Schneider Electric Paris Marathon - a masters best?
Race Information
- Name: Schneider Electric Paris Marathon
- Date: April 12, 2026
- Distance: Mar-a-thon
- Location: Paris, France
- Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/18075460625/overview
- Time: >!2:27:50!<
Goals
| Goal | Description | Completed? |
|---|---|---|
| A | Sub 2:30 | Yes |
| B | Strong 2nd half | Yes |
My PR from 2018 is 2:28:00. I've come close to it in recent years, but for this race I didn't even set it as a goal. My last month of training had gone poorly, and I figured if I set myself up to have the opportunity to run 2:27, it would be too hard and I'd risk blowing up.
Background
It’s tough to keep my background limited to one or two paragraphs but here goes:
I ran two 10Ks and a half in college 2005-2007 (45:50, 44:24, 1:49:50). I ran my first marathon in 2011 (3:09). In 2012, I ran 2:56. In 2013, I ran 2:40 and 2:33 as I bumped up to 100 miles per week. I ran 2:28 at my peak twice from 2016-2018, along with a lot of similar race times at shorter distances. I ran a solo 2:40 marathon doing small loops in my neighborhood on Patriot’s Day 2020 - I think I was in shape to run a PR, but there was a global pandemic so I took a break from running.
I spent some time having babies and lifting weights from 2020-2022. I returned with 2:55, 2:52, and 2:39 marathons, then got close to my peak again in 2023. As an older runner, with kids, and wisdom (ha!) I ran 2:30:48 at age 38, 2:28:43 at age 39, and 2:28:24 at age 40. I also ran my best half marathon (1:10:24) in 2024.
My return to training has been more disciplined and consistent than my earlier running. I’m on a more consistent schedule and I tend to focus more on nutrition and recovery during my training blocks. Back in the day I was consistent with volume, but I didn't prepare well for workouts and my recovery routine wasn't great.
Training
I trained for 11 weeks for this race. I'm usually somewhere in the 10-14 week range for marathon training cycles, and I usually find that's plenty of time to get ready. I'm also not starting from zero - my offseason still includes plenty of quality miles, but I try to keep myself mentally fresh by not stressing about the specifics.
Before this block started I had spent 2-3 weeks focused on neuromuscular development with an emphasis on speed and plyometrics. I continued the plyo routine during my non-workout days pretty consistently at the beginning and end of the training block.
For the first 6 weeks, I focused on LT/sub-LT work loosely inspired by the popularity of NSM. I would try to run a 6-7 RPE threshold workout every other day during this stretch. You'll notice that the paces vary a lot - my intention was to rotate between longer reps at a slower pace and shorter reps at a faster pace. Some days were easier and some days were harder, but I really tried not to worry about the pace. Ultimately I was trying to maximize workout volume while staying fresh for the next one.
I then had a down week for work travel, and in the final 4 weeks I reintroduced some faster running while still maintaining an emphasis on threshold volume. My workouts were a little more spaced out during this period, and I was dealing with fatigue from general life. My diet and nutrition had also started to fall apart in the final month, but I held on as best I could.
One interesting detail about my log is the walking miles. Over the past couple of years, I've started out my morning with a 20-30 minute walk (with light jogging) to warm up and drink my coffee before I start my primary run. I count this volume separately, but I tend to think that it "counts", so I include it in my training logs. Another thing worth noting is that I double nearly every day, including workout and long run days. My second run is always at a very easy effort. This is why you won't see a lot of really high volume single runs. I've spent years doing high volume, and these days my focus is more on workout volume and less on MLR/LR volume.
