Paris Marathon Course

Any thoughts?

Hello, living in Paris area, ran the marathon once

The race is around 40 000 participants; there are SAS organized by level (you need to prove your performance for 3 hrs and less; over 3 hours is declarative). Beware that there are long security checks to join your SAS on race day

One problem is that there are tons of invitees and these start from the "preferential sas" which is just behind elites'. So most of these invitees will start ridiculously slowly and be in your way in the early kms

The course is mostly flat. It has mostly four parts: you start from Champs Elysées and go east during about 10 kms (streets are wide so passing other runners is not difficult). Then you have a loop in the (eastern) wood (on road) (Bois de Vincennes) then back in town (west direction) where you follow the Seine river and a loop in the western wood (Bois de Boulogne) and finish

a few things to know

- distance is indicated at every km and at every mile

- 1st kms is slightly downhill. EVERYBODY starts too fast

- around 25-ish km, there are portions under bridges (so down and up) not so pleasant for legs at this time

- the bois de Boulogne loop (10 kms) is very long: long straight roads with few people watching and cheering: mentally tough

- the stations are really crowded but they also are very long: don't shot for the first tables, keep running and take fluids or food at the end of these and you'll be fine. You may decide to skip the first one which is very very crowded (I ran the first 5 kms with a little bottle to skip it then stopped normally at all other stations)

check weather forecast, can be warm by the end of the race

Hope this helps