The Paris Marathon is developing into one of the World's premier marathons and after Paris 2003 the event moved into a new area with quality performances when the 1st four athletes went sub 2Hr 07.

The event has quite a tradition and was originally first run in July 1896, see below :

1896 : the first Paris marathon
On Sunday the 19th of July 1896, there was a big crowd at porte Maillot for the first French marathon, which brought together 191 participants. For this first French marathon, run over the 40 km separating Paris from Conflans, the organisers, the Petit Journal, decided to award a commemorative medal to all runners who finished the race in under 4 hours. Why 40 kilometres? Simply because this was the distance separating Marathon from Athens; the current distance of the competition (42,195 km) is simply that of the London Olympic marathon (1908).

After a 2h31’30’’ race, and cheered on by 2.000 spectators, the British man Len Hurst crossed the finishing line traced out on the Conflans bridge. After a brief moment in the arms of his coach Boon, he regained all his strength in order to receive the 200 francs from the Petit Journal… source Paris Marathon

View the race years :

•   Paris 2003
•   Paris 2002