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Latest reviews by Phil
(2016)
"Great organization and great locale but CROWDED"
Overall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management
First, let me say that the 2016 Paris Marathon was not my best marathon. My goal pre-race was to BQ (3h 37m) and that’s what the pace band on my wrist spelled out. Although I was within one minute of my target time at the 1/2 marathon mark, by mile 15 I’d come to grips that a BQ was not in the cards and my new goal was to finish in less than 4 hours and not embarrass myself. By mile 21, my new, new goal was to finish before I collapsed into a quivering blob of protoplasm on the side of the road. My point is that this race report might be slightly biased.
The Good:
The Paris Marathon has been on my bucket list ever since I lived in France as an expat seven years ago. I was registered in 2014, but couldn’t run due to an injury. This year the stars finally aligned: I was registered, I was healthy, and I was in Paris at the right time.
It's the largest marathon that I’ve run and the second largest marathon in the world. This year — the 40th anniversary — there were 57,000 entrants, 43,317 starters, and 41,708 finishers.
I thought the race was very well organized. The Expo (which is enormous — bigger than Boston’s, it seemed) was open for three days. I went to the Expo the first day it opened (Thursday) and the crowds were quite manageable. I’ve heard it’s a zoo by Saturday, though, and I believe it. Barriers had already been set up at the entrance of the Salle de Running anticipating long queues just to get into the building.
All races in France require athletes to have a doctor’s written permission to enter. There’s a blank form on the Paris Marathon website which basically says, in French, “It’s no skin off my butt if so-and-so runs a marathon.” I printed the blank, faxed it to my physician who signed it, and faxed it back.
There’s a box on the form for a “doctor’s stamp”. I imagined something like a fancy embossed seal with a caduceus in the middle surrounded by the Latin phrase for “In medical insurance we trust”. My doctor used his rubber ink stamp for his office’s mailing address. (Shrug.)
Once in the Expo I took my medical certificate to the first row of tables where a volunteer accepted it. Neither he nor I said anything about the sad state of medical stamping in the US. He checked off the “medical certificate” box on my entry form and I moved to the next set of tables to collect my bib.
Once I had my bib and runner’s swag I went to find my name on the Wall. Then I wandered the booths.
You can read the rest of the race report at: http://www.graphmyrun.com/blog/paris-marathon-race-report.html
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Phil recommends this race
(2016)
"2016 Boston Marathon Race Report"
Overall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management
Spoiler alert: I didn’t BQ at the Boston Marathon this year.
Which is a pity. Because now I have to find another marathon to BQ before September…* And I'm already committed for an Ironman at the end of July and a 234 mile relay race in August. So my training calendar is pretty full… But, hey, this isn’t a blog about me, it’s a blog about the Boston Marathon so let’s get on with it.
Hotel rooms are outrageous in Boston during marathon weekend (something about “supply and demand”) so I booked a single night at the airport Hilton. I drove into town on Sunday, checked in, and immediately hopped the T from the airport to Bolyston Street. I beelined to the Expo to grab my race packet. I found my name on the wall of runners (unlike the Paris Marathon, the race organizers at Boston use strict alphabetical ordering on their wall of runners) and then strolled the aisles of the Expo.
I bought a t-shirt and an obligatory Boston Marathon Celebration Jacket. This year’s colors were mint green and black. (Last year’s were blue and some weird, pseudo-fluorescent orange/pink. This year’s jacket wins the color wars.)
Then I wandered around looking for a different knee strap (oh, the joys of patellar tendonitis) and a new race belt. I upgraded my iPhone a couple of months ago and getting the slightly larger size phone in and out of my race belt while running is like wrestling an alligator while walking a tight rope — only less elegant. I found the belt easily enough but never got the knee strap. I suppose it’s that pesky “supply and demand” thing again. Apparently, the runners who show up at the Boston Marathon Expo are all injury-free.
I popped into a pub on the way back the T station for lunch. It was jammed with marathoners and their entourages which was all the recommendation that I needed. On my way back to the hotel, I timed myself: about 1 hour from downtown to the hotel doors.
I woke up around 5:30 on Monday, well before my alarm was set to go off. Clearly it was pre-race nerves. Instead of trying to go back to sleep, I got up leisurely, ate my Clif bar breakfast and had a cup of coffee. Then I packed up my stuff, put on my cowboy hat, and checked out of the hotel. I left my bags with the bell cap. I took the hotel shuttle to the T and the subway to Bolyston Street.
By 7:15 I was standing at the school buses to Hopkinton. In theory, I was supposed to wait until 7:30 to board the buses (I was in Wave 3), but there were no lines so I got on with everyone else.
I realize that it's a small detail, but in case you’d missed it, school children have shorter legs than adults. The benches on a school bus are wedged together a little close for comfort...
To read the rest of the review and see some photos, click on this link: http://www.graphmyrun.com/blog/boston-marathon-race-report.html