Notes
A great experience! Awesome course.
Put this one on your to-do list. It's a great excuse, if you need one, to visit Paris and it's a place that spouses seem willing to go along to.
The start and finish are virtually in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs Elysee, the course passes many impressive monuments and has nice stretches through parks and along the Seine. And, if you think it's a thrill to catch sight of the Pru in the final miles of Boston, how about rounding a curve of the Seine and beholding the Eiffel Tower at mile 19 or so?
The organization was pretty good. Of course they ran out of pins and size M shirts by Sat afternoon at the expo, but there were no long lines, and I managed to pick up my packet fairly effortlessly, even though I forgot to bring my confirmation card. One weakness was the lack of energy drinks, except at two locations and I never saw them. On the other hand they hand out water in bottles - probably 6-8 oz. The downside of this is that many runners simply drop whatever they are finished with at their feet, so the water stations become a hazard of empty or half-empty bottles, banana peels, etc.
The course is very flat and apparently fast for the earliest starters - it leads all marathons in sub-3:00 times - but the many turns in the course, some very tight, and the congestion at water stations, makes it hard to run a consistent pace. This is one to run for fun and not for a PR or BQ. The weather/climate seems very similar to Philadelphia/Boston in April. Race day started out in the high 30's and got to the mid to upper 40's but no wind and some sun.
My time was 1:35:55, within my range of success. I was hurting in the last two miles but managed to slow down by only 35 - 45 seconds off my 8:00 target pace.
If you are really interested, you can go to
http://www.parismarathon.com/marathon/2008/us/classementsMDP.php?chercher=oui&course=MDP&annee=2008&dossard=7735&submit=Rechercher
scroll down to my name and click on the video icon to see a video of me (and many others) crossing the finish line. Watch the clock on the left for the time to get to 1:39:26, and I appear also on the left. There are also videos of other parts of the race to get an idea of the course and the crowd.
To Tom Y: It is a very crowded race. I don't think I've ever seen as much jostling for position well into a race. The congestion is a problem at turns when the whole pack slows down, and there are a lot of turns, especially in the last few miles, when you're desperately trying to hold on to a certain pace and you're forced to slow down.
I started out in the corral ahead of the 3:30 pace group, because of my previous time, and I figured they would probably catch me at some point, which they did at mile 10. At that point I was about 2 minutes behind, so I tried to stay with the pacers, but my first mile with them was 7:43, so I eased back again. By mile 22, I was still only about 2:30 minutes behind, but I lost another few minutes in the last 4 miles.
All in all, I was pretty satisfied, given the less than optimal training, and I enjoyed the run. The results online have been a little weird. The splits were there briefly but now have diappeared.