After two Paris Marathons, I ran this one in la Rochelle and found the organization even better. Every kind of accommodation is available, with hotel partners that let you keep the room until the shower post-run and provide super early breakfast at 5 a.m. The race is great (although the weather can be cold) in the lovely city, around the port. You run two laps (a bit different from each other). The public is there to encourage you. The time is measured with a chip. At the end, there's a beautiful, heavy medal for everyone passing the finish line, a raincoat, and last but not least, 24 fresh oysters to eat later. It's really comforting!!! I definitely recommend it, but make your bookings early!

I just did this race last weekend and have mixed feelings about it.

The organization is excellent. They really take care of the runners and the whole town is welcoming. All the restaurants try to cash in with healthy Marathon Menus and a lot of the hotels reduce their prices by up to 50%. The atmosphere on race day is excellent. Food and drink are available in plentiful supply every 5K of the race and the course takes you through the town center no fewer than 5 times (the start, at 13K, halfway, 34K and the end) so you do get some decent support for a small-town marathon. In addition, the medal is the best quality that I've ever received, and each runner gets 24 fresh oysters and a (sadly, horrible) windbreaker. I honestly don't know how they make much money out it. I paid 27 euros. The pacemakers are also high quality too and all had best times of under 2:30. They tend to run a couple of minutes inside the target time. I was stretching myself for 3:15 and it was enough to make it a bit fast for me.

The only gripe I had with this race - and I suppose it's a big thing to have a gripe about - is the course. La Rochelle is a reasonably pretty town in the way so many French towns are. The route however takes you down many narrow suburban streets away from what makes the town appealing. Outside of the center, support is sparse and the course is extremely, er, bendy. There are dozens of little turns to make and it can really break up your rhythm. The course is advertised (by the organizers and people who have run it) as totally flat, but it certainly has 3-4 testing false flats that can drain your legs if you aren't into hills.

Overall, I would recommend it if you don't have to travel too far (I came from Belgium). If you made a little driving holiday out of it, there's plenty of nice stuff to see in and around. If you're staying only in La Rochelle, a weekend is enough. It's quite small.

A word of warning: Try for a hotel before you sign up. I signed up 5 months in advance and had the choice of 1 hotel. Everything was booked! It's the last big marathon in the French calendar and lots of people do it. If you do go, book a restaurant for dinner as well. There are 8,000 on the prowl for pasta, and many go hungry!

We drove down from St. Malo and spent three nights in La Rochelle. The race is very well organized and marshaled, though the spectators are a bit quiet. My wife loved the shops, and there are lots of good resturants. I did the 4K run on Saturday morning, and just for turning up, you are given a good, quality t-shirt and cap. I would thoroughly recommend the race to anyone.

There can't be a more beautiful location for a marathon and, for the most part, it is well organized. It's not cosmopolitan and the vast majority of the runners are French (I traveled from Ireland), but this is neither a plus nor a minus, just a reality. It's a two-lap course; most of us would slightly prefer a one-lap course. The crowd is polite and interested, but not more. Forget the pasta party. Take a holiday for a few days in a beautiful location and enjoy!