Bubulle's weblog

Upload accepted by organisers.

Upload time has been 3h49'29" (my watch says 27", eh!).

That was a good one, really (actually, I can compare to only 3 as it was my fourth marathon after Paris and Cologne 2009, plus the unofficial Rambouillet Forest marathon I ran alone 6 weeks after Paris 2009).

For marathoners around, here are the chronometric data. Please note that GPS watches tend to overestimate the distance, mostly because of the jerky way one runs in mass events, as well as geometric considerations related to the imprecision of GPS (imprecision may be lateral and thus the line recorded by the watch is often less straight than the real one). For instance, according to my watch, Paris marathon was 42.63km long, so an overestimate by nearly 500meters. As a consequence, the recorded speed of 5'23"/km should be corrected to 5'25". So, times below should be increased by 2 seconds.

• km 0: I'm in the 4h target sas. Thankfully, I arrived early so I can go to the front line of it, so I'll start about 100m behind a 3h45 pacemaker.
• km 1: 5:12 (Champs-Elysées)
• km 2: 5:24 (Champs-Elysées, Concorde)
• km 3: 5:06 (Rue de Rivoli...not as jammed as I though, hence the time)
• km 4: 5:11 (Rue de Rivoli, Chatelet)
• km 5: 5:07 (Rue de Rivoli, Hotel de Ville. Sadly, I lost my water bottle even though it is meant to be very secure in the trail belt I use. Too bad for the energetic drinks. I won't be in full autonomy as I expected: I hate the mess around Food/Drinks stands)
• km 6: 5:30 (Bastille: slowdown at the beginning of Fbg St-Antoine, but no real jamm like last year)
• km 7: 5:02 (Rue du Faubourg St-Antoine)
• km 8: 5:18 (Rue de Reuilly)
• km 9: 5:10 (Avenue Daumesnil: great time despite the difficult turns at place Félix Eboué....and the climbing to Porte Dorée. Here I reach the 3h45 pacemaker and pass him to avoid the jam around him)
• km 10: 5:20 (time to slow down a bit as my current time is slightly frightening: I'm around a 3h43 pace. Also, avenue Daumesnil to Vincennes castle is going up!). km 10 is reached in 53:26 according to official recordings, so 5'20". Not that bad.
• km 11: 5:07 (Chateau de Vincennes. I fail to really slowdown....which is probably the bad decision I'll regret later on)
• km 12: 5:12 (Parc Floral. The pace maker stopped for peeing. I'm away ahead of him, dammit)
• km 13: 5:13 (Route de la Pyramide. Good constant pace. Too fast, still)
• km 14: 5:02 (Hippodrome de Vincennes. Dammit, will I ever slow down?)
• km 15: 5:41 (Hippodrome, again. I had to pee..:-)...The pacemaker passes me again and is now running 100m ahead of me...and gazillion of other runners)
• km 16: 5:22 (Avenue de Gravelle. The hardest part of the half-marathon, but this time we're going *down* and this is a good moment to relax. Finally, I'm now using the right pace)
• km 17: 4:58 (Avenue de Gravelle again. The time seems too fast but this is really an easy part and despite the high pace, I'm relaxing. Nothing is hurting as of now. The pacemaker is now only 30m ahead of me)
• km 18: 5:10 (approaching Porte de Charenton and its pavement I dislike a lot....so I'm enjoying the good macadam for now....pacemaker 10m ahead)
• km 19: 5:13 (Porte de Charenton done. Great ambiance, one of the best all along the road, with Paris firemen animating the neighbourhood. Very motivating.....and I now that next kilometer will be goind down!)
• km 20: 5:05 (Rue de Charenton. Another hard point of the half-marathon, but here we're going down....then up! Still I'm feeling very good)
• km 21: 5:24 (Avenue Daumesnil. I'm about 300m behind the half-marathon mark when my watch beeps for km21. Now I came back to my planned pace....il était temps!)
• Half-marathon official mark is reached in 1h51'25". Prior to my two official half-marathons this winter, this was my personal best on that distance! 5'17"/km, that's however faster than what I planned. That would make 3h42'50". Now I really suspect that I'll regret it!
• km 22: 5:10 (Reaching Bastille. Still (too) fast. I try to calculate how I'll meet Zack and Ralf)
• km 23: 5:20 (reaching the Seine river banks. Crowded place and not much room left laterally by spectators. Elizabeth was there but she didn't manage to see me as she was thinking I was way behind: the SMS service that sends the time at km20 is based....on official time and no real time! I passed the 3h45 flag by 100m and am now seeing another 3h45 flag 100m ahead of me. I'm definitely too fast)
• km 24: 5:20 (Quai Marie. I saw Zack and Ralf and could have a hi-five with them. Ralf should have a pic. I wasn't able to talk to them as I don't like ppl who suddenly stop to hug friends...but Ralf organized things very well and was very precise in his indications)
• km 25: 5:39 (Down to Seine bank expressway. The food/drink before km25 wasn't good and I slowed down to eat one of my gels too...not the first one. Legs begin to hurt and I now feel that I'll have hard times in expressway tunnels)
• km 26: 5:03 (very long tunnel on the expressway. One of the hardest points in the road. It's hot and noisy inside and the moral is not very high. Also, I know there's a steep climbing at the exit. The watch time is probably wrong)
