An Ottawa grandmother. Three running friends from New Brunswick. A Radio-Canada Saskatchewan presenter.
These are just some of the Canadians who will be running the Paris 2024 Marathon Pour Tous or Marathon For All, the first-ever Olympic event open to the general public. The 42.2 kilometre mass participation marathon on Aug. 10 will follow the same route as this year’s Olympic marathon — but the runners will race at night.
The Olympic organizers say this will allow “the best running conditions for all runners.”
“I hope I won’t be too sleepy,” laughed Kitdapawn E from outside Bern, Switzerland, where she’s taking a few quiet days away from the bustling Olympic atmosphere before returning to Paris.
The 65-year-old runner from Ottawa has a 10 p.m. start time for the marathon. Given that her best time is around four hours and 15 minutes, and she didn’t have very long to train, she expects to be running overnight. But that’s OK, she says, because the city will be lit up and she’ll have more than 20,000 other runners to keep her company.
“I’m just going to soak in every minute,” she told CBC News. “My grandchildren are still young, but someday they’ll be able to say, ‘My grandmother was a lottery Olympian.’ “
There are 20,024 runners competing, a deliberate number representing the 2024 Olympics. About 100 of them are Canadian, according to Running Magazine. An additional 20,024 runners were selected for a 10K race open to people age 16 and up, on the same night, through the heart of Paris.
Aurélie Merle, the executive sports director for Paris 2024, says the marathon route linking Paris and Versailles will be an “absolutely exceptional experience.”
“If running a marathon was already an experience, running on the same course as the Olympic athletes, on the same day and in a magnificent setting and at night, promises to be a great adventure,” she said in an April news release.
Luan Yushuai, a 39-year- old courier from China, ran his first marathon on a whim after his boss suggested he give it a shot. Now he’s in Paris, where he’ll join thousands of other runners — including Canadians — in a night-time race on the Olympic course.
Beyond bucket list
Marathon runners earned their bibs by completing online challenges over the past few years to get entered in a lottery. So, while the marathon bills itself as being “for all,” it’s mostly serious runners and marathoners who are up to the challenge.
Like Amanda Sirois, originally from Riverview, N.B., who recently told Running Magazine she completed over 60 challenges to earn her spot.
According to the magazine, Sirois, who now lives in Whitby, Ont., is a six-star finisher — someone who has completed all six major world marathons (Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, New York and Tokyo).
She and two other running friends from New Brunswick will be running on Aug. 10, she said.
“When people find out what I’m training for, they get really excited for me,” Sirois said in the July 16 article. “I feel some pressure, but I want to take everything in and see all the light shows and monuments on the course.”
Vincent Pichard, a Radio-Canada Saskatchewan host, was also selected. This will be his 11th marathon,
He recently told Radio-Canada Saskatchewan he’s not aiming for a certain time, but plans to “live the experience.”
Susan Ibach, 54, who lives just outside Ottawa in Manotick, says it’s surreal to her that she’ll soon be running the same course as the Olympic marathon runners, a few hours after the male athletes run it on Aug. 10 and a few hours before the women take to the start line the next day.
“It’s not even bucket list because it’s not something I ever thought I could do,” Ibach told CBC News.
Ibach has run “just over” 20 marathons, including the Tokyo Marathon in March, and laughs that she’s at the point she doesn’t know the exact number. She says her parents ran marathons, her sister runs, and she grew up running.
“I was doomed to run from a young age,” she said.
Rooted in origins from ancient Greece, the Olympic marathon experienced a quirky turn of events at London 1908 when the demands of a monarch changed the race’s official distance from 40 km to 42.2 km.
‘One more’
E, the Ottawa runner, is also a six-star finisher. She’s completed 16 marathons since she took up running at the age of 40 as a way to get in shape and stay healthy after giving birth to her three children.
“I haven’t stopped since,” she said.
She recently ran the 2021 London Marathon, which she finished in four hours and 15 minutes, and then tucked in a “few more” Boston marathons. She decided her 2023 Boston Marathon, which she finished in four hours and 49 minutes, would be her last.
But then, she says, she heard about the Marathon Pour Tous.
“I said, ‘OK, one more.’ “
She says she’d been completing the Paris Marathon challenges since then, and thought she’d missed her window of opportunity when she still hadn’t heard anything by May. Then, in June, she got an e-mail saying a spot was hers if she wanted it.
“There are just no words to describe it,” she said of her excitement.
She’s checked out the course in Paris, tried some of the hills on the route, and basked in the excitement of the Olympics. Now, she’s travelling with her husband to rest up a bit (although she’s still training) before she returns to Paris next Wednesday to prepare for her Saturday night run.
It’s going to be a tough course, with a 436-metre climb and 438-metre descent. E says she knows people will see her age and wonder if she’s up to it, but she says she’s proud to be a senior. Her only goal is to finish, so she can add another finisher medal to her collection.
Unlike the official Olympic events, the Marathon Pour Tous will have medals for all finishers.
When asked if she feels like an Olympian, E didn’t hesitate.
“Definitely.”
