So, Paris second time around - was it any better? Hmmm.... undecided. It was quicker - but only just. The weather was boiling once again (I don't understand why they don't start the event a little earlier; the elites don't start till well after the London start time and the last wave - ie me - don't get to start until 10:00 am). Running down the Champs d'Elysee is amazing, it is a brilliant start. Very unlike London runs though in that peope are allowed into the middle of the road to take pictures of their nearest and dearest - and then, when they have the picture they want, they walk across the track to get back to the path (across the flow of the runners!) The first half was done in unrelenting sunshine and out in the bois de Vincennes there is no shade whatsoever, so with the heat reflecting back off the tarmac, it is really draining, especially when all our training was done in cold and damp!
The run didn't go to plan as I managed to loose my friends and then spent ages either trying to catch up with them or waiting for them once I realised they were behind me! We had a strategy to run/walk the second half and that started really well, but as cloud cover came over, it got really humid. My friends were uncomfortable at the run pace, so we decided to split up with me running ahead - but without them I did find it much harder to be motivated to run all the run sections (bad discipline on my part - mainly as a result of not preparing enough this year. Must do better!). The Bois de Bologne is not my favourite part of the run. The little loop in it somehow makes it feel unrelenting (and again, random pedestrians crossing in front of you doesn't help). I saw one young girl accepting a lift on a bicycle... (really, I don't understand at all why you would bother doing something like this - who are you cheating but yourself?). 1km from the end, I met a friend who was there to support us and she ran part of the way with me, which gave me a bit of a pep-up and at least allowed me to finish with a bit of a run rather than walk across the line! Then everything went rapidly down hill.
First the t-shirts... of course they had run out of the size I wanted (why bother asking what sizes we need, when they take no notice of this when handing them out at the finish?). I'm pretty used to this, though. It happens a lot (but stays annoying!). Worse was to come. Having failed to get a finishers shirt I could wear, I joined the queue to collect my medal (why was there a queue? Even my run addled brain was thinking this was a bit odd). There was no medal. They had run out. Let me say that again ... THEY RAN OUT OF MEDALS!!!!! How could a major event like this run out of medals?
The queue was because they were writing down the numbers of the finishers so that we could have medals posted to us later. I was in the queue next to someone from Mexico - it was their first trip to Europe and they desperately wanted to have their picture taken in front of the Arc de Triumph with their medal. Getting one posted to them once they were home was not going to help out with that! There were after events planned too, where finishers would receive discounts on production of their medal... It just made me furious and devalued the whole run for me. I still can't believe that they did this. HOW COULD THEY RUN OUT OF MEDALS! There were some 500 hundred finishers after me and pages of numbers already listed by the time I had my number taken. I just don't understand how they could have got things so wrong (it's not as if they didn't know how many people were running!). It must be cheaper to have a few thousand left over than to have to post a thousand out worldwide to the finishers that missed out. Poor show all round.
I'm not sure now that I would ever want to do this run again
Maybe next year we'll just have a long weekend sightseeing...
Written by
agedsnailspace
Marathon
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Sounds like a potentially nice run around one of the most iconic places in the world, spoiled by bad organisation. I would have been gutted if I had done all of that to find no medal at the end. Dounts would now cross my mind as to whether they are actually going to get organised enough after the event to get all those medals delivered.
Somone forgot to add another nought on the order form by the sounds of things.
Sorry to hear about this. Having participated in one smaller race in Paris and having experienced something similar with T-shirts (there were no medals for that race), it makes me really doubt French race organization. And yet they make you produce a medical certificate... I guess I won't be signing up for any Paris races in a hurry.
I hope they actually manage to send you your medal!
Oh that’s so disappointing and maddening ! A runner getting a lift on a bike 😱
You do have to wonder at the organisation 🤷♀️
You did it though so well done indeed! 😃💪🙂👍 Choose a different one next year where there is greater consideration shown to the actual runners, who pay for the thing when all said and done
Firstly - huge congratulations on completing a marathon (again!) - that is amazing and especially given the humidity which must have made it so much tougher! BUT - NO MEDALS for so many is absolutely awful and as you so rightly say, will have soured what should have been a lifetimes high for so many. 😯😫😭. This also happened at the Bathhalf last year and although I was lucky to have got mine, there were plenty very disgruntled and tearful runners who had to go home without. Random people wandering in the road would also have driven me mad and is dangerous too. I hope to run a marathon one day but shall cross this one off my list! Well done to you though - hope you are recovering well and that your hard earned bling arrives very soon! 🙂
Congratulations on finishing what sounds like a tough run at the best of times. Organisation sounds dreadful. I know that thing about the t-shirt sizes!! They must have known before race day they didn't have enough medals. The London Winter Run earlier this year, the medals all got held up at customs. They let us know in advance and actually gave out very acceptable replacements with the proper ones arriving some weeks later. Lack of respect for the effort people had put in to train for the event I think. Hope it doesn't take the shine of what you ppersonally achieved.
Huge congratulations on your marathon finish. It sounded a tough enough without the organisation to contend with!No words for the organisation of it all😮😬😡. where was the respect for the entrants? Definitely one off the list should I survive York.
Congratulations again.
Congratulations! Such a shame about the poor organisation. I have also heard elsewhere that they ran out of water and many runners succumbed to dehydration. Hopefully your well deserved medal will be with you soon.
Congratulations! I can’t fathom running through the streets of Paris! Sounds like an adventure. I am a bit floored at the poor organization though. That is really just plain wrong. I hope you get your medal soon and post plenty of pics of it here.
But how awful for all the organisational failures! I think letting people onto the course to take photos is a really bad idea. Running out of the right t-shirts - well, that's relatively common I suppose, but it's still very poor. But running out of medals? At such an event? Absolutely disgraceful! What a shambles. Not that I would ever sign up for a marathon, but this one would definitely be off my list
I am so sorry it wasn't a great experience but well done on getting through it all the same. As I think I mentioned, my friend participated - it was her fourth Paris marathon and her first ever no-finish, so there's something of the feeling it was cursed this year.
How nonsensical to accept a lift on a bike?!
And poor show re medals, especially for those who have travelled far to participate. Pretty poor show really.
So sorry for your friend in not finishing - hope they are okay. We had a friend running a marathon for the first time who was denied finishing through the finish arch as they were 'too slow' - they were diverted down the side of the arch instead. I think I would have been even more gutted if that had been the case!
Even worse than the bike - apparently it's known that more than a few people hopped onto the metro for a few stops; how awful is that!
congratulations on completing the Paris marathon! But how horrible that your experience was so demoralising, and in particular that there were NO medals! Unbelievable.
And really why oh why would anyone get a lift or go in the metro?? Ridiculous!
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