Marathon number 14 is done and in the books.
I arrived at the Arc de Triomphe and found John in a café where we had coffee and stayed warm. It was about 6°C and windy so we wanted to stay warm as long as possible. We went over to the start line about 5 min before the official start time and went in near the back in the 5:30 group of runners and not further up in the 3:45 group where we should have been. This was a mistake because they did a staggered start with about 10 minutes between each group and we had to wait 49 min before crossing the start line.
We started off at a relatively slow pace and were constantly maneuvering and going around people. We did the first 5k in 32:07 and 10k in 1:04:24 which is about a 6:20 min/km pace.
When we got into the Bois de Boulogne we stopped and watered a tree and then moved over to a trail on the side of the road where it was a bit easier to run. I wished John good luck and picked up the pace at about km 11, clicking off the next kms at around 5:05min/km. I had a lot of trouble getting around people.
I hit the halfway mark at 2:04:18, and did the second half in 2:11:21 for a final time of 4:15:39 and an average pace of 6:01 min/km and average HR of 139 bpm.
I finished in 2695 place out of 4359 runners in my category.
Here is a graphic of my times for each 5 km which shows that over the last 7 kms my pace significantly slowed.
For a more detailed analysis, km by km and heart rate, go to my garmin stats here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/168422062
My feet held up ok until the last 10 km, when they just got tired from taking a beating. Going over the short stretches of cobblestones was painful. My legs started to cramp up during the last 5 km and I had to break into a walk to give them a rest. Going at that slow pace, my heart rate went down and I started to get cold. The last 30 minutes of the race were really tough going.
Given that my training tailed off over the last 6 weeks my performance was pretty much as expected. Here is the weekly km chart.
Some photos here: http://www.maindruphoto.com/advanced_search_result.php?cPath=2152_2153&numbercompetitor=18181&x=56&y=9
And a photo taken by John in front of the town hall.
