Paris Marathon 2019

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  • Radar SalRadar Sal ✭✭✭
    We're at the pub. Upstairs to the left of bar. I have medal and t-shirt. Gary has where the Foch top on.
  • Well done everyone! Seems like a lot of people met their goals and/or toughed it out under challenging conditions. Everyone who finished should be super proud of themselves, it’s no mean feat.

    I had a really great time, settled in a slightly faster than planned pace and never really felt completely, but came out with 3:52 - I was aiming for sub-4 and it’s a 17 min PB so delighted. Most importantly, though, I couldn’t stop smiling throughout. Paris definitely won my heart today.
  • What a lovely course!
    all went well for me with a PB of 1 hr 51mins!
    hope everyone had a life experience to be remembered regardless of the time!
  • Well done everyone. Not sure we’ll make it to the pub. Bit tired 💤Have a great evening 
  • KhanivoreKhanivore ✭✭✭
    edited April 2019
    well done everyone! Wish I could have met you

    Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread. It’s been really helpful and gave me a lot of comfort during my first foreign marathon. Thanks. You are all awesome.

    positives:
    - everything went to plan re travel and hotel. Hotel was brilliantly located and they let us check out at 5pm so had a hot shower post race.
    - finished the race - haven’t done a marathon in ages and hadn’t run in ages. I did train for this but didn’t complete a full plan. 
    - registration and logistics were all great
    - didn’t need a poo during the race. This only happened to me once, in my first marathon, but I’m paranoid about it. 
    - going from a hotel that you can go back to after the race is amazing. I’ve always had to travel to the race on the morning. This was SO much better. Didn’t even have to use the bag drop.

    negatives:
    - I set 4:30 as a stretch goal. Didn’t think I would do it but was on for 4:25 at 21 miles. I then had very very bad cramp in both legs at various times for the last 5 miles. It felt like any one of the twinges would put me out of the race. Finishing the race (in 4:38) far outweighed this negative.
    - I didn’t sleep more than 2 hours
    - the medal is really bad imho

    summary
    - I loved it and would do it again. 
  • Brilliant race, enjoyed every minute of it, first marathon and finished 4.13 so very happy, thanks to everyone on this forum for your help and advice! 
  • phronesisphronesis ✭✭✭
    Don’t think I can make it to the pub. Having a glass of white wine in Le Montaigne shortly. Then shuffling back to my hotel. But thanks guys for everything. 
  • Been to the pub - great to meet some of you there - pulled a PB out of somewhere this morning, thanks to the weather & some serious motivation.

    Thought the course changes were an improvement.

    l'année prochaine tout le monde!
  • Bex89Bex89 ✭✭
    <blockquote class="Quote">
    <div class="QuoteAuthor"><a href="/profile/Radar%20Sal">Radar Sal</a> said:</div>
    <div class="QuoteText">We're at the pub. Upstairs to the left of bar. I have medal and t-shirt. Gary has where the Foch top on.</div>
    </blockquote>
    Sal I think I saw you about 3 miles in...but I didn’t make it to you (partly because I was worried about finding a toilet for a poorly timed wee!) haha!! Congratulations to everyone for a fabulous race!! And thank you for your guidance through it all xx
  • Can't believe my run went so well. A three minute PB out of nowhere, though I think that was mainly due to the temperature, a good night's sleep and my Eliud Kipchoge Nikes.

    The course changes worked really well - Place Vedome wasn't as narrow as I'd thought it might be, the cobbles there were a lot less "cobbly" than other parts of the course, and taking the different road after Bastille cuts out the course's worst bottleneck. The expo seemed a lot less chaotic as well than in previous years. Even the bibs seemed to be printed better, with the special gold bit for first-timers, and the chip on it was lighter/slimmer too. Liked the reduction in the crap they hand out as well. Did anyone else see a small irony in giving an extra t-shirt to people who'd signed up as "carbon neutral runners"?

    Loads more bins in the course, too, and the water stations seemed a lot longer than I remember, which really helped. They seemed a lot less crowded. When I went through Bois de Vincennes the crowd were all standing on the road in front of the bins, though, so you couldb't drink and throw the bottle without soaking half a dozen people. Not that I did, and I was in such a good mood that I wasn't even tempted to do it.

    A tip for everybody for next year (though this may be obvious to everyone else): if you're running late to get into your start pen, and there's a big crowd trying to get in, go to the entrance for the one behind and the volunteers will let you sneak through the barrier at the front of that pen to get into the pen you're meant to be in. I bet you could just go straight into the empty last one right at the back and just run down through all the empty pens, flashing your bib at the volunteers. Instead of squeezing your way down the Champs Elysees with all the runners and their families and lost jetlagged tourists.

    The sixth time I've run Paris in seven years, and my fastest here by twenty minutes. I've been saying I'm done with this race now, but then they haven't sent out the sign-up email for 2020 yet.

