Amanda Kime's Staging Area

Overall, the Paris Marathon is a great race. The number of historical monuments and buildings you pass is amazing. This was my first time in Paris as well as my first time running this marathon.

On race day, I was in the last wave of 4:30 + runners. Our scheduled start time was at 11:10am. Volunteers would start portions of our corral every minute or so to space us out. I was near the front of the wave and started at 11:14am.

Aid stations along the course are spread out every 5k. Paris is becoming more sustainable so they give water bottles instead of cups of water. This helped me fill my handheld water bottle more easily. The food at stations were things like crackers, croissants, & bananas. Aid stations in the 2nd half of the race were running out of some of the food and bottles of water.

Support along the course is fairly good. My Airbnb host explained that it’s not as common in France for people to cheer for runners they don’t know. At the busier areas, some people did do this though. I believe this is slowly changing and I definitely appreciated their shouts of “Courage!”

Except for the start and finish areas (and some intersections), the course isn’t blocked off with tape or barriers. Spectators would crowd portions of the course, making it more narrow for runners. I think sometimes they thought the green “most direct route” line was the place they were to stand. Despite this, most of the roadways are wide and had enough room for all runners. I do hope they block off more of the course in the future. It was a pain when spectators and tourists would cross the course and impede runners.

There are elements of race production that can be improved, but overall, Paris Marathon is an excellent race and worth doing for the beauty of Paris. I would consider doing this race again.

This year’s half-marathon (2023) was my first time running the Flying Pig. I’d seen it recommended in magazines and online for years. It’s definitely a fun one! The crowd support and volunteers were excellent. The course was scenic with a good mix of a steady climb (miles 6-8) and downhills. I especially enjoyed running into Kentucky and back into Cincinnati.

Watching the races (5k, 10k, Flying Fur) on Saturday and walking around the festival in Smale Park was a lot of fun.

As other reviews mention, there was a thunderstorm for about 30 minutes of the race. While I appreciate that race organizers started the race on time to get runners out of the corrals, I wish they would have delayed the start instead and had us shelter in place before the start. Running over metal bridges with lightning was uncomfortable.

I had no clue a voluntary shelter in place notification had been given until AFTER I finished running.

One other suggestion, have volunteers in the “pig pens” (starting corrals) to indicate the start/ end of each corral.

Overall, an excellent race that I recommend for runners who want an overall fun experience and a scenic course. Thank you, Flying Pig team!