On March 8th, the 43,000 runners had exceptional weather for the Paris half with sunny skies and 60°F. In the middle of the immense crowd in front of the chateau de Vincennes I prepared for the race with Emmanuel and Thomas.
Pre-race photo: 
With the nice weather we were able to run in shorts and t-shirt for the first time this year. The course started near the chateau and heads towards Paris, Place de la Nation, Place de la Bastille, and Rue de Rivoli, before turning back in direction of the Bois de Vincennes. There is a short upgrade along Rue Daumesnil and then the course goes into the Bois with the finish back near the chateau.
I started with the runners in the 1:35 gate which was my time objective. We had to wait around in the crowd for 30 minutes or so before the start. My first km was slow in the heavy traffic, and then I had to stop to “water a tree” where I lost a precious minute of time. Note to self: don’t drink too much before your next race. I jumped back into the mass of runners and picked up a brisk pace covering several kms at a pace below 4:30 per km. I was about 50m behind the 1:35 pacer who carries a flag high above the crowd.
I kept on target pace until about the 10k mark with the pacer about 50m in front of me. After that, the pacer gradually pulled away from me.
Here is my data from Strava:
I finished with a fairly good sprint, good enough for 344th place out of 2776 in the old, old, man category (V2H) and to be 5003 out of the 43000 or so overall.
Here are the 5 km splits.
0 – 5 km: 00:23:26
5 – 10 km : 00:22:46
10 – 15 km: 00:23:48
15 – 20 km: 00:24:22
I was happy with this performance with it coming so early in the season.
Some pics of me tearin’ up the asphalt…