    As a side note, did anyone watch the Paris St Germain game last night? They got absolutely thrashed 5-1 by Lille and the people watching in the bar we were in were not happy at all.
  • Well done  @jxmitchell 😁 I am already signed up for next year, registration is open on the website. 5th April. 
  • Can't believe my run went so well. A three minute PB out of nowhere, though I think that was mainly due to the temperature, a good night's sleep and my Eliud Kipchoge Nikes.

    The course changes worked really well - Place Vedome wasn't as narrow as I'd thought it might be, the cobbles there were a lot less "cobbly" than other parts of the course, and taking the different road after Bastille cuts out the course's worst bottleneck. The expo seemed a lot less chaotic as well than in previous years. Even the bibs seemed to be printed better, with the special gold bit for first-timers, and the chip on it was lighter/slimmer too. Liked the reduction in the crap they hand out as well. Did anyone else see a small irony in giving an extra t-shirt to people who'd signed up as "carbon neutral runners"?

    Loads more bins in the course, too, and the water stations seemed a lot longer than I remember, which really helped. They seemed a lot less crowded. When I went through Bois de Vincennes the crowd were all standing on the road in front of the bins, though, so you couldb't drink and throw the bottle without soaking half a dozen people. Not that I did, and I was in such a good mood that I wasn't even tempted to do it.

    A tip for everybody for next year (though this may be obvious to everyone else): if you're running late to get into your start pen, and there's a big crowd trying to get in, go to the entrance for the one behind and the volunteers will let you sneak through the barrier at the front of that pen to get into the pen you're meant to be in. I bet you could just go straight into the empty last one right at the back and just run down through all the empty pens, flashing your bib at the volunteers. Instead of squeezing your way down the Champs Elysees with all the runners and their families and lost jetlagged tourists.

    The sixth time I've run Paris in seven years, and my fastest here by twenty minutes. I've been saying I'm done with this race now, but then they haven't sent out the sign-up email for 2020 yet.

    As a side note, did anyone watch the Paris St Germain game last night? They got absolutely thrashed 5-1 by Lille and the people watching in the bar we were in were not happy at all.
    Totally agree - ideal weather & accumulated marginal gains like those 4% shoes added up to an unexpected & substantial PB for me too. I was 6 mins faster than Paris 17 (a hot day), despite being 2 years older and measurably less anaerobically fit - at least 4 points lower on the VO2 Max scale.

    But... this was my 10th consecutive Paris and the first to benefit from anything like the conditions under which we’ve all trained, so I feel it was long overdue!

    Also agree on the course changes, which were all positive. Place Vendome left-hander was fine, Opera a welcome addition and less time in the Bois a real blessing. Sad to lose the 2nd spin round Bastille, which is usually packed with a noisy crowd, but no big deal.

    You’re also right on the event’s newly-discovered green credentials! Clearly some suit up in Schneider Electric’s management thought it was time for a bit of light green-wash. The bins for clothing at the start were a good example - a job previously carried out with efficiency by the city’s homeless. Hopefully the organisers will still distribute what was collected...

    So, that’s 2019 done, just the over-priced photos to agonise over and the email inviting us to 2020’s edition to contemplate briefly... before plunging in once more!

    A bientot tout le monde!
  • RammpantsRammpants ✭✭✭
    Glad to see that people had a good time. I really enjoyed it and was very grateful for the advice/enthusiasm on these pages. It's always good to get a boost for a race in a different country. Lovely conditions, and I managed to break 4hrs for the first time – hoorah! Very happy memories of the day and a great weekend in Paris overall. Thanks all! 
  • At the top of Montparnasse tower. Really brings home the distance we ran. You see Boulogne to your left and think you'll see Vincennes if you look a bit to your right. No. You have to go to the opposite side and look out into the distance . Our run takes in three of the four sides. Phew!
  • Eggyh73Eggyh73 ✭✭✭
    edited April 2019
    Fantastic, it sounds like most had a great race.
    Whoever is was enquiring about Stockholm, I ran it in 2015. Until last weekend it was my PB race. It's a wonderful city to spend a few days exploring. The course is pretty flat with a few small bumps on it, similar in that regard to Paris. It wasn't a crowded course the year I ran. It's busy, but far less so than a race like Paris. It did pour down biblical style the year I ran. I was fine until I crossed the finish line and stopped running, at which point I couldn't stop shivering and thought I might come down with hypothermia!
    One thing to note is that the course is two loops. They're not exact loops, but the second loop of the course is 80% identical to the first loop. It does have a nice old Olympic stadium finish, similar to Amsterdam for those that have ran that one.
    I'd recommend Stockholm, but then I think us runners can be biased to the races we've ran well at. Another good race over that way at that time of year is Copenhagen. That also has the claim of best fitting and best material race t-shirt I've had from the 24 marathons I've ran.
  • Hello again everyone, my first marathon was very good as well! It was such an amazing experience, the course, the weather (which i was fearing), the atmosphere, everything was superb. I started lightly keeping an eye on my knees, and finished with 5:03 at the end. In the final kms i quite understood the meaning of that “where the foch is that finish” t-shirt :D 

    This thread has been very helpful to me in my training and planning for this marathon, so thanks again for all
    the support and tips! I will definitely keep training for many more marathons and will definitely come back to Paris to run this course sooner or later!
  • Looks like all you Paris runners may be some of the last people to see the Notre Dame as we know it!
  • Looks like all you Paris runners may be some of the last people to see the Notre Dame as we know it!
    Ironically, due to the course changes this year, we didn’t really get a great view of it! Terrible news for the city
  • Bex89Bex89 ✭✭
    I’m staying just up the road and it is horrible to see. Sadly I didn’t get a great view during the run but got to see it the night before and my friends made it there whilst I was running yesterday...feel privileged for that at least...
  • I loved the course and had a great weekend.

