Hi Carolyn, I also ran Paris with 4 of my friends, getting into the right start pen was no problem the barriers came down between the pens not long before the gun went off but once the race started yes it was chaotic. The first thing I found was the amount of clothes dumped in the road also plastic bags just torn off and left in the middle of the road, the downhill start made everyone take off like bats out of hell so trying to dodge clothes and plastic was an issue. At thefirst water point people just dove in front of you not caring if they almost took you out, I went right past the water point until I could stand on the roadside and look for my buddies, we all had whistles and decided if anyone is lost blow it twice. Anyway we all found each other and after that decided at each water point we would go to the last table on the right grab then wait at the first vacent spot after it, this worked and once the speed of the start had died down somewhat the rest of the race went well. I have run various marathons all over here in SA and never have I experianced such lack of disrespect for other runners before. I did run london the following week and I can add it was not the same, even though still alot of people they were far more curtious and all clothing and plastic was thrown to the road side. At Paris everyone seemed to be very serious but London most were out for a good time. None of the marathons I have run here have as many competitors the largest field I have run in before was Comrades 2000 with 25000 on the road but since then smaller fields of around 15 000.
But at the end of it I put them down to wonderful experiances and would do them both again....
