On 3rd April I made my return to the marathon start line after 29 months away. It has been a long time since I toed the line at the New York City Marathon 2019. The pandemic and various injuries meant I missed a lot but there are bigger things to worry about in the world right now.

In September 2021 I picked up a stress fracture of my sacrum which meant no running until mid-October. In fact, there were 2 or 3 weeks when I could barely walk. I got 7 weeks of “building the base fitness” before beginning the marathon training plan proper. Working with my Total Tri Training coach, we decided to go for a 16 week plan starting on 13th December but we both agreed that it would be best to keep the mileage lower than previous training blocks to reduce the chance of injury or aggravating the sacrum again. We would start at 40 miles and top out at 55 miles. Every 4th week would be an easier week.

So back to Paris! I flew in Saturday morning, went straight to the airport and totally forgot to take any photos so, unfortunately, you are just going to have to read and not look at any pictures… sorry!

As you can imagine, the expo was really busy on a Saturday afternoon. We queued to enter for about 30mins but once in, picking up the race number was quite quick. Thankfully for me, there was no queue at the 3hr desks but the 4hr desks were packed! I had already uploaded my medical certificate to my Time To account and had this fully approved ahead of time. This meant I just had to scan the QR code and show my ID. Job done. I then spent 45mins trying to get out of the expo, its like a maze in there and they make you walk through the whole place before reaching the exit.

After that I went to check-in at my hotel in Trocadero, I stayed at the Canopy by Hilton Paris Trocadero. I picked this hotel for its location. It was a 15min walk to the bag drop/finish area which meant I could get a little longer in bed on race day. The hotel was lovely and the room was super clean and modern looking.

I had the usual pre-race meal of Pizza at a restaurant called Mokus l’Écureuil with a tiramasu for dessert.

After that, I went back to the room to get my gear out ready for tomorrow morning and pack my bag ready to fly back home after the race.

The alarm was set for 6am and I was in bed for 11pm. I didn’t sleep that well, in truth it was more like around 1am when I finally got off to sleep.

Before all of my races and long runs, I have porridge oats and a coffee for breakfast, today was no exception. I took two pots of Quaker Oats with me and made sure when booking the hotel, it had either a kettle or coffee maker to give me the hot water required.

I left the hotel at 7am for the 15min walk to Avenue Foch where the bag drop was. This is also the finish line which is handy. The weather on race morning was so cold. The forecast was for 1’c by 8am with a real free temperature of -1’c. Throughout the winter training, I had struggled with cold hands on those cold dark long runs. This was a major concern for today as those cold hands had affected a few of my long runs.

After dropping the bag and coat off its just a short walk from Avenue Foch to Avenue des Champs-Élysées where the start is. I was in the 3hr corral which had a start time of 8:16am and had to be in there by 7:55am. Starting around waiting for the start gun was freezing! no amount of bouncing around could keep me warm. I couldn’t feel my hands despite two pairs of gloves with a 3rd vinyl pair over them. I was shivering and just wanted to get going.

My goal for today was to have my first attempt at running a marathon under 3 hours and to re-qualify for the Boston Marathon as a B goal. I needed to go under 3hr 10min for a BQ.

 Mile 1 – 6:50, 7:02, 6:33, 6:45, 6:38, 6:45

The pacing plan for the sub 3 attempt was 6:50/mi and mile 1 was perfect, 6:50.01 couldn’t get much closer than that. This was to be the first and final mile at target pace… oops, although I didn’t stray too far off the mark.

At first, things were busy and a lot of jostling for space but that settled down quite quickly. I am used to running the New York City where the first 5 or 6 miles are crowded. Today was nothing like that thankfully. I soon got into my pace and was able to pace it quite well without the constant watch checking, just the occasional glance down every couple of miles to make sure I wasn’t going crazy whilst the legs felt fresh. Mile 2 and 3 were affected by GPS issues which is why those two seem off the mark.

