I have to hand it to the organizers of the Paris Marathon. For being a race in such a large city, with 54,000 participants, 30% of which were international, they have the kinks smoothed out after 38 previous editions which created a runner friendly marathon day for the 39th edition of the race. The start of the race is located along the Champs Elysées with the finish on the other side of the Arc de Triomphe along Avenue de Foche. With three metro lines and an RER line that conveniently cross at Charles de Gaulle Etoile station under the Arc, getting to the starting line is pretty easy. The challenge that I faced was that the bus I had planned to take happened to be on strike that day (very likely because of the race) so I ended up walking the 3km from my house to the race start. Not a huge deal because I live in the city and know it, but this could have potentially been a problem to non-Parisian resident race participants.
Once there we sought out bag drop. This was not as clearly labeled as the Half Marathon had been, but knowing where the start and finish were we headed towards Avenue de Foche to check their first. We were in luck. As we followed the crowds we were corralled along the sides of the avenue and directed to bag drop. We also found port-o-potties and were able to hit two birds with one stone. While it seemed a little odd to have bag drop be a bit away from the start, we quickly realized that this meant it was near the finish and we would simply need to keep making our way through the finisher area, grab our bags and be set. I don’t know about you but I’d rather have a little more walking before the race than after the race, but that’s just me.
We made our walk back to the start and into our corral. Both the half marathon and marathon had designated start times for different time goals and had them separated from one another with barriers along the starting area. In order to enter your corral, you had to show your bib with the corresponding color of your start time. There were more port-o-potties in this area but only two within each starting corral so that’s something to be aware of. For the gents simply needing to take care of Number 1, they conveniently had urinal style port-o-potties at the finish and in the start corrals, though the lines were still a bit long. A word of advice for all runners, bring your own toilet paper. They were out long before the race even started and with 54,000 people it’s just easier to supply your own.
As for during the race, the timing was like any other race in that you had check points every 5 km, and at the half way mark, to track your splits and send it along to friends or family who are tracking a runner. The nice things for us Americans running the race was that not only did they have markers for every km but they also had markers for each mile. This made it easy to pass the time when you are ticking off each km and mile and trying to do the math for pace at each marker. There were surprisingly more ups and downs that I had anticipated, which can be attributed to the fact that runners run through the tunnels which while blocking the sun and wind, requires a descent and ascent at each one. It’s worth it in the early part of the second half of the race but without foresight it can be a little off-putting. Here’s a link for the Course so you can see for yourself what it looks like. Unlike the half marathon, there were port-o-potties along the course, though there usually were 10 or so runners off to the sides taking care of their business, men and women alike.
The big difference I have found between races in Minnesota and the two races I have done here are the hydration stations. Spread out every 5 km along the course, food and water are always together. This is pretty nice except that the bananas didn’t come pre-pealed all of the time and the water came in plastic bottles instead of cups. This meant paying extra attention to your footing because of plastic bottles being kicked around and banana peals strewn about. Another item worth mentioning is that between the two races I have done, there was only one place where a gatorade-like replenishment was found and it was at mile 19 of the marathon, nowhere else. So if you are planning on this being a form of replenishment for you, you’ll need to find a way to supply your own. Other than those factors, they are pretty standard if you want to bypass them just stick to the other side of the road and you’ll be good to go.
For the runners that were international or non-French speaking, the majority of the announcements came in French, English and Spanish. At the expo, representatives were walking around with tags indicating their name and what languages they spoke in order to best guide visitors. The expo itself was really well organized with a standard flow of getting official race gear followed by the sponsors and things for buying. It is, however, open to the public meaning that if you are a runner in Paris, marathon or not, you should definitely stop by the expo to check out what they have. While the clothes were primarily Asics, seeing that they are one of the principle sponsors, there were also other shoe representatives there providing runners with the most well-rounded selection of shoes you may ever find in Paris. I highly recommend stopping by the expo, even for beginner runners.
As for finding a place to stay in Paris for the race, I’m no help on that end. I gratefully live here and didn’t have to deal with finding a place to stay or food. My only advice is to book in advance. With 54,000 runners plus their spectators, things are bound to book quickly, especially since the race takes place in April , a month in which Paris is famous for. And on that note, Paris really is a magical place in April. Winter is over and Parisians come out of hibernation, flocking to the outdoor seating at restaurants and many parks around the city to take in the blooming vegetation, sun and recently flowing fountains. If you are looking for an early season Marathon in an international setting, the Paris Marathon is a well organized race for all runners and I recommend it.
As of yesterday I can now saw I am an international marathoner! I may have only run one of each, but I have officially run an international half marathon and marathon. That’s pretty surreal and cool. This was also the first marathon that I didn’t run for a charity. I didn’t raise money for a cause that I support but instead just ran it. I did it just for me. Except as we stood at the starting line waiting for our corral to start, I realized I was never just doing this for me but was doing this for us. I ran the Paris marathon with my friend Wayne, who I have gotten to know through running. He flew from Minnesota to Paris so that we could run this race together.
Counting My Blessings 