My weekly mileage counts were:
94.4
105.1
105.9
112.6
102.2
114.8
62.2 [travel]
109.7
103.6
82.1
67.9 [race week]
Workout Log: Jan 28 – Apr 12
| Date | Walk + Run (mi) | Workout Details | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 28 | 10.0 | Treadmill broken tempo. Including ~5.7 miles @ 6:10/mi | |
| Jan 30 | 15.9 | 15x2:00 @ 5:38/mi w/ 60s recovery | |
| Feb 1 | 17.5 | 8x1 Mile @ 5:55/mi w/ 60s recovery | |
| Feb 3 | 10.8 | 15x600 road fartlek. Avg 5:35/mi w/ 45s jog between | |
| Feb 5 | 10.0 | (treadmill) w/ 12, 12, 13 minutes @ 5:56/mi avg | |
| Feb 7 | 22.7 | 12x3:00 @ 5:37/mi avg w/ 55s jog between | |
| Feb 9 | 10.8 | 4x10:00 @ 5:52/mi with 90s recovery | |
| Feb 11 | 11.0 | 6xMile @ 5:30/mi on roads (60s rec) | |
| Feb 13 | 16.2 | 25x400m road fartlek avg 1:21 w/ 45-50 seconds between | |
| Feb 14 | 24.0 | Treadmill very easy | |
| Feb 16 | 16.2 | 10x1k track threshold session. Avg 3:24, with 200m/1:00 jog between | |
| Feb 18 | 11.6 | 8x1 mile roads (average 5:36/mi) with ~45s recovery | |
| Feb 20 | 11.9 | 30x1:00/0:45 & a final 3:00 fartlek. Averaged 5:24/mi for the “on” segments | |
| Feb 22 | 17.2 | 12x3:00 @ 5:27/mi off 60s rec. 3x30s fast | |
| Feb 24 | 12.8 | 8x3:00 @ 5:23/mi off 60s rec. 3x30s fast | |
| Feb 26 | 10.7 | 3x1 Mile @ 5:33/mi (2min rec), 4x1:00 @ 5:10/mi (2min rec) | Race shoe test |
| Mar 1 | 18.3 | Cowtown Half Marathon race (1:12:32) | Ran with the second pack (#6-8) at the start, averaging 5:25 for 4 miles before I let a gap form in front of me. Stayed consistent until encountering hills and a stiff headwind from miles 7-10, where I averaged ~5:35/mi. Picked it up and averaged under 5:30/mi again for the final 5K, passing one runner and finishing 7th. I was within 25 seconds of 4th through 6th place and starting to gain on them, but I had let too large of a gap form early in the race. First place masters division. |
| Mar 4 | 10.9 | 11*400 on roads @ 1:17 avg (unpaced rec) | |
| Mar 6 | 13.4 | 8x1km @ 3:28 per km (60s rec) | |
| Mar 8 | 25.7 | 13x1 Mile on roads with fast 5:00 floats. 5:36 avg on the miles. 6:02 avg continuous overall pace | Finished fresh, could have run 2:37 marathon |
| Mar 12 | 3.0 | 3 mile treadmill tempo (5:40 avg) | Travel |
| Mar 14 | 16.9 | 4x1:00 @ 5:13/mi, 3x2 Miles @ 5:32/mi, 5x40s fast | Travel recovery |
| Mar 17 | 15.4 | 15x3:00 @ 5:33/mi avg (45-60s between) | |
| Mar 19 | 19.0 | 6x1 Mile 5:43/mi | Felt terrible |
| Mar 21 | 24.0 | Long steady including 10 @ 6:08/mi avg | Felt terrible |
| Mar 24 | 13.7 | 25x1:00+0:24 track fartlek. Covered 10k in 34:28. | Goal was 300m+100m rec, but I was ahead of that pace, so it was ~5:10/mi “on” pace. |
| Mar 27 | 17.6 | 4+4+3 miles @ 5:36/mi avg | Tough workout in humid conditions. |
| Mar 29 | 17.3 | Totally unstructured fartlek including many short <1 minute reps around MP+/-, and 4x3:00 @ 5:26/mi. [total ~5 miles workout] | Very tired |
| Mar 31 | 11.7 | 13x3:00 + 1:00 w/ 45s rest. Total 7.3 miles @ 5:29/mi | |
| Apr 2 | 11.0 | 2, 2, 2.3 miles @ 5:38, 5:36, and 5:34/mi paces. Total 6.3 miles @ ~5:36/mi | Treadmill; 100% humidity made this workout pretty much impossible. |
| Apr 5 | 14.4 | 6x1km track (3:17.5) ~1:20 rest. Then 2 miles @ MP on roads (5:35/mi). Total 5.8 miles @ ~5:25/mi | |
| Apr 8 | 7.4 | 5x3:00 avg 5:25/mi (long rest) + 2x20s fast | |
| Apr 12 | 26.2 | Paris Marathon | 2:27:50 |
Race
Splits
| Kilometer | Split Time | Split Pace |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ~3:45 | N/A |
| 5 | 17:57 | 3:36/km 5:47/mi |
| 10 | 17:32 | 3:31/km 5:40/mi |
| 15 | 17:17 | 3:28/km 5:34/mi |
| 20 | 17:23 | 3:29/km 5:36/mi |
| Half | 1:14:01 | N/A |
| 25 | 17:30 | 3:30/km 5:38/mi |
| 30 | 17:33 | 3:31/km 5:40/mi |
| 35 | 17:28 | 3:30/km 5:38/mi |
| 40 | 17:38 | 3:32/km 5:42/mi |
| 42.195 | 7:32 | 3:27/km 5:33/mi |
| Full | 2:27:50 | N/A |
We had a shakeout run followed by a 3 hour walking tour, then the expo, then the walk back to the hotel on the eve of the race. I was on my feet from 7am to 2pm. As a result, I decided to skip dinner and lay in the hotel room with a sandwich from the grocery store. I needed the extra rest.
