How this American in Paris will follow Olympic marathoners' footsteps in race of her own

PARIS — Sue Doherty never misses an opportunity to tell her husband, a football coach at Georgetown University, that she needs to go running because she's training for the Olympics.

That much is true.

The 50-year-old media booker has been pounding the streets near her home in Springfield, Virginia, with Olympic intensity of late. She is going to the Paris Games. And there will be medals. But Doherty, a veteran of 28 marathons, is not one of the six U.S. marathoners who will compete for Team USA at the Paris Olympics this weekend.

At least not in the sense that the Greeks first conceived it.

The Paris Games have been an Olympics of many firsts. The first opening ceremony to be held out in the open, on the Seine River. The first Olympics to have just about the same number of men and women competing.

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On Saturday, 20,000 amateur athletes like Doherty will, also for the first time at an Olympics, be able to follow in the footsteps of their elite running cousins by taking the same route − at night, and at a different time − as those hoping to return home with LVMH's Chaumet-designed Olympic medal.

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"I love running marathons. Ever since I was a little kid it's been a dream of mine to go to the Olympics," Doherty said Wednesday when reached by phone as she was packing to fly to Paris with her daughter, who will cheer her on.

"I kind of found out late they were doing this. I was sitting with my daughter watching the Tour de France, going, 'Oh, wow, next year the Olympics are in Paris,'" Doherty said of the annual multiple-stage bicycle race that's held primarily in France. "I did some googling and found it and was like, 'What!? How did I not know about this?' "

Organizers of what is being called the "Marathon Pour Tous" − Marathon for Everyone − say that it, like the official Olympic marathon race, which is scheduled Saturday for the men and Sunday for the women, will follow a "unique route paying tribute to the rich history of France and Paris."

The course follows a loop dense with history. It links Paris' Hôtel de Ville − city hall − to Versailles, known for, among other things, its château as well as its gardens; for being the seat of French political power in the 17th and 18th centuries; and as a place where two war-ending treaties were signed - the Treaty of Paris of 1783, which ended the American Revolutionary War, and the Treaty of Versailles, signed at the end of World War I.

For some, the marathon is viewed as the culmination of the Olympics. In another first, the women's race is happening after the men's, which organizers say is intended to reflect its efforts to ensure gender parity in ways big and small. The Olympic marathon course is a nod to the Women’s March on Versailles, when a crowd of more than 6,000 people, led by a procession of women who worked in a market, marched from Paris to Versailles to protest the cost of bread and demand political reform. It was a pivotal moment in the 1789 French Revolution.

There is also a shorter format version of the amateur race, a 10K, whose route has as its backdrop many of the iconic places and monuments at the heart of Paris, from the Eiffel Tower to the Esplanade des Invalides, a former barracks for veterans, that make the city such a big draw for visitors. That, too, takes place at night.

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Marathon for amateur athletes will include party atmosphere

Neither race required a qualifying time to be eligible, part of an attempt to be as inclusive as possible, organizers said. Instead, would-be participants were asked to take part in a series of "challenges" that tested their commitment and stamina. Doherty said these challenges were unveiled each week via a digital app that connected to a Garmin-type sports watch. Runners could do as many of these challenges as they wanted but successfully completing a challenge yielded a certain number of "points." Once 100,000 points were earned, potential participants were entered into a lottery. Doherty gained entry after doing a challenge that asked her to run for two hours straight.

"For the first time in history we're trying to let (Olympic) spectators become actors," said Aurélie Merle, the director of sports competition for Paris 2024, told reporters. Merle also described it as something of a party, with the route enlivened by light shows and DJ performances. The Paris 2024 mascot, a little red hat known as a Phrygian cap (pronounced "FREE-jes) − a French symbol of liberty − will hand out popcorn to those watching.

Romain Lachens, the director of engagement for Paris 2024, said that organizers hoped that in enabling the public to participate in the Olympic-course runs it would help break "sedentary lifestyles." He said that 400,000 people from all over the world sought to take part in the marathon. The 10K, like the marathon, will see 20,000 runners.

Both races will feature former Olympians from various sports disciplines running alongside the amateur athletes. Aurélien Hochart, who works for Paris 2024 as a manager for large-scale events, said this would have the same security footprint − lengthy closed-off perimeters, massive police presence − as the Olympic marathons.

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One notable entrant in the amateur men's marathon is Luan Yushuai, 39, known as China's "fastest delivery man."

Luan is from a village in the Jilin province in northeastern China. He's been working as a delivery rider in Beijing for nine years. According to Chinese media, he trained in his spare time by attaching sandbags to his legs while working.

"Delivering goods and running are two indispensable things in my life," he said.

'My little bubble of Olympics'

Doherty said she is thrilled that as a "normal person" she's getting an opportunity to compete in an Olympic setting.

She found an Arlington, Virginia-based training partner through a Facebook page for participating runners from the U.S.

"We happened to be the same pace and did all our long runs together, so that worked out really well," she said.

As far as Doherty knows, she is one of three amateur runners from the Washington, D.C., area competing in Paris.

Yet she also said she has some anxieties.

Doherty's never been to Paris. She's heard it could be hot and crowded.

What is running in the dark going to be like? Everyone's been talking about how hilly the course is.

Doherty said her football coach husband Kevin, Georgetown’s defensive coordinator, can't come to Paris because he's "just starting camp," a busy time of acclimation, evaluation and training before the season starts.

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"He will be glad when this is over," she said.

Still, there's no doubt that Doherty is an Olympian.

"I call it the 'Olympic Marathon' on there," she said of the Facebook page. "When I get on there I'm like, 'Hey, Team USA, we're team members.' I'm treating it just like it's my little bubble of Olympics."

Follow Kim Hjelmgaard on social media @khjelmgaard.

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