Pacing
Where the marathon was actually decided
When the race stops being decidable
At every checkpoint each finisher is ranked against the other finishers who reached it, and compared with where they ended up. The gap between the two is how much of the field they still had left to move through — from 5.68 points at Km 5 down to 0.36 points by Km 40. Ranks at a checkpoint count runners who later abandoned, which would credit everyone with the places those runners vacated, so they are re-ranked among finishers only. Done that way the finish line comes out at exactly zero, which is the check that the arithmetic is right.
The typical runner's remaining move, in places of the field, between each checkpoint and the finish line of Marathon de Paris 2026. Hover a checkpoint for its numbers.
How much of the race was still undecided, checkpoint by checkpoint. Use the left and right arrow keys to read each point.
The last checkpoint must fade to zero: by the finish line there is nothing left to move. That is the arithmetic self-test, not a finding.
Show the numbers
| Checkpoint | Median remaining move |
|---|---|
| km 5 | 5.7 pt |
| km 10 | 5.3 pt |
| km 15 | 4.8 pt |
| km 20 | 4.3 pt |
| km 21 | 4.2 pt |
| km 25 | 3.7 pt |
| km 30 | 2.7 pt |
| km 35 | 1.6 pt |
| km 40 | 0.4 pt |
| km 42 | 0 pt |
The line does not fall smoothly, and the bumps are the interesting part: position at the foot of a climb is worth much less than position at its summit. The field arrives at a col in whatever groups the valley assembled, and then the mountain sorts it out again.
the flat do 100% of the sorting
The obvious way to ask this — take runners within a couple of minutes of each other and see how far apart they finish — turns out to measure the wrong thing. Early on the whole field is packed into a few minutes, so being level on the clock at Km 5 means something completely different from being level on the clock at the top of a col. So this conditions on position instead: among runners sharing your place in the field at a checkpoint, how widely scattered are their finishes?
At Km 5 the answer is 25.39 points of the field — knowing someone’s position there tells you very nearly nothing about where they will finish. Every section after it closes that number down.
Among runners sharing your position at a checkpoint, the spread of where they finished. Each step down is a section of road doing the sorting; the colour is the terrain of the section that got you there.
How much was still open at each timing mat. Use the left and right arrow keys to read each point.
Show the numbers
| Checkpoint | Still open |
|---|---|
| km 5 | 25.4 pt |
| km 10 | 23.5 pt |
| km 15 | 21.6 pt |
| km 20 | 19.8 pt |
| km 21 | 19.1 pt |
| km 25 | 16.3 pt |
| km 30 | 11.4 pt |
| km 35 | 5.3 pt |
| km 40 | 0.4 pt |
| km 42 | 0 pt |
| Section ending at | Terrain | Still open | Settled here |
|---|---|---|---|
| Km 5 · km 5 | flat | 25.39 pt | — |
| Km 10 · km 10 | flat | 23.54 pt | 7% |
| Km 15 · km 15 | flat | 21.62 pt | 8% |
| Km 20 · km 20 | flat | 19.84 pt | 8% |
| Half marathon · km 21.1 | flat | 19.05 pt | 4% |
| Km 25 · km 25 | flat | 16.32 pt | 14% |
| Km 30 · km 30 | flat | 11.36 pt | 30% |
| Km 35 · km 35 | flat | 5.34 pt | 53% |
| Km 40 · km 40 | flat | 0.37 pt | 93% |
| FINISH · km 42.195 | flat | 0 pt | 100% |
Two ways to read this wrong
- Earlier sections have more to take. The first climb starts with almost all the uncertainty still on the table, so it will always look productive in raw points. The “settled here” column is the share of what was still open at that moment, which is the fairer comparison — by that measure it is FINISH, taking 100% of what remained.
- The last section is flattered by being last. Whatever is unresolved when you reach the final mat gets resolved there by definition, so the terrain totals above are in points rather than shares.
57,516 classified finishers · built 2026-09-06 · back to the explorer