Paris Marathon 2013

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  • Hi guys

    I haven't caught up with how everyone did, will read through when i get home. Also sorry i didn't meet up with any of u. I didn't feel well most of wknd but still made it round. I wasn't particularly happy but did it in 4:38, the lack of breeze and sun got to me and i kept feeling nauseous image i saw some flags which i thought were from the forum and they made me smile as i knew who you were even of you didn't know who i was.

    Thanks for all of your help through Paris and i hope all did enjoy it. I remembered to smile and enjoy when it got tough. Thanks guys and I'll check back in when I'm back in London!
  • Goog morning to you all, Mrs Rick James here.

    I would like to thank you all for all the advice and support, especially the 5 hour party team !! It was great having you guys with me and it made it so fun ! I finished the race in 5:07, which is more than I could have asked more, given that this was my first, that we only trained for about 6 weeks and that my longest ever run before yesterday was 15 miles...

    I had a blast with the race (running in your own city is very special and gives you a new outlook on it), and with the pre and post race gatherings ! I didn't think I would managed to get back out yesterday after the race to make it to the Pub, I did, but the pain was just a bit delayed... I can barely make it out of bed today... image

    Anyway, thanks a lot and we might see some of you for the next race in DC !

    PS: btw, for the the photos and videos, my BIB # was 53094.

  • The atmosphere was great. I got loads of support and encouragement from French and British all around the course, and there were great vibes with the other runners, no huffiness, plenty happy to talk and banter along the way, even with the language barriers, it worked really well.
  • Coffee, croissant, more coffee, more croissant. Ahh, that's better!



    Still on a high after yesterday. Before the race I was very apprehensive about getting to the finish line. And my gold target seemed like a crazy dream. But looking at my 5k splits I got the pacing bang on. Unlike in Amsterdam when I got it all wrong! Paris was going to be last marathon, but.....



    And I didn't think it was possible to get so many great people in one room together. But the pub last night proved me wrong. A real pleasure to meet you all.



    And I thought the crowd support was fantastic all the way round. Apart from one nutter at 20 miles who pushed his bike across the road and almost took me out. I swore in my best French....
  • David Falconer 3 wrote (see)

    I would have said 'Sacre Blu!!' (I think thats swearing in French, not sure)

     

    Yes indeed, that is swearing in French... from my grandma's time !! Will put together a list of good ones for you guys for next year... 

     

  • Yes please fanfan. Merde just didn't seem appropriate for the situation!
  • Le Jimbob wrote (see)

    What a lovely thread, a lovely bunch of people. I'm home in london now - i have my medal - we've got the medal and thats what counts.

    All finishers get medals.  Only an elite few get WWKD bracelets.   image

    Orbutt - thanks for looking up my time in Concorans.  It was great to get the news that I made my first ever sub-4.   3:58:30.   Woo Hoo!

    IM2 -  keep in touch with me at rick at travelhead dot com.   We'll be in DC and we'll try to seek out some other fun souls for an MCM get-together.   i enjoyed meeting you guys all so much - it added such a great dynamic to the overall race for me, that I'd love to try to organize something similar for DC. 

     

  • E mmyE mmy ✭✭✭
    Howdy all,



    David - its really strange that you say that because for me - there was a lot of support en route. Admittedly in the forest there wasn't that many but apart from that - you couldn't go 50m/100m without someone cheering, it was absolutely fantastic and very similar to last years VLM for me.



    Fan fan - welcome and thank you as well image your translation skills were invaluable! You were an absolute pleasure to run withimage get yourself out for a little jog today to loosen everything up and you'll be grand!



    Simon - cracking effort! And such a pleasure to meet you and Mrs Mac.



    Rick - we're probably going to do something similar in Berlin in September if we can. I'd love a US meet up but it won't be this year for me.



    I've just done a 4 mile recovery jog and I think this statement sums it up: today I will be sponsored by ibuprofen and cool gelimage



    Safe travels to anyone coming home today.



    @Danirr - take care of yourself.
  • E mmyE mmy ✭✭✭
    I guess we all have our own interpretations of crowd support and what's good/bad. I found it great and amazing to see so many people out on the course supporting the runners (including our very own supporting group).
  • Yes RJ, got my WWKD bracelet proudly on my wrist. Sorry we didn't get a chat RJ. Congrats on the sub4.



    The atmosphere in London is unrivaled. But yesterday was still fantastic.
  • E mmyE mmy ✭✭✭
    That's the bit in the forest that I mentioned was a little quiet but it was actually quite nice because as soon as you came out of it - the wall of noise was astonishing!



    So... Who wants to come and give me a leg massage?
  • E mmyE mmy ✭✭✭
    Dave the ex spartan - how is Suzy today?
  • Dear Emmy, thanks a lot, I hope you had a good time despite your hip. I really enjoyed it and I could not agree more, the crowd was really nice. There might not have been has many people as on some other race, but it was still a hell of a lot of people, and bands, and cheerleaders, and volunteers. Found it great. As per you advice of going for a quick run today, I think if I manage to get to the Post Office like I planned, I will be quite happy with myself already !!

    Safe travels to anyone else, and see enjoy the rest... before the enxt race !

  • David Falconer 3 wrote (see)

    Hey Im not bagging it there Emmy. If you had a good day out thats all that matters, but Im just saying from where I was sitting it looked like bugger all spectators and the commentators on the race thought the same thing. There was a section at about the 25 mile mark which was a very long straight bit and all you could see was a couple of sunday joggers and a guy taking his dog for a walk!!

