Marathon Pour Tous 10k

I ran Marathon Pour Tous 10k, a nightime run for the general public organized by Paris 2024 during the Olympics. It was a cool experience, but a tough run battling the heat and tiredness.

A sleepy finisher.

Why Marathon Pour Tous 10k

I first head about the Marathon Pour Tous (Marathon For All) in autumn 2022 on the Runner's World website and was immediately intrigued.

The Paris Olympics were going to host a marathon open to the general public on the same course the Olympics athletes would run. 

That sounded like such a cool and once-in-a-lifetime experience. When I read the article originally, I had just run the Yorkshire Marathon, where I got a great time, and was keen to find my next marathon to run. 

While two years away at this point, I figured I might as well take a chance at trying to get a spot in this run. The way to enter it? I had to download an app and participate in running challenges each month, which were logged through the app.

Each challenge said it was associated with a certain number of places to give away for the run. I was under the impression I'd be informed after the challenge deadline finished if I got a place. I did every challenge that was feasible from the end of 2022 to summer 2023, and I never got informed about getting a place.

I began to think the whole thing was a bit of a sham just trying to get my personal data. Then the app had some tech issues in summer 2023 where I couldn't log in anymore, so I stopped using it entirely after the issue persisted a few days.

Fast forward to the end of April this year when I was shocked to received an email to say I got a place in the Marathon Pour Tous. By this point, I had run my third marathon at Loch Ness the previous October, which was a terrible experience that put me off running marathons. 

I wasn't looking to run another 26.2 miles in 2024, but here was the chance to run this unique event. I was torn about what to do. I called every person in my family and talked to coworkers, asking for advice.

On the one hand, I didn't want to run a marathon. By this point, I had learned the marathon would be run in the middle of the night and the route was hilly. I had also gotten the email about my place 15 weeks before the run - if I knew I was doing this run beforehand, I would have already started training by this point. It wasn't ideal conditions for running a marathon, when I didn't want to run one in the first place.

On the other hand, I still saw this as a super-cool, once-in-a-lifetime event. How could I miss out on that?

While debating what to do, I saw on the Marathon Pour Tous website that there was also a 10k run happening alongside the marathon. On the advice of a coworker, I asked the organizers whether I could change my place to the 10k, and they said that was fine. A 10k felt much more appealing to me. I wouldn't have to train, and I could still get my Paris Olympics run experience. 

I accepted my place and made the switch to the 10k. I was going to Paris. 

The journey

I flew to Paris and was there less than 24 hours. When I got the place in the run, I had already booked a holiday to the US the week after, so I wasn't looking to stay long or make a trip out of it. 

No real excitement to report about the flight. I guess I was lucky that during the busiest month in Edinburgh, my flight to another busy city was relatively on time. 

I also got my first ever stamp in my British passport, which is exciting.

I traveled into Paris from the airport by train, which I was surprised wasn’t air conditioned. Even UK trains get cool air! It was a hot day in Paris (85F), so it felt like the longest and warmest journey, sitting in a seat with the sun shining on me. I had to put sunscreen on during the train ride.

The walk to get my bib

It was late afternoon when I got into Paris, so I didn’t have time to do anything other than walk an hour to pick up my bib for the race.

When I got off the train, I picked the closest exit I saw, not really paying attention to where it would take me.

I was delighted to find myself greeted by a beautiful view of Notre-Dame as soon as I got above ground.

Greeted by Notre-Dame.

I was originally going to walk along the Seine the whole way, but then Google Maps highlighted a gelato place near by and I desperately wanted something to cool down.

It was 6€ for a medium. Sacre bleu! At least it was refreshing.

Gelato time.

My gelato detour led to me walking through Saint Germain instead of the riverside route.

Having just eaten ice cream, I was now craving something savory and walked part Maison Georges Larnicol, which I remembered from my last trip to Paris. They make these amazing buttery pastries called kouignettes which I loved so much, I even went to their store in Bath in 2019 when I was there for a race.

So I got three of their savory flavors to hold me over until I got dinner. 

Savory pastry time.

Most of the walk ended up being quiet. The only time I hit crowds was close to where I picked up my bib.

My route took me past the Hôtel des Invalides where the race would later finish. 

Near where I would later finish the run.

