… I just can’t let it be. Every time the word Rotterdam appears in front of my eyes, this tune of the Beatiful South kicks in, here with slightly modified lyrics. But neither did I want to compare people with pickles nor describe blonde and beautiful people in masses (as their lyrics do), but rather compare five marathon events on how well they support a good marathon run. Added Paris in to the mix as well. Paris is in 2010 on April 11, same day with Rotterdam. 
Prepared a little table with stats of the last 5 years for that. The upper third shows the amount of finishers in each year and event. London and Paris are by far the big ones, Hamburg is the “half size” one and Rotterdam and Vienna the smallest ones. What’s interesting is the middle and lower third of the table, the absolute amount of runners below 2:45h and the density of that field. The absolute amount should give an indication on how “lonely” you are especially on the second part of the race. As a comparison Berlin 2009 had about 280 runners below 2:45h out of about 35,000 finishers. Interesting to note is here the Hamburg vs. Rotterdam 2009 comparison. Although the Hamburg event was more than twice as big, the front end was the same size. On average (over those 5 years) however Hamburg has about 120 runners below 2:45h, Rotterdam 88. If anyone who’s been in Hamburg this year, has an explanation, I’d be curious to know more.
The ratio percentage should be an indication on the course. Assuming that each marathon starter field in the thousands has a roughly similar structure of faster and slower runners. I know, this is somewhat skewed, since other marathon events on the same day or national championships integrated in a race impact the picture considerably. I just couldn’t come up with a better indicator and the error margin should get smaller with starter fields in the thousands. I’d say this should be read with a grain of salt. Rotterdam has proven indeed to be faster than the other courses. And quite interestingly Vienna seems faster than Hamburg. The Vienna top 10 in 2009 ran all faster than the Hamburg winner, on the other hand the 2009 race in Hamburg was exceptionally bad. Something must have gone wrong in the organization.
I deliberatly leave London out in the discussion. The event is fully booked half a year in advance. Even the charity spots are gone for the more attractive half of charities, i.e. Unicef and all related to children. You could still get in by fighting against prostata cancer. Hm, not my cup of tea this/next year.
Paris seems from its size, numbers above and the course an attractive alternative, but it’s one of the early ones on April 11. I think two more weeks of training with hopefully less snow and ice in the streets (that’s the winter month Jan, Feb and part of Mar in Helsinki) is crucial. If someone can convince me that it’s not and show me why, I might opt for Rotterdam or Paris, otherwise it’s Hamburg.
Tags: hamburg marathon, London Marathon, rotterdam marathon, Vienna Marathon
October 23rd, 2009 at 01:07
Hi Mickie,
all I can say about Hamburg: It’s quite tough. The track is not as flat as you would imagine.
Especially the last 2 km are going uphill and therefore not even the best for very fast finish.
But also the bit on the \Rothenbaum\ can make you go crazy.
Besides this a very strong positive argument for running it is the atmosphere in Hamburg. Coming down \Landungsbrücken\ is a zizzling moment within the whole marathon. And the City itself is also just great.
So you have to evaluate if a good atmosphere could bring you uphill or if the hills could bring you down.
By the way: nice blog.
Regards
October 24th, 2009 at 14:56
Hei Mickie,
just found your blog and found it really interesting. Such a pity you had to quit in Berlin. Buzt the conditions were pretty hot at the end - I can tell you (Haile was only 1 second!! faster than me from 40K to the finnish). It was even too hot for the Africans…
Good decision to continue the sub-2:30 quest. But one thing is for sure: You need to be really fit for this kind of time and then it doesn’t matter if you run Rotterdam, Hamburg, Paris, London or another major marathon.
Stay healthy and continue the good work,
2:21 marathoner Berlin 2009
October 26th, 2009 at 15:50
After what I heard from other runners my vote would fall on Rotterdam.
I have heard that it is a flat and fast course so if fast times are the number one priority a must. Also not too many runners so no need to zig zag and avoid other runners too much.
The organisation is rumoured to be good and no need to stop to be able to drink anything from there drink stations.