My Paris Marathon Experience

After swearing to never run another marathon again, I signed up for the Paris Marathon after a drunken university night out. I had finished the London Marathon two weeks prior in 4:31 and was determined to give it another go for the elusive sub-4 hour marathon. Nearly €100 down, I was entered into the 2016 Paris Marathon, with guaranteed entry. I trained hard over the following 12 months, with an ‘marathon improver’ plan I found online.

After months of training, and a few setbacks (flu/knee problems), I set off for Paris on Friday, 1st April! One of my younger sisters kindly came with me to support. As I live in London, we decided it would be easiest to catch the Eurostar to Paris, instead of flying. We stayed at the Hotel Mercure Gare du Nord, right opposite the Eurostar. This turned out to be an ideal location as the Metro to the start/finish line was on our doorstep and getting back to London after the race was easy.

Paris Marathon Medical Certificate

In order to collect your bib at the Paris Marathon Expo, you need to have a few extra bits! In order to participate in the Paris Marathon, a medical certificate was required. This is to prove you’re medically fit to run the race. I had to pay for a doctors appoitment to receive a signed certificate, stating “no contraindication to competitive running”. This is a mandatory step, to comply with French law, and has to be presented at the Paris Marathon Expo. You can’t collect your race bib without doing this.

Update: there has been an update in this process. The required medical certificate has now been replaced with a digital health declaration. Runners now have to complete an online form during registration, attesting to their fitness for long-distance running. Hopefully this makes the race easier to enter. Read more about this process on the official Paris Marathon site.

The Paris Marathon Expo

I knew if the Paris Marathon Expo was anything like the London Marathon Expo, it would get busy quickly! So we got up early on Saturday to head to the Salon du Running (Expo). The expo was located at the Porte du Versailles. It was quite an effort to travel to from the city centre and we somehow ended up on a tram at one point, but once there, picking everything up was extremely quick.

As stated earlier, you need to have your medical certificate, personal identification and your convocation form sorted ahead of time! They won’t issue your bib without these three things!! Once you’ve shown these documents, they’ll give you the race bib and chip timer. In addition, they give you a green backpack to store any belongings on race day.

The expo was a similar size to London, so after collecting the essentials, we walked around a bit. I’m terrible at race expos, as I just want to buy everything! I was fairly restrained during the expo and only bought a new pair of Skin compression sleeves. After, I headed to the KT stand to get my knee taped up as a precautionary. Seeing the finishers T-shirt and medal on display really got my nerves going. Although I had run the distance before, my training cycle hadn’t gone as smoothly this time. My knee issues had forced me to miss my 20-miler and a few other training runs, so I was feeling less prepared than when I ran the London Marathon the previous year.

We spent the rest of the day exploring Paris and eating. That evening I picked up some brown bread and jam from a local supermarket (my usual pre-race breakfast) and laid my race kit out. I didn’t have to worry too much about what to wear, as the weather forecast was for high temperatures and clear skies.

Pre-Marathon and Getting to the Start

On marathon morning, I woke up at 6:30am, got dressed and had my breakfast. I barely slept from nerves and was now feeling unprepared for the race. It seemed a bit cold, but I stuck with my decision of wearing shorts based on the weather forecast. I always pack a bin bag to wear at the start line. This turned out to be a great decision, as it ended up being 24 degrees!

The marathon started at the Champs-Elysee, which was easy to reach via the metro. The atmosphere on the metro, and in the streets, was already building and my nerves started to melt away. Upon arriving at the Arc de Triomphe, we were greeted by utter chaos!!! All the roads were still open, so there were cars and buses everywhere, with people running through the traffic to get pre-race selfies with the Arc de Triomphe. The start corals, which go down the entire Champs-Elysees), were fenced off. However, there was no separate runners’ area (as with the London Marathon). Meaning there were people – friends, families, runners, officials, tourists, etc. – everywhere!!

Amongst this chaos, it wasn’t clear where the bag drop was, and the small bit of GCSE French I knew didn’t help. We scrambled our way through the crowds down the entire Champs-Elysees trying to find the bag drop, only to realise it was back at the top, about half a mile away from the metro. By this point, we were incredibly hot and stressed…not what you want just before a marathon. I managed to run back up to where the official bag drop was and check my bag in. The atmosphere was buzzing here and I couldn’t wait to get started.

The 4hr coral didn’t open for a while, so I waited with my sister amongst the other runners. All anyone could talk about was the heat and lack of clouds, which was beginning to concern me a bit. Once the pen opened, I went for a last minute toilet stop, which surprisingly only took five minutes to queue for, and made my way to the front of the pen. The atmosphere was great, with lots of music and the commentator speaking in an array of languages to get the crowds going.

I managed to get to the front of our coral, so after another short wait in the pen…we were off!