Not long after, I got my first view of the Eiffel Tower and could see the Olympic rings on it.

I spy the Eiffel Tower.

I finally got to the area to get my run bib, which involved an identity and security check to get through.

It was a well-organized pick-up with plenty of room for people to wander and no queues.

Unexpected Eiffel Tower view from the bib collection.

I got my bib number, where they again asked for identification. I used my US passport because I only had American nationality when I registered interest in the event. The person who gave me my bib asked if I really traveled all this way to run, and I confessed it was only Scotland I traveled from.

Got my bib.

I finally had a walk around the Seine after leaving the event area.

I got better views of the Olympic rings on the Eiffel Tower and could see some of the Olympic stadiums that were in front of and behind the tower.

Olympic Eiffel.

Some game going on.

I strolled all the way to Champs-Élysées before finally getting a train to my accommodation. I’m very lucky (and grateful!) to have family members near Paris who let me stay at theirs. 

Pastries for dinner

I wasn’t super hungry when I got out of Paris, and there’s a fantastic boulangerie near my family’s house, so it was pastries for dinner as it was for lunch. Gotta make the most of such a short visit, you see. 

I had a spinach and goats cheese tart and a pain au chocolat for dessert. The spinach in the tart was so tasty, and dear lord, I love how buttery the pain au chocolat was.

Pastry dinner and dessert.

I then decided to rest before going back out to the run.

The run

The long wait to start

I headed out just before 11pm for the run. I had an 12:20am start time.

The convergence of the runners I sometimes remark about at races didn’t happen until I connected onto a metro line. That’s when I started to see many runners in bibs. 

After spending the afternoon navigating on my own, I relished the opportunity to blindly follow other runners out of the station who I assumed knew where they were going.

Following other runners to the start.

Luckily, I ended up at the right place at my exact start pen. I took the opportunity to ask a stranger for a photo, and I returned the favor. However, I felt like such an old lady because I couldn’t get his phone out of selfie mode and had to ask him how to do it (there was some weird dot in the way I had to move - I know what the camera flip button looks like, for the record!).

USA runner has arrived.

They were very strict about admitting runners into the pen and would only let you in if your bib showed the correct one. Sadly this meant I couldn’t sneak into an earlier one as I would have really loved to start any earlier than the much too late time of 12:20am!

I was early getting to the pen, which just meant a long wait.

The toilet queue was inside the pen and was absolutely ridiculous even over an hour before the start. Thankfully, I didn’t need it, though it would have been a way to pass the time. 

A very long toilet queue I didn't join.

Because for over an hour I was just standing. Lots of other people were sitting, which I’ve never seen in a holding pen before. 

Runners sitting as we wait to start.

The music they were playing was the worst for the longest time. Things only picked up when ‘I Got a Feeling’ by Black Eyes Peas started playing, and everyone genuinely looked more energized by this compared with the boring house music they were spewing out before. 

We only really started moving forward at 11:55pm which was when the pen closed (another new thing, pens closing!).

It then became a gradual stop and start of walking to the actual start.

Along the way, some enthusiastic French people led us through some warm-ups. I did them but tried to not do them so intensely seeing as I had done a lot of walking already during the day and it was way past my bedtime. The biggest challenge in this run would be battling fatigue. 

Wave and warm-up time.

The start was in front of Hôtel de Ville which was lit up and said Paris 2024 on it. We were finally ready to go. 

Blue Hôtel de Ville.

Running Paris at night

I didn’t want to slow myself down any during this late run, so sorry to say no pictures of what I’m about to say. 

However, I did find a good recap of the race from one of the marathon runners on YouTube that shows a lot of the things I'm about to mention (with a few more because I can see some extra funky things along the marathon route in the video).

The first few seconds of the race had this pretty cool music and video display to get us started on our journey.

I was pleasantly surprised by how spaced out all the runners were at such a big race, but then only .18 miles in we hit an annoying bottleneck where everyone started walking. Thankfully, this was the only one of the race.

The route took us through the city and was all of it was lit up throughout. My top highlights were passing the Louvre pyramid all lit up, the majestic Olympic flame burning bright, and the Eiffel Tower sparkling for us runners.

