A Beautiful Run

I still can't believe I run the Paris Marathon..... I told to myself several times never run a marathon when preparing for an Ironman.... and....... never say never!


this was totally unespected as after my tendinitis I started running very progressively with a longest run of 18 km the same week of the marathon(!). yes the week of the marathon I run 18km on monday, swim for 1h and interval training on the bike on tuesday, run easy 1 hour and interval training swimming on wednsday, bike easy 1h and swim 1h on Thursday, bike 3h with a climb up to 900 mt on friday, not exactly a taper for a marathon on sunday.


That's because I only decided on Saturday I would run the marathon when my wife Katja asked me if I could run few miles of the marathon with our friend and "groupie" Maeve that was running her first marathon. I could not say no, and of course I could stop when I wanted, the plan was to run 25 km maximum 30 and then let Maeve go to the end as for me my IM training plan continued next monday.


I was totally unprepared, I did not carboload, or anything else the days before, the only thing I did was to buy and bake an energy cake for the sunday morning breakfast.

With Maeve we meet for the prerace on sunday, we start in the last group, it was a beautiful day with so many runners, the temperature is ideal for running, we are looking forward to start.

We decide to run on the basis of a 4h marathon and see how it goes.

Maeve had also a tendinitis the last 2 weeks before the race and she is worried, so I'm I as I think it will hurt a lot for her. but for the moment everything is great and as the first groups have started we are still walking towards the start line, there are so many people.



Finally we start and after 500mt down the champs elisèes we see Katja and Nina, Katja encourages us with a "go guys, looking great!!" good to know after 500 mt! she tells us they are going to be at km 30




We run well, keeping to our pace, the km go "fast"and I feel great I'm at 70% of my max, running at 10.5km/h in great company in a great city, I really enjoy the run, sometimes Maeve accellerates, I ask her to stay with me as the race is long, she keeps the pace, there are so many people that passing is pretty difficult. We pass the 20 km in 1h 56 min, Maeve just set her personal record as last year she run the 20km of brussels in a little more than 2h. we pass the 1/2 marathon mark in 2h01 very much in schedule.


we drink and eat bananas, gels, dry fruits, I feel great!





We finally get to the 30st km, I can see from our time at every km that we are getting slower, Maeve is in pain with her leg and started to have cramps, we meet Katja that encourages us like only her can encourage somebody she cares for, I start feeling my legs a bit but I cant quit now, I cant let Maeve continue alone, the marathon starts now.


the km start to get longer and longer and our pace goes down to 9.5 km/h Maeve is really in pain, but she is very strong in her mental and we dont walk. we just stop few times for her cramps. km 36-37- 38-39 are very tough for her but she keeps going, I'm feeling ok and try to encourage her to keep going and put positive thoughts in her mind, but at this point the only person that can finish the race for maeve is maeve. she show me some carachter when at the aid station of km 40 she let me take the drinks for both of us and keep running, I dont know how she did that as stopping few seconds for a last sip of teasty beverage and a piece of banana was so easy to do......


Finally the last mile, if we got there we can get to the end, I tell Maeve to enjoy these last minutes because they are the best ones, the ones where all the training, the sacrifices the things she missed or she could not do, came to a meaning. everybody has his own feeling when it comes to the end of a long endurance race, I don't know what Maeve was thinking but from her look I could see she was happy and proud. I was also proud of her, she run her first marathon in less than 4h30 with an injured ankle, she run through the whole marathon without walking and she showed some great and tough carachter when the legs dont want to run anymore and all the body is acking, she did not quit one second!
as far as I'm concerned I had a great running day, I enjoyed running with Maeve, I enjoyed running a marathon finally taking pleasure without suffering and overdoing, I was in my aerobic zone the whole time, burn a lot of fat, built up some endurance and understood a lot of this long distance running. it was also great as a triathlete (normally focused on MY training, on MY racing) to do this for a good friend and for Katja.
and on tuesday I was back on the bike for my IM training plan