The Marathon Itself

Within a few minutes of the race starting, I was already feeling hot. I knew this was going to be a lot harder than London the previous year. The crowds were out in large from the beginning, with flags from all countries being waved. Having crowds during a race always makes a difference and I’m always so grateful whenever someone shouts my name. The race started off downhill, heading towards the Place de la Concorde and then carried on towards Bastille. I had arranged to meet my sister at the 5km-point (Bastille), but delayed metros meant we just missed each other. As the race goes back past Bastille at 14 miles, I said I’d see her on the way back. Bastille was the first water stop: with bananas, buckets of raisins, orange slices and water.

A huge positive of the Paris Marathon is the incredible sites you pass along the way. I find it makes a real difference running a race with incredible sites and ‘attractions’ during the race. It almost felt like a walking (or running) tour of Paris.

The race then carried on East of Paris towards the ‘Bois de Vincennes’ park. This was a beautiful part of the race and a nice change of scene from the city streets. At this point, the heat was really affecting me and I was annoyed for not bringing more protection. Sun cream, a cap and sunglasses would have likely helped. Aside from the heat, I was running at a steady pace and my knee wasn’t causing any issues. My strategy at this point was to run a slower pace than in training to compensate the heat.

At mile 14, I saw my amazing sister. This gave me a desperately needed energy and motivation boost. All I could muster was that it was unbearably hot – which apparently all the runners had been saying to their families! It made such a difference knowing she was waiting on the course and helped to break down the miles mentally. At this point, I started noticing a familiar twinge in my knee…

After saying goodbye to my sister, the race took us towards some of Paris’s incredible sites. Some of my favourite were the Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower and Musee d’Orsay. It was such an awesome way to see a city! It wasn’t long before we were coming up to the infamous tunnels. This was a part of the race I had been particularly dreading. I had heard negative things about the tunnels from other runners. Additionally, the only part of the London Marathon without crowds were the London tunnels. However, the tunnels turned out to be a great relief from the relentless heat. They were filled with relaxing music and ‘aromatherapy’ pictures. I was just glad to have a break from the direct sunlight and cool down a bit. The exit from the tunnels is uphill, but honestly you don’t need to worry about these.

For the few nasty hills coming out of the tunnels, the spirit of the marathon shone through! Everyone was helping each other out, despite language barriers! This French girl could see I was struggling and kept pointing at my water and ushering me to drink. We plodded alongside each other trying to communicate for about a mile. It never ceases to amaze me how total strangers are willing to help each other out during races. The heat was really starting to take a toll on people now, with many walking alongside the course. At several points, fire engines were lining the course spraying everyone with water!

After passing the main sites of Paris, we headed towards the Bois de Boulogne park. My knee was starting to really bother me. Apparently I saw and spoke to my sister at this point, but worryingly, I have no recollection of this. I think I was too exhausted from the heat. This part of the race was not great, and unfortunately, where everything went downhill.

The atmosphere in the park was dead – with no spectators or music. By now I’d say half the runners were walking and struggling their way through the heat. Two ambulances drove down the course to help those collapsed on the roadside. The roads were open to the public, so on multiple occasions, people would run or cycle directly across the course. The water stations, still chaotic as ever, were becoming dangerous with thrown water bottles and orange peels making the road extremely slippery. It was a very different experience to the last miles of the London Marathon! By now, I just wanted the race to be over

My strategy by now was to run-walk to the end. Listening to music and messaging my sister helped me through, but I felt disappointed with how the race had gone. It felt like my training for the sub-4 hadn’t paid off. I put that time goal out my mind and tried to enjoy what was left of the race.

At the 26-mile sign, we turned a corner and were suddenly opened to loads of spectators. And the end in sight!! I ran the last several hundred metres and finished in 4:57. Not the sub-4 hour I had hoped, or trained for, but I was relieved the marathon was over!

The Marathon Aftermath

After crossing the finish line, I hobbled my way through the finish funnel. Collecting my goody bag, medal, my bag and then onto finding my sister amongst the crowds. The race gave out free Paris Marathon themed ponchos too – great for post-race warmth and as a memento. Bodies were sprawled across the floor as people refuelled on the free fruit and water that was handed out at the end.

After finding my sister, we went in search of some much-needed pizza! My legs were killing me but they improved significantly after putting on leg compression sleeves. I’m a huge advocate for using compression socks and leg sleeves on after any long distance. I found they definitely make a difference to recovery! Later that afternoon, we caught the Eurostar back to London. Although it made the day long, I was glad to be sleeping in my own bed that night.

Although I’m happy to have experienced the Paris marathon, I don’t think I would do it again. I found the admin before the marathon (e.g. the medical certificate) was a lot of effort. Particularly in comparison to other large marathon races. I also felt that parts of the day were disorganised and I disliked aspects of the course. The park area towards the end was especially boring to get through. Having said that, I would recommend this race to people wanting to experience a large marathon, with fairly easy entry. Races like the London or Berlin Marathon, are so hard to get into, so this is a great European alternative. The crowds were also pretty good!

Well done to everyone else who finished this 2016 race – it was a hot one!