• km 27: 5:55 (Concorde. I told you! Despite the imprecision of time, I know I'm slowing down. The pace maker is now 50m ahead of me again as he passed me in the tunnel. Also, this is a difficult part as it features other expressway tunnels where we go down then up)
• km 28: 4:50 (Grand Palais. Energy seems to be coming back though I really fear that won't last for very long. Pace maker is closer, though. For Dirk: this is the traditional place where the Chicago Marathon, Paris sister marathon is advertizing on the metro bridge)
• km 29: 5:19 (Tour Eiffel. I always fear this part as it is likely that the many tourists who cross the Seine river to go to Eiffel Tower have to croos the street we're running on. Anyway, it's still going well, but the 30km wall is approaching)
• km 30: 5:25 (Maison de Radio-France. Hmm, I'm not feeling very well but apparently I could keep the pace. The pace maker is about 50m ahead of me). I'm reaching km 30 in 2h39'47" for a 5'19" pace.
• km 31: 5:34 (Rue Mirabeau. I'm fearing the rue Molitor slow climbing. 11km left, it's time to use my trick: imagining that I'm running my usual Saturday tour in Maurepas Forest.....so let's say, I'm leaving home and forget that it's about 2h45 that I'm running already)
• km 32: 5:23 (rue Molitor and Porte d'Auteuil. After all, that street isn't climbing that much! Still, I'm now fearing the loops in Bois de Boulogne where there are less spectators and encouragements)
• km 33: 5:37 (Stade Jean-Bouin. Uh oh, now I feel that I'm slowing down *and* can't go faster. First signs of possible cramps. It's time to motivate myself to continue drinking enough as there are still 9km to run)
• km 34: 5:28 (Avenue de la Porte d'Auteuil. That completes the first and smallest loop in Bois de Boulogne...but the longest one is to come, plus the (last) climbing on the Avenue des Fortifications. "My" pace maker is now way ahead of me and I can't see home anymore. I'm on my own with a few other thousand of people around. What's good is that I'm still running faster than most of them (people really overestimate their targets!)
• km 35: 5:56 (Avenue des Fortifications. OUCH. The turn at Porte d'Auteuil followed by the small climbing was hard. Now I know that I'll have hard times in the next kilometers)
• km 36: 5:35 (going around Hippodrome d'Auteuil . Let's go for the most demotivating part of the road: the one where we go the *opposite* way of our destination! And we still have 6 kilometers to run. This is the place where, last years, we were seeing people who were 3 kilometers ahead of us. Not this time as the loop in Bois de Boulogne changed)
• km 37: 5:34 (Bois de Boulogne alleys. I'm happy because, despite of the very hard legs, I'm keeping a pace below enough of the 4h pace....and, even though 3h45 is out of question, I have hopes for 3h50...which was my target)
• km 38: 5:41 (Begin of the very long Allée de la Reine Marguerite, for 1.5km. My only thought is now to avoid going under the 5:41 pace)
• km 39: 5:35 (interesting to see this now as I perfectly remember that my moral wasn't very high at that time...but I apparently managed to keep that constant pace)
• km 40: 5:41 (Allée de Longchamp: the one where we see Porte Maillot tower very far away and another very long alley, for 1km. But, hey, this is the magical 40km mark! Moral is climbing up. If I manage to not get cramps until km 41, that will be fine!)
• km 41: 6:10 (the hardest kilometer of this run, very obviously. I had to stop to get water and running again is now really difficult. People around are also slowing down a lot as the weather, even if not very hot, is sunny and around the 18°C mark....after a cold winter....thankfully I had worse in Thailand so I don't suffer that much)
• km 42: 6:02 (Porte Dauphine is approaching, it now feels like home, people are excited and spectators are back and very noisy...it's now OK)
• km 42.195: 5:22 (my watch counted more than 500meters over 42km, remember....crossing Porte Dauphine is magic, the noise is incredible and I can....nearly...fly. So, trying to sprint enough to be sure reaching the 3h50 mark)

As a conclusion, even though I can improve the pace and avoid going too fast in the first 25km, I'm very happy as I avoided nearly collapsing as I did last year (with sometimes over 7'00/km and a few walks).

Going back home was OK and I had no cramps and I still haven't any. This is also what one gets when preparing well. My only regret is that I didn't run over 30km since, indeed, Cologne Marathon! That made the difference in the last 12 kilometers, obviously. Having spent the winter on many half-marathons (either alone, or a few officials) clearly improved my "performance" up to 25km. For the next marathon (a marathoner always thinks about the next one), I need to have 1 or 2 long trainings a few weeks before.

Now, I have to find out which one will be the next one... and I wish good luck to my friend Noèl Köthe, who is preparing the Mainz marathon for May 9th as well as Dirk who's certainly preparing another one. Guys, rendez-vous is of course for Debconf10 in NYC. We won't run a marathon for sur, but how about an half one? :-)