Athlone man gets taste of Paris Olympics at Marathon Pour Tous
By Emily Sheehan
The eyes of the world were on the Olympics for these past two weeks, with many wondering how a non-professional athlete or ordinary person would fare in the various events.
For one lucky Kiltoom native, this wonder became a reality, in a manner of speaking.
Thomas Donohoe, a past pupil of Athlone Community College, was selected through a lottery on the running app Strava to run the 'Marathon Pour Tous' event; in which 20,024 amateur runners from around the world ran the Olympic marathon course on Saturday, August 10.
The run began at 9pm and alongside a separate 10km run kicking off at 11pm, over 40,000 lucky lottery winners ran through the streets of Paris, soaking up the Olympic atmosphere.
Describing how he came across the race, Thomas said he found the event during Covid, in 2021.
“The entry was through a mobile running app called Strava, where you had to link to the runs that you'd do,” Thomas explained. “If you completed a criteria of runs, you'd be put in a lottery.”
“I forgot about it for a while until about two months ago in June, when I got an email saying that I had been selected to take part,” Thomas said, laughing as he noted that he considered that the email could be a spam message when he first got the news.
“I had been planning to go to the Olympics for a couple of days with some friends to watch the athletics anyway,” Thomas said, though instead, he found himself to be taking part in this inaugural inclusive event.
The marathon began at the Paris City Hall and concluded at Les Invalides; the same route taken in the Olympic race.
“We passed by the main city centre spots,” Thomas noted.
“The route is a recreation of the Women's March to Versailles from the 1789 French Revolution.”
No stranger to a marathon, Thomas said that he couldn't remember the exact number he had completed, but that it was definitely in the “double digits somewhere”.
Completing the run in around 3 hours and 45 minutes, Thomas commented on the atmosphere of the day.
“It was a very friendly atmosphere – even more international that I had expected it to be,” he noted – though still managed to run into some fellow Irish runners along the way.
“50% of the race was female, which definitely differs from other marathons I've run – it was really interesting to see,” Thomas observed – and according to womensrunning.com, the global average for women's participation in marathons stands at 34.82%.
“I think that the atmosphere from the two weeks of the Olympics spilled over into it; there was a lot of effort put into running the event.”
A veteran of the London Marathon and the New York City marathon, Thomas noted that the event was “similar to other city marathons”.
“The kind of support that you'd have from a big city marathon was there; like in New York, where people were proud to hold the event in their city, and how the London Marathon is a big charity event.”
“It's something I didn't really expect,” Thomas remarked.
“It was really well organised, with Olympic volunteers working and water stations available at every 5km point,” he continued.
The Paris Olympics sought to position itself as an accessible and inclusive tournament - with this mass participation marathon one example of this.