Marathon recommendations

[tryingtobesogood]

Hello

i love watching the London Marathon, it looks like an amazing experience. I’d love to run it but obviously so does everyone else.

So, putting London to one side, what have been your best marathon experiences? Which ones have you run and really enjoyed?

For your first marathon , I would reccomend Edinburgh , it's almost a flat course , lovely route and 99% of the time and full turn out for support

Just looked it up, that looks really manageable annd a great route, and I would get to go to Edinburgh.

thank you.

Ooh yes Edinburgh. It’s the only one I’ve ever done (and only once) and it was an amazing experience. It’s something like the flattest/most downhill marathon and there was brilliant support pretty much all the way. Only one out and back section where you see all the much faster runners running back. When I finished I felt properly invincible for a few days, like I could achieve anything.

I can highly recommend it!

DH did Belfast last year. It was a great place for his first marathon. Quite small but excellent support generally a lovely city

Barcelona was brilliant.

Rotterdam is a good course, but the organisation and crowds made it too peopley for me.

A friend did Manchester this morning and whilst he didn't enjoy the heat today, said it was the friendliest crowd.

Yeah I was in the cheering squad at Manchester this morning and we are definitely the warmest crowd!

I am doing Yorkshire (York) in October for my first. Flatish and not a huge one- I’m not a fan of massive crowds. Chester is similar.

loved Chelmsford best and Milton Keynes second for me did London last year

I've done Brighton twice, and it definitely has a great party atmosphere almost as good as London (I've run London marathon several times) and is a lot more spectator friendly, friends and family could potentially not walk very far but see you in 4 or 5 places.
Although I've been lucky it wasn't windy either time

Manchester would be my first choice for you as it's the closest to London of the UK marathons in terms of the big-city marathon feel, the atmosphere, and the support all the way round.
The spectators are just brilliant, as is the organisation with water stations, gel stations, having enough toilets etc. Makes it stress free and fun.

Edinburgh and Brighton are great too but not Manchester levels of support. Brighton, for example, has long stretches with minimal support on the route, but some parts (eg the section through Hove, and the stretch into the finish on the sea front) are fabulous.

Would not advise York for a first marathon. You get out of the city at about 3 miles and support is patchy along the route, which is lots of long flat country roads. There's also a nasty hill just before the end which wouldn't usually feel like much of a hill, but at 25.5 miles it gets you.

Well looking a bit wider than the UK, I’m chasing my Majors medal and had an absolute blast in Chicago last year. Incredible city, we had a lovely time seeing the sights for a couple of days before hand, easy to get around, super friendly and then the race was just an absolute party. There’s about a 3 mile long street which is just bars either side and they were out in force for the runners!

I’m on the slower side, had been going for sub 5 but missed it as it got a bit hot and had to walk a bit to cool down but it was still full of supporters! Really really brilliant fun.

Food options were also fabulous for pre and post marathon fuel!

Sounds fantastic. Can us normal folks get into Chicago? What’s your plan for getting into Boston, I thought you needed to be super fast for that, 3h45 for my age group I think

Yes I got a ballot place on my first attempt- the odds are much higher than in London as most of the places are ballot, rather than charity. I think it’s about 1 in 3 chance!

My plan for Boston is to go with Sports Tours International who have about 100 places each year for international participants, they prioritise people who’ve done other events with them also so I think we will use them for Tokyo also. I’m not running a marathon this year though as I’m trying to get a bit faster and stronger so focussing on half and 10km; both Boston and Tokyo have fairly harsh cut offs and sweep you off the course if you’re too slow at various points so I want to be confident of going well under sub 5!

Really good to know thank you

So many wonderful ideas, I’m going to have a look at them and have a think.

Which one did you decide to do? I want to do my first one next year and was thinking about Edinburgh. However, I’m a long way from Scotland so I’ve chosen Newport in South Wales - which describes itself as one of the flattest around and ideal for first timers. I think it’s a much smaller event than the others I was considering but I thought that might be OK for my first one.

I've done York 3 times, Manchester, Leeds and then Belfast last weekend.
In order of favourites was Leeds, Belfast, Manchester and finally York (even though I've done it 3 times, but I grew up in York so its one I can do and come home for the night without having to pay out for accommodation)

Leeds was hilly, but I enjoyed it as there was a few of us doing it so we kept passing each other at points etc.

Manchester, I just woke up that day and wasn't in the mood so didn't enjoy it. I do plan to go back one day.

York is a good one when you get to that stage and you're struggling and you just want everyone around to piss off (well I get like that anyway), but it has a very looong out and back which nearly killed me off last time. Although I must admit its a road I know very well (in fact I'll be driving on it tomorrow when visiting family) so I just knew what the next 6 miles were like.

I did enjoy Belfast last weekend though. Lots of support, not overly hilly, but there were some long stretches of inclines.

Another vote for Belfast if you want a big city marathon experience without big city marathon numbers. There were around 5,200 finishers this year, plus 1,800 marathon relay teams, enough for it to feel sociable without being congested. It's well organised and there's lots of support around the course, which stays within the city. It's probably my favourite UK marathon, though Chester, which is more rural, comes close. Both are less flat than London but I wouldn't say they were hilly.

Eryri is a beautiful marathon and has a reputation for being harder than it actually is.

I haven’t decided yet, I think I need quite a long time to train, so maybe one next spring.

thank you all for the excellent suggestions

Good luck!

Can I ask, was Milton Keynes quite flat? I have been to MK a lot, but mostly for the shops! It look like it could be a really nice one to try, and my sister lives nearby so the logistics would be good

I'm surprised by the number of people saying Edinburgh! It might be flat but most major road marathons are, but you pass the finish line at 10miles and then run 8 miles up one side of the road and back down the other (with a short loop around a country house estate at the turn around). Mentally I think it's a very hard route for a first event. You also finish miles from the city centre.
Manchester is very well supported all the way round and whilst it doesn't start and finish in the same place the logistics of getting to/from the start/finish are very easy and at least you finish in the city centre. It's also a lot easier for spectators to support you around the route.