     

    I couldn't agree more.  Other than the hoards of people along the city streets, the firemen on their trucks, the gay cheerleaders, the 30 or so bands playing music, the people at the aid stations telling you 'good job', TD with his flag, the people crammed for space over each bridge we went under, the people who made signs, the people who set up their own stands with wine and jellies - apart from all that, I found the crowd very lacking.   image

  • Anyone care to srtart a list of favorite signs they saw?  

    My favorite was "Run like you're naked".   It just made me smile.  Not quite sure I get where they were going with that, but it make me laugh all the same.  

  • There was a distant lack of support in the tunnels mind
  • E mmyE mmy ✭✭✭
    Rick - I liked: run like you're naked. I can't remember seeing a lot of other ones actually!
  • Run like you've stolen sth caught my eye.  For those running Washington they are all along the course, my favourite was Chuck Norris never ran a marathon!

  • Congratulations everyone, sounds like you had a great day. I was wearing my 2010 finishers T on my run yesterday and imagining what you'd all be going through.

    And sorry to hear you had to pull out Dannirr but very glad that you're all right.

    So which kind person brought me back a pain au chocolat?? Noone? Awww.

  • I particularly liked the one that said "wait... you paid for this ???"

    Not a sign, but I also really liked the guy who screamed "you guys are the best, the Kenyans are way behind you !"

  • Afternoon all, spent a pleasant morning wandering round a couple of parks...



    Suzie is fine, just doesn't look her best, the swelling has gone down round her eye, but still can't get her contacts in !



    Sadly I have to agree with some of the comments that the support wasn't great, we have both done London and didn't think the support was anywhere near as good.



    In the "middle" of Paris it was great, but at either end you could have been in any suburb .....



    Had a great time here, but the race didn't really do it for either of us
  • Hi,

    I really enjoyed yesterday, though I was overdressed with a t-shirt plus a long sleeve top. It got v. warm after the first 10k.

    I found the tunnel exits sapped a lot of energy in the second half of the race, though I'm pleased with a 3:33.49 for my second outing. (Berlin Sep 2012 4:19)

    The drinks/food stations were well run, but getting into the starting pens was a bit of a nihghtmare! I thought support along the course was very good.

  • E mmyE mmy ✭✭✭
    Fanfan Running the World wrote (see)

    I particularly liked the one that said "wait... you paid for this ???"

    Not a sign, but I also really liked the guy who screamed "you guys are the best, the Kenyans are way behind you !"

    I forgot about that one! Good choice!

    Dave - give Suzie our best wishes. I hope that the swelling goes down quickly.

  • Levels of support are a very subjective thing.  There's a very few races in the world which can claim to have people lining the streets 5-10 people deep almost the whole way round. This tends to be because the organisers stretch the concept of 'marathon race' to include, charity funfare/ fancy dress parade.

    What can I say - running London I had the most intense sense of support, but the environment south of the Thames is utterly forgettable. The support in New York was patchy (no supporters at all for the first 2 miles!!), you only get to see Dunkin Donuts stores for the first half of the mara in Brooklyn and the supporters are all held back 20m away from you until the 2nd half of the race. It is only really noisy in a few places (km 22, the 1 mile in the Bronx and the last few kms into Central Park).

    I think Paris has got bags of sights and atmosphere. Let's face it, all races are different and the French pride themselves on being unique and Parisians are renowned for being less than exuberant in showing enthusiasm. I like it that way. I only saw happy faces yesterday (apart from Dannir at 21k and Yer_Maj's at 42k).

    I really think London has something quite special when it comes to level of crowd support, so it's not really a fair comparison to hold that up as some sort of norm. Anyway, I hope you all had a load of pleasure from participating. I know I had loads of fun, just as a member of the crowd.

  • Just got back home and read back through the forum. Well done everyone and i mean everyone, there are some exceptional people here. Be proud and that includes Dannir, its hard to make the decision to stop, you did the right thing, your body will thank you for it.



    Emmy i saw the back of you and tried to catch up at one point as saw the union jack tshirt, i saw others as well that i wondered if were from here but didn't get to speak to.

    All i can say is thank you all for the support.

    Anyone doing Edinburgh...if so hopefully see you there!

    Also does anyone know why l'equipe has two times per runner printed?
  • DannirrDannirr ✭✭✭
    I think the crowd support is fantastic. Way better than Athens, Toronto or Disney!



    Best sign: Pain is temporary, but Internet results last forever!
  • On the support, where Paris suffers is two park sections where there's nobody able to support from outside their front door and no metro stops immediately at hand. Beyond that its great.



    Overall though tv gives no impression. I watched a bit of London last year and the elites ran for mile after mile with just one or two people every 50m or so. The nearest to a crowd was 4 people stood with hands in pockets as if waiting for a bus. I couldn't square that with tails of legendary support so assumed there were key points but little between. It was similar watching Amsterdam - didn't seem to be anyone there.



    Yesterday, when supporting, the penny dropped: support moves. There's no fecker watching the elites early on because they're still en route from the start and that trend continues all the way round. Eurosport focuses on the elites and motorcycle/helicopter shots so its misleading. The BBC has reporters on the ground at hot spots and proportionately spends a lot of time pampering to celebrities and focussing on charidee/fancy dress runners so it gives a very different perspective.



    You're right about the history though David. Every chuffing year about this time somebody appears on the threads to knock one out over Johnny Foreigner's perceived lack of interest or lazy latin ways.
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