I also learned just how enthusiastic and noisy French crowds are. I was pleasantly surprised there were crowds all along the route, even at such a late hour. French fans love a good chant and every second of this run was a crowd member doing some chant or cheer. I guess the done thing at French races is for people to cheer you on with ‘allez’ (go) to the same rhythm English speakers would chant ‘defense’. 

It was also nice to see people from around the world along the route, holding their country’s flag just as they would cheering on Olympians.

Even fellow runners were decked out in their country’s flags, so I wasn’t the odd one out this race wearing an American flag out. In fact, just before the start I came upon other USA flag runners in the same start pen as me. 

While my first 3 miles were under 10 minutes each, I started flagging the second half of the race. The heat and tiredness were getting to me. I didn’t care how fast I ran, I just needed to run fast enough so I could finish soon, but slow enough that I didn’t wear myself out.

I regret not bringing my own water bottle because I really needed it with how warm it was, though there were two water stops on the run. Actually, I think there was only one for 10k runners, but some of the volunteers at a water stop for the marathoners at our mile 5 were giving out cups to the 10k runners. Thank you to those heroes. 

The finish was pretty epic at Invalides with stands either side for spectators.

Happy to have finished.

I finished with a time of 1:03:46 (at least according to my watch), which might be my slowest road race time, but I don’t care. It was all about the experience.

Getting back

The real test of this run was getting back to my accommodation. First, I had to deal with the slowest procession out of the race area. It felt like we were walking forever until we got a medal.

The back of the medal.

And then it was another long walk to get…a cup. That was an unexpected keepsake, but I was desperately craving water at this point. Another long walk to the longest queue for water. They had volunteers filling up the cups we just took. Serving everyone individually took way longer than just leaving out a bunch of filled cups.

Cup keepsake from the race.

It was then another long, slow walk to get to the feeding station. I didn’t think I’d need this after a 10k at night, but I did find myself pretty hungry. In addition to fruit which I’d expect at a race, there were also slices of cake, so I of course opted for a marble cake slice. 

Finally I was out of the race area and then had a 10-minute walk to the metro station. I expected it to be overcrowded but it was actually okay. I managed to get a seat on the train.

Unfortunately, the train line to where I was staying wasn’t staying open late for the run, so I got as far as a 30 minute walk away from my accommodation.

Never was I so glad to end a walk than when I finally got back from this run at 3am. Returning from the 10k took longer than the run itself.

After a quick shower, it was lights out and an alarm set for 7am to conclude my whirlwind, 21-hour trip to Paris. Needless to say, I was thoroughly exhausted when I woke up. 

I made a final boulangerie stop to get a pain au chocolat for my breakfast and croissants for me, my partner, and his family to have back in Edinburgh. It was only when I got to Edinburgh I realized they had given me 1 croissant and 4 pain au chocolat when I asked for 4 croissants and 1 pain au chocolat.

Lacking sleep and speaking French didn't mix well for me. My priority mission for the next time I'm in Paris will be to get the croissant I didn't get to eat this time.

Run reflections

People make the experience of running better

Not going to lie, as unique and cool an opportunity this race was, I did not care for traveling on my own to do it. I did feel a sense of loneliness during the trip and race. This wasn't helped by the fact that I did not feel comfortable chatting to strangers at the start because all the people around me were speaking French.

I wish I had seen the runners in USA flag gear earlier as it would have been nice to pass the long wait for the start making small talk with other runners.

That said, the crowd support was a big boost during the run, so the locals and tourists alike played a major part in making this run the cool experience that it was. 

I said my running goal for this year was to run with people unless it was an interesting run I was happy to do solo. I think Marathon Pour Tous highlighted for me that even the interesting runs benefit from being more social or having supporters there.

Midnight is a terrible time to run

While this was definitely one of my hottest runs, I've done hotter runs with the sun out while in the US, but this one was by far the most exhausting. I think that has to do with the late start time.

I like a night run, but running past the time I would normally go to bed is not ideal. I did a midnight 5k on New Year's 2020 (just for fun) and managed that okay, but a 10k at 20 past midnight in the heat, no, thanks. I feel very happy about the fact I did not do the marathon in the end because I honestly don't know if I would have completed it.

So if I see another race that looks cool but it's in the middle of the night, I'm going to have to pass. 

Next race

Giants Foundation 5k

I’m planning on doing a 5k at MetLife Stadium while visiting family.