Paris Marathon 2009
More than 31,000 runners lined up last Sunday at 8.45am on the the Champs-Elysées to take part in 33rd edition of the Paris Marathon, among them me in an attempt to finish my first marathon.
It is an awesome tour of Paris. The route leads from the Champs-Elysées to the Place de la Concorde, Rue de Rivoli along the Louvre, then Place de la Bastille and roundabout of the Place de la Nation. Not far next is the second biggest park in the city: Bois des Vincennes where runners make a 7km loop. Half marathon mark is on the way back from the park to Bastille where slight downhill helps save some energy for the second and final part. From Bastille the route goes towards the river Saine and the next 10km give everyone chance to enjoy river side views of Paris. The famous-infamous 31km mark is next to the Eiffel Tower where couple of hundred meter up hill stints remind about the distance behind and the already drained to minimum resources in the body. The biggest park in Paris, Parc de Boulogne, is a place for final effort where each passed kilometer brings us closer to the finish line on the Avenue Foch overlooking Arc de Triomphe.
It was the fastest race in Paris of all time, this year. Winner of the men’s event Vincent Kipruto of Kenya set a course record of 2:05:47.
On personal note I am happy with my own performance, far from above mentioned time, but within my sub-4h target. The official split times from the chip were:
5km 00:28:29
10km 00:56:34
15km 01:22:50
21.1km 01:55:44
25km 02:18:02
30km 02:47:28
35km 03:15:43
42,2km 03:57:21
Second part, let say from 32km hasn’t been easy but I managed to avoid hitting the wall and kept my pace at reasonable level. GPS track from the race is here and here (my phone crashed!). The race course and conditions were very good, maybe slightly too hot but is there anyone who knows how to control it? Great experience in a beautiful city though! I paid my personal price for this by missing the best snowboarding trip of the year to Laax but I think at the end it was worth it. That’s what she said.
So, the first marathon done! I already have got plans for the next one. Berlin in September, here we go.
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Piotr Woloszyn » Bupa London 10000 said,
May 26, 2009 @ 10:15 pm
[…] haven’t been preparing for this race in particular, mainly because after finishing Paris Marathon I decided to have a month off running. Only a week ago I started some training, first week of the […]