THE MAJOR THAT ISN'T: A HISTORY OF THE PARIS MARATHON

At kilometer 31 of the 2014 Paris Marathon, Kenenisa Bekele developed a hamstring cramp. He was in the middle of his marathon debut, the course record in reach, and one of the most watched debut performances in the sport's history playing out in real time. He pointed at the injury repeatedly — a visible acknowledgment that something was wrong — and kept running. He crossed in 2:05:04, a new course record, pulling away in the final kilometers despite the cramp, then sprinting the last 200 meters. He described it afterward as "very tough." The choice to debut in Paris rather than London or Berlin was deliberate. The organizers had built the race around him. Paris does that.

The Paris Marathon has spent 50 years being the race that does everything right, and still not being a Major. It is one of the five largest marathons in the world by finisher count. It passes more famous landmarks per kilometer than any other major road race. It starts on the Champs-Élysées. It has twice produced the deepest all-time men's results in the race's history in a single edition. It is not a member of the Abbott World Marathon Majors. The difference between Paris and the Majors says as much about how the marathon world values speed over spectacle as it does about the races themselves.

50 Years of the Modern Race

The Paris Marathon traces its lineage to 1896 — the same year as the first modern Olympics — when Len Hurst of Britain won a predecessor race called the Tour de Paris in 2:31:30. But the modern race, the one that became the world's largest, started modestly.

On September 18, 1976, the Stade Français athletic club organized the first modern Paris Marathon: a four-lap circuit within the Bois de Boulogne, 126 finishers, winner Jean-Pierre Eudier. It was not a spectacle. It was a club race with an ambitious name.

Amaury Sport Organisation took over in 1998 and rebuilt the race into a global event. Schneider Electric became title sponsor in 2013. The field grew from hundreds to tens of thousands.

By 2025 the race drew 56,950 starters from over 140 nationalities — a new record. Paris is regularly cited as one of the five largest marathons in the world, alongside New York, Chicago, London, and Tokyo.

The Course

The current course starts on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées, within sight of the Arc de Triomphe, and descends to Place de la Concorde. From there it runs east along Rue de Rivoli past the Tuileries Gardens and the Louvre, through the Marais district, and out to the Bois de Vincennes — Paris's largest park — before turning back west at roughly the halfway mark.

The return follows nine kilometers of Seine riverbank, passing Notre-Dame and the Musée d'Orsay, with a major aid station at the Trocadéro opposite the Eiffel Tower. Around kilometer 35 the course enters the Bois de Boulogne, navigating the race's most demanding terrain — rolling forest roads with the legs already deep in oxygen debt. The finish is on Avenue Foch, within sight of the Arc de Triomphe, completing a loop of the city's most recognizable spaces.

A minor but telling note: the cobblestone stretch near Place de la Concorde in the opening kilometers can disrupt rhythm and, depending on footwear, cause early fatigue. It is one of the small ways that Paris trades seconds for scenery.

Records and the October Anomaly

The race's fastest times both came from an edition run in October.

In 2021, pandemic scheduling shifted the race from its traditional April slot to October 17. The conditions were ideal: cool temperatures, overcast skies. Elisha Rotich of Kenya won in 2:04:21, setting the men's course record and breaking the previous mark — Kenenisa Bekele's 2014 run of 2:05:04 — by 43 seconds. The top five men all finished inside the old record. It was the deepest Paris men's result on record.

The women's course record came the following April. Judith Jeptum of Kenya ran 2:19:48 in 2022, becoming the first woman to break 2:20 on French soil and setting the French all-comers record. She was running at 2°C, broke clear of the lead pack around kilometer 28, and held pace through the Bois de Boulogne.

The contrast between the two records is worth noting. The men's record came in October, in optimal racing conditions, in a field assembled specifically to go fast. The women's record came in April, on the normal race date, in near-freezing temperatures. Both ended up in the same place.

The Bekele Edition

The 2014 Paris Marathon is not remembered for Bekele's time. It is remembered for the performance.

Bekele chose Paris for his debut at age 31, having spent his career as the world's greatest track runner — world records at 5,000 meters and 10,000 meters, two Olympic gold medals, five world cross country titles. The marathon was an open question for a runner who had never raced the distance. The cramp that developed at kilometer 31 appeared to answer it badly. Instead he ran through it for 11 kilometers, crossing in 2:05:04 — the sixth-fastest marathon debut in history at the time, the fastest ever by a runner over 30.

The choice of Paris, and the way the organizers recruited him, is part of the race's identity. Paris has consistently built its elite fields around specific athletes and performances rather than simply collecting the fastest available names. The 2021 October edition was assembled with the course record as an explicit goal. It worked.

The Major That Isn't

Paris holds a World Athletics Gold Label — one tier below Platinum, which is reserved for the six original Abbott World Marathon Majors and a small number of other elite events. The gap between Paris's size (top five in the world by finisher count) and its designation (Gold Label, not Platinum) is the structural tension at the center of the race's identity.

The Majors — Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, New York — were built on a combination of history, elite depth, prize money, and time-trial characteristics. Paris scores on all of these but the last. Its course is not optimized for speed in the way that Berlin or Chicago are. The Bois de Vincennes, the cobblestones, the rolling Bois de Boulogne section — these add atmosphere and cost time. Paris has chosen, consistently, to be the race that shows you the city rather than the race that gives you the fastest possible conditions.

That choice is reflected in who wins here. Paris has produced Bekele's debut, Tsegaye Kebede's early emergence (2:06:40 in 2008), Paul Lonyangata's back-to-back victories in 2017 and 2018. It has also produced Benoît Zwierzchiewski's 2:06:36 French record in 2002 — the last French runner to win and a moment of national significance that no subsequent winner has replicated.

The 49th Edition

The 2026 race on April 12 is the 49th edition of the modern Paris Marathon. For the first time, the event will operate with no plastic bottles or disposable cups at any aid station — all 60,000 runners are required to carry their own reusable containers. It is a significant logistical change for a race at that scale, and a deliberate signal about how the organizers want the race to be perceived.

The course records remain: 2:04:21 for men, 2:19:48 for women. The Arc de Triomphe will be visible at the start and at the finish. The cobblestones at Concorde will still be there in the third kilometer.

Paris has been running this route in various forms since 1976. The city has not changed much. Neither has the choice the race keeps making: show them everything, and see who's still fast.

The 2026 edition continues that tradition of depth. See the Paris Marathon 2026 preview for this year's elite field.