run since the beginning of December so I'm sort of back on it now, and I can recognise that whilst I feel generally ok now the virus I had over Christmas and the New Year is still having an effect. Plus there was no problems with the SIJ and limited discomfort from the PF.
On the downside it underlines to me how much work there is to do for Paris. I've got very little fitness and a month of finding even standing painful then a week of feeling lowsy but still able to pick constantly at junk food mean I'm 14.5lbs heavier than I was at the start of December. How I approach Paris is a complete mystery to me at the moment!
Carl - welcome to the thread fella. Good advice so far. I'd only add that I'd definitely travel Friday if you can. Expo is quieter and, for me, I feel a lot more relaxed knowing I've got everything sorted in plenty of time.
TJB - +1 for the trigger point work.
DLR...re your PF...are you sure it's def' PF? Since Paris this year my right heel has been twinging, thinking it was a touch of PF, finally got round to consulting my trigger point therapy book and around 10 minutes of poking upper outer calf later, not a word of a lie, felt better. Need to keep massaging it to try and keep it free, but its far better and allows ,me to focus on all the other niggles instead!!! If you want me to scan and email relevant pages let me know.
Just remembered...
...any gentlemen of the thread interested in buying a pair of brand new (never been unpacked let alone worn) Inov-8 312Gtx shoes in a UK 9?
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/inov-8-roclite-312-gtx-shoes/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=base&utm_campaign=uk&utm_content=Inov-8-Inov-8_Roclite_312_GTX_Shoes-Black%2fSilver
I got the wrong size (I'm a 9.5) and couldn't send them back so will be ebay-ing soon.
They're Goretex and I wear them each winter, running as much as 23+ miles along canal tow paths.
Sean - you're spot on - I refer to it as PF as that's where the pain is (inside just in front of heel pad) but I think it does indeed link to my claves. Had achilles and FHL injuries too and all stem from tightness in calves. Starting last night I'm on a daily trigger point regime - using opposite knee to get the TPs in the calf and a ball to try and do the same for piriformis. Tightness in the latter is what pulled my SIJ out of position (I'm so tight there that I can't even make it to the start position of the lying piriformis stretch!).
Yer Maj - the calf was feeling ok (not brilliant) prior to the cramp. Then I noticed that my achilles was tightening up and then it cramped
Is there a recommended tome for trigger points? I think I could do with looking into it after all of the recommendations
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trigger-Point-Therapy-Workbook-Self-Treatment/dp/1572243759/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357483167&sr=8-1
It's the dog's danglies.
Yer maj -glad kitten turned up, you must have been very worried. Thought we'd lost rabbit once when she snuck in shed, not nice. Slighty amusing though...she was black and managed to open a bag of plaster, came out covered in it, mostly white! Didn't cause her any ill effect luckily.
TD great news on your run
Carl welcome.
Few thoughts about both marathons
Paris much warmer than London, but it's relatively flat. It's not as wild as London. There are parts of the course where there are only few people but they are always great.Food stations are much better prepared with pieces of banana, oranges, dried fruits, sweets. Energy drink in coups, tricky to drink, less waste. Wine served around 34ish km. Free massage after the run You will definitely enjoy it. The sites along the course are amazing plus you get to meet this lot here afterwards.
Nice 5k run in a snow today. Didn't have time for more as Lil' one has laryngitis and can't leave him unless his asleep. He looks like koala, stuck on my neck.
ATM - do you still need help on Jantastic? I'm only preparing form HalfM this time so won't be able to add too many miles.
+1 for the Clair Davies book - that's what I use and as I mentioned yesterday, found a trigger point in a tiny muscle yesterday which seems to have been causing all my problems...it's like magic working when you get the right one.
'afternoon, all..
Hi, Carl.Welcome to the thread.Jump in..It's all a bit free-flowing, here and , as RS, says we're easily...'Oh, look! Wrestling!'..
If it's any help, I can bury you in detail about the really important stuff...like the pub for the post-mortem and the portaloo situation.Message me an email address cos my notes are not so much interesting as very long...
A timely reminder to give thanks for Finn...who pointed us all in the direction of trigger points * and who inflicted severe pain on me calves to iron out the PF problem * and took all the fun out of the concept of self-massage.
wiol, we have enough for a team but it would be fab to have a Polish flag too ...more members, more motivation..Anyone else? It's all here and we are ' The Bench'.
My first trail run, today.It was fantastic. I loved the change of terrain and we saw so many interesting things cross-country...birds, ruined church, fabulous houses in the middle of no-where...I'm definitely up for more of this.
DLR, Sean & YM - thanks for the recommendation. I've ordered it.
Sean. After Paris last year I started running without the compression gear and I've only been using running tights during cold weather. I picked up a slight pain in my calf early December and, rather ironically, I started wearing the 2XUs again as protection during my runs. I had them on today. Next run, I'll ditch them and see how that goes - but that won't be for a week or two. Thanks for the tip.
Wiol - sign up
We're in the running for the prize for the most international team. Five countries and ten people on the team so far, including an Italian bloke with very good English who's training for the Rome Marathon and seems to have randomly picked us to join.
Perhaps he has a body part that's falling off too....
Another supporter of the trigger point book. It all makes sense when you read the introduction which explains that pains and injuries don't necessarily flare up in the place where the problem is - it's the weakest point that gives way, not the actual problem. Hence knotty calves cause problems in the feet.
Seanb - on the other hand, the P&D 12 week plan hasn't even started yet...which is something to bear in mind for all those worried about being behind.
Yer_maj - can Mr Maj help you out with a tiny video camera on his collar that will let you see where he's been? The cat that is, not Mr Maj
. Although...
New route for me this morning, and spotted this rather lovely gentleman in Bushy Park.
Bushy Park.
Jeez I'm childish.
Lucky sods!! Should have done that then my legs wouldn't wish they weren't mine!
He's pretty cool. All I saw was groups of chavvy kids!