Race report for Paris Marathon from Stephan Bernhard

It has been 22 years since I’ve run my last marathon and I managed to register to Paris marathon 2024. After a good winter preparation, I was pretty confident and relax the D day. Weather was perfect, cloudy and air temperature around 15C. 55000 starters at Champs Élysée Avenue, the start was done as a rolling start by waves of some hundreds of runners. As the avenue is wide and going slightly downhill, very easy to start at the right pace.

My objective was 3h30, so I started at a 4:50-4:55 pace. Heart rate was slightly higher than what was expected but the feeling and breathing was good so kept going on. Fueling strategy was eating every 40min, alternance of sweet (maurten gels) and salt (bits of baked potatoes), plus drinking 20-30cl of water at each fuel station (every 5km).

I’ve maintained the pace until km28 when the legs have started to become heavier. I’ve still managed to maintain a descent pace, never stopped running up to the end. Race has become really hard between km35 and 40, due to a couple of uphill – downhills. The last 2 km were really amazing as you’re pushed by the crowd up to the finish line.

Final time was 3:36, PB smashed. Very happy with my race, especially as Paris is known as a difficult race (especially the second part). I definitely recommend this race it as the scenery is absolutely beautiful.