Europe
January
Zurich New YearGran Canaria
February
SevilleVerona
Malta
March
CyprusBratislava
Barcelona
Rome
April
ViennaRotterdam
Krakow
Naples
Madrid
Zurich
Hamburg
Connemara
Paris
Boston
Antwerp
Duesseldorf
May
Salzburg flat fast and fun tour the sound of music areas went out with Foxy sampled the local delicacies etc.Empurias - fly into Girona (Barcelona, Emdee's your man for info)
Geneva
Stockholm - Saturday race
Prague
Copenhagen
Nordea Riga - Flat course around the old attractive down-town then out along the river crossing it a few times. Usually the temperature is in the 20C. Out and back in three places so you pass the elites possibly a few times. The course has cobbles and tram lines to cross several times. The course through the town to finish tends to have the locals wandering across in front of runners. There are half, 10K and 5K options the later being highly participated. Nice technical T-shirt and medal. Complementary massage after the race for all marathon and half marathon finishers.
Would recommend the half for a pb as the heat during the marathon was tiring after 2 hours in.
Hotel prices are very reasonable for 4* £120 for 3 nights b/b for 2. Food in Latvia is beautiful, fresh local produce.
Mont Sint Michel
June
Tromso midnight sunCaen ("D Day") Marathon de Liberte
Königsschlösser Romantic Marathon
I did the Konigschlosser Romantic Marathon today, would recommend it to anyone looking for something in a thin time of the year. Is a rough figure of 8 circuit out of Fussen, about 2 hours south of Munich right in the foothills of the Alps. First mile is road, then a mixture of bike paths and trails, though they were all excellent, 8-10 feet wide the whole way, maybe 30% compressed gravel and 70% tarmac. Meander by lakes, through alpine meadows and pine forests and in the latter half you get a very good view of the famous castles in the area. Nice medal and technical t-shirt, lots of aid stations, no support per se on course (rain wouldn't have helped), but a really nice low key race which despite the views of the mountains and the locations was surprisingly flat. Few undulations but that's all... Unusually for a European race went round in 5 hours and didn't wonder where everyone had gone to! Lot more women than usual too, maybe a 60:40 split rather than the more usual 90:10 or 80:20 you often see in Europe. Only issue for sea level dwellers is the 2500-3000' elevation, so felt a bit puffed for much of the time!
Mittelrhein Marathon
Duisburg Marathon
August
ReykjavikHelsinki - Saturday race
Longford
September
VilniusWroclaw
Tallinn
Warsaw
Logaska Dolina Slovenia. Finishes in a lovely Apline valley, Uphill race also has an Ultra the same day,
September/October
BremenOctober
Lake GardaBudapest
Amsterdam - good cheap fast alternative to Abingdon
Frankfurt. Nice summary from Travis: Frankfurt is a nice one for a late October marathon, expo/start/finish all within easy walking distance of the main train station (with direct link to the airport express train (though the local trains are a third of the price and less than 10 minutes slower)). Pretty flat and reasonable support, only marathon I've done where they've handed out cans of coke at one aid station and several bier kellers were handing out more substantial refreshments! Finish is in a sports hall with techno pumping out, cheerleaders, lasers, fireworks the full works. Usual German efficiency all around really... only downside was that the drinks stations were using very degradable cups, the latter ones were lethal as 100s had turned the road in to papier mache making them pretty slippy!
Bucharest
Brussels
Cologne Very well organised race. Pretty fast and flat too and probably the best crowd support I have ever encountered; it rivals Boston in that respect. Excellent expo too, and the best array of post race food and drink I have seen.
Eindhoven
Munich
Venice
Dublin - Come to Ireland and enjoy the fun. Fantastic support all the way around, great organisation, medal and technical shirt. The course is undulating but not excessively, the majority is flat and I would say pb potential. Its on the pricey side with hotels in Dublin and entry cost but flights are reasonable. The pint of Guinness afterwards is well worth the hard work. Recommend.
November
AthensValencia
Turin
Porto - late autumn PB potential
Palermo
Florence
La Rochelle
Nice to Cannes
Kasterlee (Belgium)
In Flanders Field (Belgium)
December
Malaga (Spain)Calvia
Pisa
San Silvestro (Bologna)
Nice-Cannes, Les Alpes Maritimes
Coast to Coast
Need dates checking
Stockholm Jubilee, 100 year anniversary, 2012 onlyBratislava
Les Courants de la Liberte, Normandy
Medium haul
January
DubaiApril
Dead SeaOctober
IstanbulBeirut
Toronto Waterfront
Long haul
January
BermudaBahamas
Disney Marathon (Florida, USA) inc. the Goofy Challenge
Easter
Two Oceans (group of Fetchies planning to go in 2013)April
BostonBig Sur (I think this is on in April)
Check Big Sur website for potential Boston to Big Sur on consecutive weekends
May
RwandaJune
Mauritius - highly recommendedEaster Island
? Falkland Islands
August
Crater LakeSeptember
MexicoOctober
Buenos AiresMarine Corps (Washington DC)
Nairobi
November
New YorkDecember
ReggaeCayman Islands
Costa Rica
Las Vegas
Travis has this report: Las Vegas is another good destination marathon for early December. Has a 4.5 hour cut off but running up and down the strip is pretty cool. Surprisingly on a bit of a slope which you don't tend to notice when driving or wandering about, you do rather when you're running back up it. Also makes you realise just how big those hotel complexes are when you think you're nearly at the Mandalay Bay and its still miles away! Downsides are the R&R Marathon entry costs and half the marathon course is running round some fairly dull dead straight roads in semi industrial suburbs. For anyone interested in a "double" that weekend then there is a ("Shhhhh" Trail) marathon in Death Valley the day before. Though trail in a very loose sense as it's a 4WD road through Titus Canyon.
Singapore
Chiangmai
Need dates checking
TokyoFukuoka - 2:42 cut off for the whole thing!!
Niagara Falls
Los Angeles
Toronto
Tangamanga, Mexico
Gold Coast, Australia
Sydney
Plenty in Taiwan, Blue Wombat says this:
The Taiwanese races I have done all seem to have certain features:
a) there is typically a strict entry date deadline and they won't consider entries after the closing date
b) numbers vary between big city events (like Taipei) to smaller countryside events. The smallest I have run had about 200 participants, the largest would be in the tens of thousands.
c) some are flat and along highways, some are insanely hilly, all that I have done have been on road (trails don't really exist in Taiwan as far as I can make out ... too much vegetation)
d) drinks are typically water or isotonic drink, banana chunks, mangoes, sultanas and salt
e) good value - cheap!
f) friendly, even if they can't communicate there is usually someone around who can have a stab at English and they love foreigners (you'll probably be the only westerner at one of the "international" marathons)
g) often some fabulous food afterwards
h) no cut-offs on the ones I have done and there was a good range of runners throughout the field ... plenty at the back as well as nearer the front
i) there is a Taiwanese 100 marathon club and they are as bonkers as the ones here (and as dominated by older men!)
j) Taiwan is a beautiful place. The Portuguese called it Formosa (beautiful island) for a good reason.
Downside ... it can be v. hot and humid in summer, less so in winter.
