Paris Marathon 2012, Kilometer 1, with Sarah

Sarah - Place du Canada

6:56 AM - Sarah from Canada, who works and lives with her family in the Bahamas, has already run several marathons. We went to visit Paris by running on a circuit of a dozen kilometers. Several times, our road crossed the path of the very next marathon of Paris (April 15th), which allowed us to share our experiences of marathon runners. Sarah evoked the magnificent marathon of Nassau, Bahamas, along the sea.

Going up to the Chaillot hill, we crossed the Palais de Tokyo, contemporary art museum.
Above the entrance is a huge countdown. But what does it count?
The artist, Gianni Motti, the creator of this digital clock, appropriates one of the biggest future natural disasters: his "Big Crunch Clock" is the detonator activated "to provoke" the explosion of the sun (planned in 5 billion years by the scientists). This clock deducts the time by tenth of seconds to trigger the 5 billion years "scheduled to trigger the explosion."

Entrance of the "Palais de Tokyo" - Contemporary Art Museum - "Big Crunch Clock" Gianni Motti

But let us return to the marathon. By way of the Champs Elysées, we noticed that the kilometric marks on the ground were already there, for example, the kilometer 1 at the bottom of the magnificent avenue, little before reaching the place de la Concorde:

Paris Marathon 2012- Kilometer 1 - Champs-Elysées

The number which provokes so many feelings to the marathon runners is doubtless "42".
The kilometer 42 is also already indicated, as well as the arrival, a little less than 200 meters farther, in front of the Arc de Triomphe:

Paris Marathon 2012 - Kilometer 42 - Avenue Foch (and Mile 26 a little before)

Miles are indicated on the route as well such as the mile "26" which is for our English-speaking marathonian friends the "mythical" number (Marathon = 42.195 km or 26 miles and 386 yards).
Discover the marathon route here. 
We wish you a beautiful Paris Marathon!

Merci Sarah !

The route of the tour :