I felt comfortable through the first 6 miles, no real issues. The hands still felt very good and numb but the body was warming up and the sun was coming up too which was nice.

My nutrition plan for today was to take a Maurten Gel 100 every 30 mins up to the 2 hour mark then drop it to 20 minutes for 2:20 and 2:40 to give a little extra for the final kick. I was carrying a 500ml bottle of SiS Electrolyte drink. This wasn’t helping the cold hands but I wanted to make sure I was getting enough electrolytes into the body. I estimated the bottle would last until around 17 – 18 miles based on my long runs.

Mile 7 – 13: 6:43, 6:42, 6:46, 6:47, 6:39, 6:46, 6:47

The next 6 miles were much of the same. Cruising along and sticking to the nutrition plan. I went through the halfway mark in 1:28.41 and was feeling strong and in control of things. The hands had started to warm up by halfway. I could feel them and had the tingling feeling you get when your frozen fingers start to come back to life.

Mile 14 – 21: 6:52, 6:41, 6:41, 6:47, 6:44, 6:47, 6:41, 6:56

Miles 14 – 20 were again, much of a muchness. Still feeling good but my legs starting to feel it towards the 20 mile mark. The pace went over the target pace for mile 14 but I think that was due to a hill towards the end of that mile. I soon got back on track with mile 15. As expected, I ditched the empty juice bottle at mile 18, this had served me well and kept me nicely hydrated. From now until the end it was the on course water bottles.

Literally, as soon as I passed the 20 mile marker I felt off. I had some water just before that which was really cold and it felt like that had affected my stomach, I felt a bit sick and the pace slowed. It now felt laboured and a battle. You know what they say? the wall? A marathon doesn’t begin until mile 20… all this was running through my head now. It was only 6secs over target so I felt okay with that. I told myself that is fine. Accept and refocus on the next mile.

Mile 22 – 26.2: 7:10, 6:57, 6:59, 7:06, 7:11, 6:45

I tried to refocus and get back down to 6:50/mi but the body was having none of it. The legs still felt fine but I just couldn’t get the pace back up and my stomach continued to feel worse as the miles went by. From mile 23 I calculated that I would be able to still come home with a sub 3 even if I dropped the pace to 7:00/mi. That spurred me on a little and mile 23 and 24 were under that new target. however, towards the end of mile 24 my stomach went really tight, like a bad stitch. Again, I was in my head telling myself to focus on breathing. Deep breath through the nose and out through the mouth, give it oxygen. This approach kind of worked, the stitch did clear.

The next challenge came at mile 25 where I was sick, I felt it coming and managed to fight it off for a few steps but there was no stopping it. I wasn’t going to stop at this stage, even to be sick so I kept running. I was sick again at the back end of that mile, again being sick on the move. Surprisingly I still managed a 7:06 mile.

With 1.2 miles to go I knew I was going to make it over the finish line but it felt so slow and a struggle in comparison to the earlier miles. As we turned onto Avenue Foch I knew that I was going to break that 3hr mark but only just.

Crossing the line in 2:59.21 for a 1:48 PB and 1hr 6mins faster than when I ran the Paris Marathon 2017.

Brief roundup:

Super pleased to dip under 3 hours at the first attempt. Even more pleased to have completed 16 injury-free weeks of training after all the injury issues of the past 3 years.

Yes, the pace slipped and I was a little ill in the last 10km, maybe I went out a little too fast and paid the price? maybe switching to the cold water towards the end contributed? maybe the reduced mileage in training meant I wasn’t fully ready to run 26.2 miles at the 6:45/mi pace I was going at up to the 20 mile mark? maybe the cold weather and my raynaud’s contributed? who knows. What I do know is I was presented with a different challenge over that last 10km and I pushed through and did the best I could.

My A goal was to run under 3 hours… tick that one off. The B goal was to qualify for Boston, I did that and have a 10:39 buffer. I also ran a London Marathon Good for Age time which should get me into London Marathon 2023.

Looks like we are doing the Boston / London double next April!!