I ran a good race from start to finish. It was a cold, overcast day with 3.5°C at the start. I met Thomas in the park at Versailles an hour before race time.
We tried to keep warm while preparing and deciding what equipment to carry/wear. My equipment list:
- below the knee running tights,
- knee length compression socks (a new piece of equipment),
- Salomon XT Wings trail shoes,
- a long sleeve running shirt,
- gloves,
- the good luck bandana,
- camelbak with 1.5 liters of water,
- 2 Snickers bars,
- two packs of GU Chomps,
- a granola bar
- a space blanket,
- my telephone,
- 5 salt tablets,
- my portable charger,
- Garmin 405 GPS watch with charging cord in place and wrapped around my wrist
The first runners started at 10:45 but we were in the 2nd wave and started at 11:05.
The race circles around the water and in front of the chateau. I should have taken the time to stop, whip out my camera and take a photo.
The first 10k is relatively flat and we ran that in about 56 minutes. There were only two aid stations, at 28k and then in the Park St Cloud at 39k. Our race strategy was to average 10k per hour, quickly refuel at aid stations and just try to keep the legs moving forward for the last 11k. This would allows us to hit the 5:30 overall objective.
Here are the Strava stats and course trace.
Our strategy pretty much worked as planned out for me. Thomas fell behind a bit but still ended up bettering his time from last year. I hit the 28k aid station at 2:47. There, I made a toilet pit stop, refueled and met up with Thomas who was following a few minutes behind.
Chaville aid station
I came into the 39k aid station at 4:12.
As soon as I stopped, I started to get the chills. I filled my camelbak with about 500ml, ate a banana and some salty crackers, and snapped this photo of Paris with the Eiffel Tower (the finish line) in the distance.
The final 11k was a struggle, as it always is for a long race. For this race, there is an easy descent to the Seine and then the course follows the Seine to the finish line in front of the Eiffel Tower. There was a brisk headwind for the final 5k that gave me the chills. I kept looking at my watch and was motivated to keep running to ensure a finish in less than 5:30. The long awaited finish line came into view and I was happy to cross in 5:24. In the old, old, men’s category I was 53 out of 254 finishers, and overall I was 472 out of 1546.
Physically, I came through the race OK with just the hint of a cramp in the right thigh a couple times. My Salomon shoes gave me a blister on the end of my toe on my left foot, so these shoes will not do for a longer run. I felt my toe hitting against the toe box on the descents.