Paris Marathon 2015: Going Back For More!

For anyone who has run 26.2 miles, you will know that one marathon is never enough. 

In April 2014, I took on my first ever marathon in Paris. At the time I thought that although it was one of the greatest experiences of my life, I had ticked it off the bucket list and that was that. However, two weeks post-marathon, my Mum got itchy feet again and told me she wanted to enter for 2015. Just like the previous year, my response was "Well, I'm not going to Paris to watch.. I'll do it too!" and just like that we were signed up to run the streets of Paris again. Oops!!

I wrote a pretty detailed review of what went down last year here, but I thought I would spend a little time writing about my second time round as this was quite a different experience.

As expected, the morning of April 12th 2015 was stunning. It had been forecast to be a nice day in the run up, with temperatures reaching highs of 20 degrees celsius which I know people were feeling anxious about. Someone told me last year and it still holds true- it never rains on race day. 

My Mum, Dad, boyfriend Pete and I all stayed in an apartment near Gare du Nord, nice and accessible to the start line via a 20 minutes Metro ride. For some reason, we were a lot more relaxed with time than last year and didn't end up reaching L'Arc de Triomphe, where the race begins until almost 9am.

We had a great time posing in front of L'Arc, which is the perfect photo opportunity as it's the one occasion when the roundabout is closed to traffic. 

 

By about 9.10am we had decided it was about time to get into our starting pens and Mum and I left our dedicated support crew. Finding our way to the pink section (4 hour 30 corral) was easy enough, with volunteers checking numbers and only letting race entrants in. 

Once in the start area, we queued for a portaloo. In our pen there were just 6 portaloos, dotted 3 on each side. Considering there were probably 10,000 runners assigned to our corral, this was absurd. By the time we joined the queue for one, it was already the width of the pen and beginning to snake round. We still had an hour before we started, so I wasn't too worried.

At about 9.50am the pen was packed and we had only managed to inch forward in the queue for the toilet. We were probably 10 people from the front when suddenly everyone in the pen started moving. Our section was being walked forward to the start line to begin the race! I won't take our toilet troubles into too much detail, but I can tell you that the lack of facilities did mean that we both bit the bullet and lost our dignity on the Champs Elysees. Both covered up with plastic ponchos like ladies of course.. Now that's something I didn't think I'd be writing! I found our reaction to the whole situation pretty funny and you can check it out on my vlog down the bottom of this post. 

Anyway...

After a rather stressful 10 minutes, Mum and I found ourselves a place in the crowd and loosened up to the music. Before we knew it, the countdown had gone and we were crossing the start line! 

The first mile of the marathon is one of my favourites, with the downhill incline of the Champs Elysees letting you see all of the runners ahead spread out across the wide Parisian road. It's this sight that hits home to me that I am actually about to take on a crazy 26 mile journey and it's going to be awesome.

As expected, the course was just as beautiful as I had remembered, with varied scenery from the Eiffel Tower to the beautiful Chateau de Vincennes. The streets are plenty wide enough and it's a great atmosphere with plenty of support at most points.

I decided not to try and follow a pacer, as there tends to be a high volume of runners around them and didn't enjoy my pacer experience last year. This year I was armed with my Garmin Forerunner 220, (which I absolutely LOVE) and was confident that I could pace myself to 10 minute miles to break my 4 hour 30 minute goal.

I really struggled with my knee during the race, with my IT Band giving me pain from the beginning. By mile 17 I even broke my stride to walk/run for about a kilometre, which is unheard of from me as I tend to be pretty stubborn and get on with it! I got hold of some neurofen near the Eiffel Tower at 30km (top support crew!) and was back on my way. Although I had broken my pace, I spent a minute calculating how quickly I needed to run the last 12km to still reach my 4 hour 30 target. Once I realised it was possible a new determination came over me and I was off.

During the race I met two lovely ladies who follow me on Instagram and spotted my very bright compression socks from my 'What I'm Wearing - Paris Marathon' video. It was the best thing ever to have friends on the course and they really helped me at difficult stages. We all ran very similar times and ended up finishing within minutes of each other so managed to catch up and congratulate each other - such a cool experience!

I managed to push through and crossed the line in 4 hours 25 minutes 26 seconds, which I was over the moon with. It was under the 4 hour 30 barrier that I desperately wanted to break and over 25 minutes faster than my 2014 time. I think you can see my excitement in the picture below!

My post-marathon celebrations were pretty low key, but I did manage to sneak some Champagne in there ;)

Even though this was round two, I can truly say that 2015 was every bit as good as 2014. It has it's little flaws, but Paris Marathon is such a great race and I'm totally in love with it. YES, I will be back next year, as I managed to get myself a free place through a competition, so.. I'll see you there?!

Relive the day with me and check out my Vlog!