Every time I checked the weather forecast it seemed like the prediction was to be just a bit colder and windier than last time. When leaving the hotel I had planned on running with a long-sleeve with an inner t-shirt, but when standing around in the standing area I realized that while it was chilly and the wind didn’t help, the course was placed in such a way that we would be protected from the worst wind for most of the run (the wind was from north and the course was west/east) so I ended up taking up the inner shirt and shoved it into my bag together with my jacket, handed it to the bag check before heading to my starting corral.
In the beginning the start seemed enormously confusing to me, but I realized they were being quite clever about avoiding the usual chaos you often experience when sending off an entire wave at a time. Champs-Élysées where we started is split down the middle, and when the wave was set off they took maybe 20 meters of runners alternately left and right with a few minutes between every group. It took longer to send off the wave, but there was so much room to move around on the course meaning in the end, despite the extra waiting, it was a much more comfortable start.
One thing is reading about the course and looking forward to it, it’s something else actually experiencing it in person and realizing that it is a quite nice course. I got to see a lot of sights along the way I hadn’t seen on my walks though the weather could have been a bit more scenic; it started around 8-ish degrees but felt half that due to the wind, and for maybe only 5km of the entire course we were directly affected by the wind.
The water stations were set up at every 5km and had water bottles, fruits (bananas, raisins and coconut pieces) and sponge cakes! I grabbed a piece of cake at the first station and realized that while they were good they dried out your mouth especially if you were already lacking fluids, so I ended up mostly staying away from them. They also had them past the finish line so I stacked up on them there instead. The following 100-200m after the stations there were lots of containers for all the bottles which meant there were surprisingly few bottles lying around on the street and sidewalk like you’d normally see when people get rid of them. Kudos for that arrangement!
With that said…
People wanting to cross the course often just did and seemed to expect the runners to yield. Saw a couple yell at a runner who bumped into them because he didn’t have time to avoid them when they stepped out in front of him. I ended up yelling at two crossers; I am sure they didn’t understand my colorful Danish words, but like dogs that hear how you say things and not the words themselves, I am sure they knew exactly what I meant.
So many runners had brought their phones and were making calls, video calls, taking photos and selfies and were on social media. And of course, tending to all that was more important than not being a nuisance on the run. Onlookers would jump into the course and film a family member or friend for a bit (or just generally) before jumping back out. Absolutely no problem at all with non-runners getting in the way because their filming is more important.
If you’ve seen the Tour de France you know that towards the end of a stage the spectators get really close to the participants and leaving almost no room for them to navigate. Same goes for the Paris marathon. But as opposed to the TdF where alle the cyclists generally go at the same speed the runners here move at wildly varying speeds – slow and fast runners and all the walkers – which meant that parts got very congested and it felt like you could barely get anywhere at times. Some of the already narrow streets had maybe 5-6m available, but you lost 1-2m due to the spectators who wanted to get close. For a run at this scale with 50.000+ runners it felt borderline ridiculous and highly frustrating. I have never bumped into as many as I did during this run. The worst parts when going through a couple of roundabouts where would have had beautiful 5+m to run on, but there was maybe 2m left for us after the spectators had gotten their share. I had a very close call at one point; running on the right side I saw ahead a small group as part of the horde along the course talking, one of them a boy as tall as up to my chest. Everything is fine until I am maybe 3 steps away he steps right out in front of me, showing off his complete lack of situational awareness. His mom (I assume) sees what is about to happen so she grabs hold of him but can’t do anything before I reach them. I have nowhere to go – with the congestions I can only go one way: forward. Coming up to him I’m reaching out in front of me and when he’s within reach I basically push/toss the little crotch goblin aside while twisting around him and continuing my run, trying to ignore the absolute idiocy of some people.
Before reaching the 30km mark I could se realistic chance of beating my PR, but not far past 30km things started getting a bit sore. I was actually feeling quite good throughout the entire thing, relatively speaking. While the beginning soreness was a potential issue, it was not nearly as big a risk compared to the previously mentioned congestions on the course. While the soreness in my legs maybe could have killed my chances of a new PR, the constant zigzagging and slowing down and speeding up definitely didn’t help.
I ended up not beating my PR, but I did end up below the goal of 4 hours – but only just: my finishing result was 3:59:28. I was 24655 out of 50782 total (top 48,55%), 21040 out of 37698 men (top 55,81%) and 3093 out of 5294 in the M1H group (men born 1979-1983, top 58,42%). I was actually a bit surprised by the relative result – I had assumed I would have placed a bit better – but clearly all the faster ones managed to stay ahead of the walkers, or were French and had learnt to navigate the obstacles along the way effectively.
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