Paris Marathon 2010

Today is the Paris Marathon, which means a little chaos in the streets as nearly 40,000 runners take way as they meander through Paris.  Fortunately, this year the run started earlier (8:45 am) which means that the stragglers should finish and the streets should open up by 2:30.  The run offers a great visual course of the city, from the Champs Elysées, the Louvre, to Bastille, in the Bois de Vincennes, past Notre Dame, next to the Jardins des Tuileries, the Musée d’Orsay, the Eiffel Tower, Avenue Foch, the Bois de Boulogne, finishing at Porte Dauphine near Jardin du Ranelagh.

If past marathons are a guide, runners will be treated with an enthusiastic crowd, musicians, African drummers, bands and lots of cheers.  A couple of years ago I did 21 miles of the Paris Marathon for a long Sunday run (I was not registered, as you need to register as much as six months in advance), and remember a Moroccan woman whooping it up by yelling “bon courage†and yoddling with that Moroccan call (a back of the tongue yodel).  As today is warm and sunny, it is a perfect venue for watching and a good temperature (not too hot or cold).

With participants from nearly 100 countries, it is truly an  international marathon that attracts some of the best runners in the world.