Paris Marathon : 10th April 2011

It's official. Today marks the start of formal training for the Paris Marathon on 10th April 2011. Training plans have been established and this will be an “A” race for me in 2011. The exciting part is that this will be a “family” trip for me with my sister attending. Rachel has been bitten by the fitness bug and has agreed to do the breakfast run 5k the day before the marathon. It is so great to have her a part of this project. I hope she'll update us on the 5k training throughout.

I managed 3.15.29 in Barcelona in March 2010 and would love to get closer to the magic 3.00.00. That will be the training plan and there it is – stated in black & white and now out there on the blogsphere. The last 4 weeks have been baseline training weeks with low intensity workouts 4 /5 times a week. I am worried by an achilles complaint on my left foot and was very keen to ease back into training gently. Last week's training is below.

 As my next "A" race in 2011 will hopefully be a half-iron triathlon I am determined not to let swimming slip – as I did last year. Also last week I re-tested my cycle fitness and I don't want to lose that either. I guess I'm just going to have to be more efficient at work to find the time.

If you are considering a marathon I recommend a city race – Barcelona was outstanding – there is so much to see as you run and it's a brilliant distraction. In fact I completely recommend Barcelona – full stop. It was a fantastic experience. Sadly this year was my 5th failed attempt to make it to the London Marathon and this was the year they changed the rules which formerly granted automatic entry to anyone refused 5 times. It's a race I would love to do and yet I don't feel comfortable about going for a charity “golden ticket”. I raised funds in 2008 during the TriForLeticia (see blogpost here) and don't want to annoy friends and family for another year or two. It may surprize you that the Paris marathon has a history almost as long as Boston.

On Sunday the 19th of July 1896, crowds gathered at porte Maillot for the first French marathon, which brought together 191 participants. This was the first French marathon, run over just 40 km separating Paris from Conflans, the organisers, the Petit Journal, decided to award a commemorative medal to all runners who finished the race in under 4 hours. Why 40 kilometres? Simply because this was the distance separating Marathon from Athens; the current distance of the competition (42,195 km) is simply that of the London Olympic marathon (1908).

Which brings us nicely to the reason why the marathon distance is 26 miles and 385 yrds. The seemingly arbitrary distance was that adopted for the marathon at the1908 Summer Olympics in London. Of course the name Marathon comes from the legend of Pheidippides,the Greek messenger. Poor old Pheidippides was sent from the battlefield of Marathon to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated in the 490 BC Battle of Marathon (and in which he himself had just fought). It is claimed that he ran the entire distance without stopping and burst into the assembly, exclaiming "Νενικήκαμεν" = 'We have won.' before collapsing and dying. I know how he felt ! Anyway in November 1907 (ahead of the Olympics) a route of approx that distance was published in the newspapers, starting at Windsor Castle and finishing at the White City Stadium, Shepherd's Bush. There were protests about the final few miles because of tram-lines and cobbles, so the route was revised to cross the rough ground of Wormwood Scrubs. This lengthened the route, as did plans to make the start 700 yards from Queen Victoria's statue in the grounds of Windsor Castle. Thereafter it was decided to fix the distance at 26 miles (42 km) to the stadium, plus a lap of the stadium track (586 yards, 2 feet). But in order that the spectators, including Queen Alexandra, could have the best view of the final yards, the direction of running was changed to "right-hand inside" (i.e. clockwise). This meant the distance in the stadium was shortened to 385 yards, and the total distance became 26 miles 385 yards (42.195 km). And so it is today - bet you didn't know all that ? Lets see how week 1 turns out then.......