Paris Marathon Training Diary No10: the final analysis

We travelled out to France a week ahead of the marathon to get a bit of a break from work and to have a nice little jaunt. The Eurostar journey from Waterloo was effortless and we even escaped Paris by car without to much trouble. We headed south in to the Loire valley and took a suite in a lovely hotel between Orleans and Tours.

We spent a lovely few days hopping from chateau to chateau and appreciating French art, wine and scenery. It was fantastic and we were certainly refuelled by a few days of inaction and late rising.

I managed my first tentative run on the 11th of April and nothing seemed too out of order. The ankle (legs generally actually) felt a bit weak at race pace but I had no stabbing pain in the tibia.

Back in Paris we had to get used to slightly smaller accommodation (we had to leave the bathroom to change our minds) but the city was (as always) fabulous.

We overdosed on art (at the d'orsay and the Louvre) and food and went to the most amazing antiques market.

I knew that I may still not make the start (I'd had a few twinges after my little run) but I registered anyway and bought some ludicrous support socks in an attempt to hold my legs together and crammed down as much pasta as possible on race day -1.

The day of the race dawned clear and bright and it was obviously going to be unseasonably warm. The start on the Champs-Élysées was rammed when I got there and I tried to focus on my aim of 5min kilometres. When we went off I was feeling fine apart from a background desire to find a loo.

All went fine to start with. My splits for the first 13k were 4:34 5:05 4:58 4:47 4:52 6:16 5:02 5:24 5:09 5:04 7:51 5:06 5:12. But after about 15k I started to feel uncomfortable. It was too hot and I had started off too fast. The pounding was starting to take its toll on my ankle and I felt dehydrated. The water stations were quite badly organised and sited (some being on corners) and I found they disrupted the flow of the race. By half way I felt like I'd like t0 drop out and my splits had falled to 6min kms. Sadly half way was in the middle of nowhere so I had to press on.

The pain in my ankle was accompanied by a numbness in my right foot and I had to stop a couple of times to loosen my laces and remove my 'boosters'. At 30km I walked off the course and went for an ice cream under the Eiffel Tower. Emily met me and was very lovely about the whole thing but I was very disappointed.

Gary Nelmes