On race day I was up at 4am (the UFC event was still going on in the US while I was drinking espresso in the hotel lobby). I drank 3-4 coffees, had a couple of slices of white toast with jam, drank 300 calories of Gatorade + beet juice, then I was off to the metro.
The bag drop and start situation at the Champs Elysees was really spread out, so I spent 45 minutes walking around the start area, changing shoes, and checking my bag before I got into the corral. I had a caffeinated 100kcal gel 10 minutes to the start, and then we were off.
For race nutrition, I drank a bottle of Maurten 320 during the first 3km, then 160 kcal gels at 10km, 17km, 23km, and 28km. This was sooner than I had planned, but I sort of took the gels when I felt like my stomach could handle the next one. I had one sip of water along the way, but the temps were fine so I didn’t need to drink much.
I started a fair bit back in the "Pref" corral (sub 3 hour). I was just shy of qualifying for the elite corral, and I didn’t want to push my way to the front at the start, so I was in traffic on a somewhat narrow street. As a result, my first several km were slow. I had programmed my watch to split every 3:33 throughout the race, knowing that was the pace for a 2:30 marathon. My intention was to compare those auto splits to the KM markers and speed up or slow down as necessary to match the pace. Early on, I was 15 seconds behind the auto-split pace, but I was steadily reducing that margin by about 3 seconds per km.
At 5km I found myself in a large group, but I realized it was the 2h35 pace group. Shit. There was a large gap in front of us, but the pacers assured me that there were 2h30 pacers ahead. This was a tough decision point for me. Catching up to the 2h30 pacers would put me ahead of my planned pace, and I risked blowing up. However, it didn't feel like I had an alternative option because I would be running alone in no mans land if I stuck to my plan.
That lit a fire in me, and I burned several matches trying to catch up. I could see the pace group by the 8km mark, but it took until 17km for me to join the group. My heart rate was fully at marathon effort by this point, and my breathing was harder than I would have liked. I had concerns from 17-20km that I wouldn’t be able to hold on; I was now on pace for 2:28:00, but I had run around 2:26 pace to get there. Luckily, the course was pretty easy from 20-28km so everything settled down. It was around this point that I realized my nutrition was good, my effort was good, and I had a real shot at a PB.
We passed through a tunnel, then along the river, and the course became hilly very fast. I flew on the downhills, but struggled on the uphills. The pacers dropped out at 32km and I was in front of the group, carrying on the pace (2:28 on the dot). We started chopping down stragglers one after another. I checked my watch around 36km and realized I was running in the 5:3x range, still feeling strong, and very much on pace to run a PB. Then we hit two long uphill stretches and I completely avoided looking at my watch. I wasn’t babysitting my pace, but I knew it would be close. All I could do was hang on, try to pace off folks I was passing for brief moments to catch my breath, then fly on the downhills.
At 41km I looked at my watch one last time and I needed to run 1195m in 4:15 (5:40 pace) to get the PB. I started kicking, then realized the entire final stretch was downhill. I had it in the bag. I let my legs loose, got caught in a bit of a rut passing wheelchairs on a tight final corner, then kicked it in at 5:15 pace for the last 400m. I was 2:27:53 via my watch so I knew I had beaten my 2:28:00 PB.
In a race with 60,000 runners I was 72nd overall, 2nd in M40-44 division, and 7th in the "open" (non-elite) division.
Reflection & What’s next
11 weeks doesn’t seem like a lot, but I crammed 32 sessions in during that time and saw consistent progress. I also felt like I took my foot off the gas in the last 5 weeks, so with better consistency and motivation in the final stretch I could have been more fit.
I mostly attribute the good time to race selection - I had a perfect group to run with, and I had incidentally been forced to start slower than I would have liked. I've never felt this strong late in a race, and that really came down to the easy start plus relaxed middle miles (20-32k) where I was able to let others do the work. I believe I've been in better shape a couple of times before, but this was the day everything else came together for me.
I'm signed up for Chicago this Fall and my plan is to do mostly the same type of training for that race. I will focus on VO2 max, speed, and plyometrics over the summer, then begin a structured threshold program on August 3rd (10 weeks out). If I'm lucky, I'll be able to PR at least one more time!
Made with a new race report generator created by u/herumph.