Paris 2024, Day 3-4: Marathon Pour Tous!

And we're off!

We were immediately greeted with very bright electronic displays with "GO!" on them, and very loud music. And TONS of people lining both sides of the course. Huge energy abounded.

My main goal for the race was to run to comfort and take as many photos and video as possible -- soak it all in.

Right around the 1km mark was my first. Despite the fact that we were about 4km on the route away from the Louvre, apparently the Mona Lisa decided to take a brief trip out of her protected area:

Round about 2km was the first musical act:

Around 3km was the one and only time during the trip that I saw the Garnier Opera House -- as there were no tours available on the dates that I had looked; dang it. And, of course, a chunk of the outside was covered up by race-related banners. I actually took a photo on each of the sides of the opera house, as we went around the whole thing. What surprised me here and many other places on the course is how many people would laugh when they saw me pausing on the side to take a photo.

A few blocks later, as we were approaching the next landmark, I asked someone running next to me what it was.

She had enough time to look it up quickly: Colonne Vendome -- a war memorial and Napoleon statue.

From there, we turned onto Rue de Rivoli, the road that borders the north side of the Jardin des Tuileries -- the gardens opposite the Louvre. OK, I know what to expect with the sharp turn in about 1km or so.

This is the closest I've been to the Olympic cauldron while "airborne." Lots of people lining the course were taking photos of the cauldron more so than watching the runners, at least at the time I was going by. I can't say that I blame them.

Shortly after this point, though, rather than continuing straight, we wound up turning left and making a wide turn around this large couple of blocks to go down Rue Saint-Honore (apparently a famous street for museums and chic stores) before turning to go through the archway into the Louvre. So much for knowing exactly how the course was going to proceed.

Shortly after crossing through the archway, on the Place du Carrousel in front of the Louvre was a view of the Olympic cauldron next to the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel to our right, and the Pyramid to our left. Alas, try as I might, I couldn't get an angle where the cauldron was visible through the Arc.

Shortly after the 5km marker was the first refreshment zone. Wow, what a different spread than I've ever seen before on a marathon course.

In short order, we came upon another musical act before our first good view of the Eiffel Tower on the other side of the Seine from where we were.

Then it was one of a couple of very atypical sights that I just *had* to get a shot of. The spectators were highly confused until I provided my explanation: "Hey, I'm a New Yorker!" which got a huge cheer.

We were then "treated" to one of the worst musical acts on course. Think of a stereotypical high school band, and then make it worse. Frankly, I found it even more painful than the rap music at the start line.

After all this, we were still only at 10km, just over an hour after setting off.

                                            

Now we were getting into a part of the course where there were fewer things that called out for taking a photo or video.

What self-respecting Trekker would pass up taking this photo?

Finally looking up what it actually is: Picard Surgelés is a French food company specializing in the manufacture and retail distribution of frozen products. It began as Les Glacières de Fontainebleau in 1906. Picard Surgelés has almost 900 retail stores in France. In 2014, French consumers voted Picard as their favorite brand. (Nice!)

Approaching Versailles in short order, there's a statue to General Pershing.

Half-way! The evil hill is not too far away.

And even at approximately 11:30pm, look at the size of the crowd - and how energized they are!

Here comes the hill! As I approached those arches, I actually thought that was going to be a downhill -- until I got even closer, and realized that was the beginning of the dread 10% incline. Thanks for marking it for us!

It wasn't far after this point that Eliud Kipchoge was a DNF about 15 hours earlier.

While I never expected him to podium in this Olympic marathon once they announced the course and we saw the profile, I never figured he'd be a DNF. Based on his performance at Boston, he's not someone who handles hills well. (Not casting stones, here; I'm not great with hills either.) This course felt like it had the Newton Hills transplanted from Boston's miles 17-21 to Paris' 17-21km, and then had it's evil 10% hill around 29km (not quite 18 miles in) -- truly brutal, and astonishing that any of the elites did as well as they did for a finishing time.

Long since back on the left bank, and finally back in eyesight of the Eiffel Tower.

How could I resist taking this shot? While I don't expect to ever have the opportunity to do this as a Top 3 overall finisher, it still felt great -- despite it being about 2 miles before the finish line.

Apparently no other marathon has ever run on the left bank passing directly by the Eiffel Tower. The Paris Marathon that takes place in April only passes by the Eiffel while on the right bank -- across the Seine.

I didn't have my own finisher photo, however my hotel roommate (the one on the left with the blue headband) did. When I was looking up my results on a website that scraped all the results to provide rankings by gun time, since MPT was purposefully not doing so, I noticed that Robert had finished three places (and three seconds) before me -- even though neither of us noticed each other at the time. So, he took a look at his finisher photo to see if I was in it, and, lo and behold, I was. Rather obscured by many other people, but definitely noticeable.

Here's the medal. Nice and simple, better than the standard Paris Marathon medal, from the few I've seen.

After I returned home and finally got back to work, one of my co-workers gave me some congratulatory artwork that one of her daughters had done for me. Apparently my Olympic exploits had come up in conversation, so she decided to put this together for me -- despite having never met me before. Very sweet.

What's more, prior to giving me the original, a color photocopy was made and passed around to many of the people in the office who then signed it with varied congratulatory messages. Wonderfully encouraging!