    Some comment...being a slow but steady runner I found I was being passed by everyone for the first 10-11 miles, then passing for the rest of the course.

    With hindsight, I guess it would have been better to start right at the back of the 4:30 pen..

    One other comment was that I had one bad incident with spectators road-crossing, which basically forced me to a stand-still.

    I dunno if this is all typical for mass-participation marathons - the only other two I've done are London years ago, and Portsmouth in December where there were hardly any spectators.

    On the plus side, the spectators and bands did help with the atmosphere and adrenaline for the last half of the course..

    I want to go for a better time at the next one in 6 mths, and I'm thinking of either Amsterdam, Eindhoven or Chelmsford.

    :)
  • Eggyh73Eggyh73 ✭✭✭
    Horrible news about Notre Dame.

    SpeedyGonzales - I’ve seen issues at a number of city marathons with pedestrians trying to cut across the race. They’re oblivious particularly late in the race that runners aren’t likely to be in any condition to alternate their pace.
  • OuchOuchOuchOuch ✭✭✭
    Interesting sharing the course (in places) with Sunday morning joggers, cyclists, people on powered scooters and a few cyclists filming their sons running. But overall found it a very well organised marathon, though the staggered start was unusual as found myself leading the race down the Champs d Ellyse for about 200 metres once the elites and their championship runners had started 2 minutes earlier and departed. Quite a feeling. 
  • StephAStephA ✭✭✭
    congratulations to everyone and thanks to all the contributors for their fantastic advice.
    what a perfect running day we had-I thoroughly enjoyed my second Paris Marathon, such a different experience to last year. I went into it with a very different mindset-much more respectful of the distance and much less thinking about times. I’m a slower runner and that’s fine-I finished in 4 hrs 59 mins and 25 secs -thrilled to break 5 🤣!!
    I high fived loads of kids, chatted to other runners, danced at the music and kept my head up and appreciated everything Paris had to offer. I’ll be back but probably not 2020.
    Utterly devastated about Notre Dame, we went down for a few hours last night-thousands of onlookers but weirdly quiet.
  • andyc209andyc209 ✭✭✭
    edited April 2019
    got round in 3:18 but boy was i struggling in the last 4 miles - think those underpasses along the river sapped my energy. Got really bruised feet today from the cobbles but at least there seemed less of them than i remember. Liked the course change but was surprised by the lack of support in many parts. 

    Hope the guy who was been treated about mile 21 in the park was ok - looked like he was being given CPR but not seen any news.

    Spent the monday afternoon at Notre Dame which is surreal as when we got back the the hotel to fly home they said it was on fire - we said it wasn't as we had just come from there! My daughter has one of the last photos before the fire - she's taking it to school - had to explain to her how important it is historically

    done a slow 5 miles at lunch today to ease the legs into London in 12 days! 

  • @andyc209 that's why my feet feel so bruised! I couldn't figure it out but the cobbles make sense! Anyone got any tips for recovery of them?

    I got round in 4.50 which was 42 minutes quicker than my PB so i am thrilled! The spectators using the racing line to stand on / running along the course etc was quite surreal and the aid stations were just chaos but i really enjoyed it.   Thanks so much for everyone who contributed tips on here - they were a massive help.

    Now to recover for London 🙈
  • Hi guys,I loved that race just under 4hrs 5mins for me.I wasn't too bothered with a P.B. and only missed it by those 5mins.The crowd between 12 and 19 miles was brill for me,it makes the differance with your name on your vest.Would I run it again....in a minute.We then went to Notre Dame on Sunday night and seen some of the service for Palm Sunday, can't believe it now.It might be time for me to jump to the Berlin forum and start checking it out for Sept.
  • Oddly enough, the cobbles didn't seem to bother me. I wonder if it's because I do a lot of trail stuff so my feet are used to uneven surfaces.

    Physically overall, I haven't felt so bad since, but mentally I was knackered for the next two days. I stopped trying to speak so much French because it was taking so long to translate in my head. Then when the fire started, i watched the TV for a good two minutes before it dawned on me that if I just stood up, I could see it out the window direct.
  • Had a great run, managed to run the entire way, and knocked about 35 minutes off my PB! 3.55! I have the race recorded so will watch it all back tonight.
    Well done everyone!
    ps. marathon pictures are up and all mine are terrible..
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