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Sunday, 10 April 2011 - The Paris Marathon!

As the sun rose over Paris, it was looking like a great day to go out and punish ones legs. Yup, today was the day of the 2011 Paris Marathon, and guess who was in it?! Furthermore, guess who hadn't trained for it, at all?!		That's right - this dickhead! Last week I was reading up on some pre-marathon preparation. Among other things (such as training) it was recommended to eat so-called power bars for breakfast, and bandage your nipples to prevent chafing because it's apparently "quite a sight to see someone bleeding from their nipples". I don't have bandages so I used electrical tape instead ;) And with that Kristina and I headed for our RER station along with plenty of others. I wonder how many of them have bandaged nipples?

At the other end very few people took the stairs hehe - gotta save those legs.		Looking down the Champs-Élysées towards the starting line, about an hour before the 8:45am kick-off.		It was interesting to see the preparations of others. This dude had four water bottles plus a massive Camelbak. Considering it was well advertised there were drinks available every 5km, is running with all that shit really a good idea?

As 8:45am drew closer it was time for some last-minute stretching...		...and some last-minute fluid intake, which leads to...		...some last-minute pissing. In situations like this, it's good to be a guy ;)

Although this looks like chaos there is method in the madness. The time category you entered yourself into determines where in the pack you were lined up - faster folk at the front and slower towards the rear. I was somewhere in the middle :) All up, 40,000 folk registered, but only 32,000 turned up on the day.
Notice how I'm walking quite comfortably here? It wasn't to last.		I left the camera with Kristina to do the honours, and off with the herd I went - 42.195kms and counting!
Small mess left behind, as well as some late-comers, and this lot who ran the race tied to each other hehe. I should add that although I've never done anything approaching a marathon before, I did a lot of running as a kid. I won a couple school cross countries back in the day and travelled New Zealand with my school cross country team for national events, but those distances were at most 10km. I entered the Paris Marathon on a whim back in November since I'm here and a marathon is one of those things I've always wanted to do at least once, and I did fully intend to train for this but for one reason or another that never happened. So instead I came here to wing this and see what I can do under the circumstances. I do a lot of cycling but that uses different leg muscles in different ways and doesn't translate well into running (and vice versa). I didn't expect it to be pretty, but I did expect to finish - one way or another.

Kristina and I arranged a few viewing points along the route for photos. etc. This is in Vincennes, a gorgeous wee pocket in the east of Paris. This point marked the first quarter of the race.		Every marathon has at least one dork in a Santa costume.		And there's usually at least one clown in there too hehe.

55 minutes and 10.5kms into it, I came bounding along completely full of beans at this point and feeling good		It's not too easy to make out but that says "Gore Bike Wear", i.e. it's my cycling top hehe. I didn't know what else to run in.		After a quick hello and goodbye I rejoined the rabble.

This is on the Seine at Châtelet around the 25km point. No shortage of entertainment along the route - music and bands everywhere, it was really good!				Damn, this guy must be warm. Despite the time of morning the Parisian sun got pretty hot pretty fast for running a marathon. I think the high got up to 24.

I reached the half way point (21.1kms) in 1:54 and until then had felt really good. Unfortunately, at about that point, I could feel my quads were tiring fast. I don't think it was a case of lack of fuel or the so-called "wall" that marathoners talk about, I think the legs simply weren't in shape for what they were doing and no amount of carbohydrates in me could have helped that. Regardless, I soldiered on. About ten kilometres later however, the legs could take it no more and I had to stop running and start power walking.

The next viewing point we agreed on was about 150 metres from the finish line, on the other side of the Arc de Triomphe from where we started.

Those folk who made it home before me included this guy in a cow costume complete with udder...		This chick who was balling her eyes out for some reason...		And this poor fella who dropped his water, and didn't have it in him to bend over and pick it up again hehe (I know how he feels).

Then there was this guy on crutches, who shortly after this photo was taken ran to the finish line...		This guy wearing some sort of oxygen mask or something...		And poor Matt who collapsed with less than 150 metres to go - so close and yet so far. Although Matt wasn't the only one - I saw no less than about 10 people being tended to by ambulance in the final 10kms.

Anyway, in much pain myself from the waist down, I hobbled around the corner. About a kilometre earlier I forced myself to start 'running' again - I didn't want to be that guy who walks across the finish line hehe, but it was without a doubt the most painful thing I've put myself through!. Regardless, I posed for the camera, and stumbled across the finish line!

My final time was 4:48:59, and bloody hell was I in pain but it could've been worse - I could have shit myself hahaha! So that was that, and it's now Monday as I write this and I am in serious need of a Zimmer Frame - I can barely walk. In a few days and I'm sure I'll be right though, but would I run another one of these? Not bloody likely. Of the 32,000 that started, apparently 31,000 finished which is a fairly high percentage; people must have trained for this ;)

Thursday, 14 April 2011 - 'Professional' shots

Some professional shots taken during the marathon. Above is the very start of it all. Left is looking west up the beautiful Champs-Élysées towards the Arc de Triomphe with La Défense where I work off in the distance behind it, and right is Place de la Concorde - the largest public square in Paris at the bottom of the Champs-Élysées. I don't know where I am in that herd, but I'm somewhere :)

Somewhere around the 10km mark, and feeling good.		Somewhere around the 25km mark, and the legs are starting to deteriorate.		Just metres from the 42.195km finish line, and I'm 100% exhausted hehe. Be that as it may, I loved it! :)

Saturday, 16 April 2011 - The road to recovery...
...went something like this for me:

Sunday: After the marathon I could barely walk at a snail's pace, and could do nothing without the help of my arms hehe.
Monday: Didn't / couldn't go into work. Had to literally lift my legs with my hands just to get out of bed hahaha! Spent much of the day laying on my back.
Tuesday: See Monday. My workmate called me while I was up the other end of my apartment from my phone - I couldn't make it in time before it went to voicemail. Snail's pace!
Wednesday: Back to work and able to walk semi-normally again though with something of a limp as my right hip or ass still wasn't happy.
Thursday: Able to walk completely normally again, though the quads weren't liking stairs. Got out on the bike for the first time tonight, and again the quads weren't completely happy about it.
Friday: First day I'd say I felt normal again hehe, and was even able to jog up stairs!
Saturday: Right as rain :)

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