To mark turning 50 in style, French amateur runner Charlotte Prior donned her trainers and joined more than 40,000 people in a late-night marathon through some of Paris's most spectacular sites. The "marathon for all", which started on Saturday night and for some ended very early the next morning, gave Olympics spectators the chance to take part too as the games slowly draw to a close in Paris. "It was tough but the atmosphere was wild," the mother of four from the city of Reims told AFP, still out of breath afterwards.
"There were people cheering all along the way." Out of some 400,000 people who signed up to run the same course as the Olympians or a shorter 10-kilometre (15-mile) race, only 40,048 men and women were selected, most through a draw. In the end, around 35,000 leapt forward from the starting line outside the Paris city hall to take part.
It took marathon participants from central Paris to Versailles and back again in a race that was sometimes tough but pulsating with good cheer. Crowds lined the over 42-kilometre trail, noisily cheering on runners as they dashed past, while some participants dressed up for the occasion. One man ran in a strawberry-shaped bonnet, while a woman bounded forward wearing the Olympic flag as a cape on her back.
Another woman dressed up as comic sidekick Obelix carried a fake menhir on her back. A newly married Parisian in a yellow tutu, who gave her name as Maeva, had come with a friend. "We just wanted to have fun and soak up the atm.