The New York Marathon is considered to be the largest and most spectacular marathon in the world. It is also known for its enthusiastic spectators, whose number was officially estimated at 2.2 million in 2023. The New York Marathon is part of the so-called Marathon Majors series (Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago, New York).

It is also popular for runners because the time limit is not ~6 hours like for many other city marathons, but 8 1/2 hours. For the reasons mentioned, the number of participants in recent years has therefore always been around 30,000 to 50,000  (except for 2020 and 2021). The number of applicants for participation is so large that since many years a certain number of bib numbers are raffled off in a lottery.

Read more: New York Marathon 2023

As usual, at the end of the year (2022) the marathon planning for the coming year was on the agenda. Somebody mentioned the Paris Marathon, the biggest marathon in Europe, as an option. And after some research it was clear: That's it !

An additional reason was of course that I had never been to Paris before, although the city is less than 3 hours away by TGV from neighbouring city of Mulhouse.

The date for the marathon was given as April, 2nd 2023 and a starting place was still available for 120€ in November. Registration on the Paris Marathon homepage was easy and straightforward. I had selected the "slowest" option (finishing in 4hrs 30min) as the target time, which also had to be entered when registering.  What that meant exactly for the start time was not clear to me at that time.

Read more: Paris Marathon 2023

After I had received various running event recommendations from my "fellow runners" at the Black Forest Marathon 2021 in Bräunlingen, I decided on the Stockholm Marathon, which was announced for June, 4th 2022. As I didn't want to fly to Sweden for just two or three days, I had planned a two-week round trip with stops at various national parks for hiking.

The motto of the marathon and the (new) sponsor was "Impossible Is Nothing".  That was already very motivating. I felt well prepared - two half marathon races and 4 long runs over 30km. But of course, two running sessions a week are only enough to run a marathon, but not for personal best times.

Read more: Stockholm Marathon 2022

Finally, a marathon again. After my registration for the Cologne Marathon 2020 was not successful for well-known reasons, I had planned to run this marathon in 2021. The date was October, 3rd and my training was geared towards this date. But unfortunately nothing came of it. After 2020, the Cologne Marathon 2021 was again cancelled. What to do?

While looking through old results lists, I became aware of the Black Forest Marathon in Bräunlingen. The times I ran there in the marathon in 2002 and the half marathon in 2003 were not bad - 1h 37min and 3h 47min respectively. The Black Forest Marathon 2021 was supposed to take place on October, 10th. So one week later than the cancelled Cologne Marathon. That fits! The registration was done quickly and I could continue my training.

Read more: Black Forest Marathon 2021

Coming soon ...

Coming soon ...

After running the Seoul Marathon in South Korea in March 2017, it was clear that Japan would be the next destination. My idea was to run one of the big well-known marathons in Japan - Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagano. The Okinawa Marathon was actually not on my "must run list". However, when I didn't get a seat for the Osaka Marathon in November and the registration deadline for the marathon in December in the nearby city of Nara had also passed, there was still the interesting option of running the Okinawa Marathon on February, 18th during the Chinese New Year Holidays. Interesting, because I could combine this with a subsequent holiday in Japan.

Read more: Okinawa Marathon 2018

December 10th, 2017

As mentioned elsewhere, I was not lucky in the lottery and did not get a seat for the Guangzhou Marathon. The "green card scheme" - guaranteeing a seat in 2017 if participated in all previous events from 2012 to 2016 - did not help me either, as I had run the Honolulu Marathon in 2016 instead of Guangzhou in December.   But with a little help from a colleague and her connections, I was able to get a seat for Guangzhou and I gladly accepted it, even though I had already registered for the marathon in Dongguan two weeks before Guangzhou (see report here).

Read more: Guangzhou Marathon 2017

Translation pending - coming soon

Here is the link to the homepage of Dongguan Marathon

The 2017 marathon season started for me on 19 March with the marathon in Seoul, South Korea.

Considering the climate in South East Asia, you can only really train for a marathon in autumn, winter or spring. This automatically means that the "right" marathon has to take place between November and March. 

Of course, it's also possible to run a (trail) marathon in July in the north of China, for example in Inner Mongolia or in the mountainous western provinces of Sichuan or Yunnan. But then the necessary training can only take place very early in the morning if you live in the hot and humid south of China like me.

To avoid having to run a marathon in spring on a rather boring course like the one in QingYuan in 2016, I was looking for an alternative and found the Seoul Marathon. Although the reviews for this marathon were not only positive, I decided to register with the help of a Korean colleague. The entry fee of $50 was even relatively low.

The link to the official homepage is here: Seoul Marathon.

Update 21.03.2017:

After successfully "sightseeing" 42 kilometres through the centre of Seoul I can generally confirm what I had already read on the internet about this marathon.

Here is a short summary from my point of view:

Good (2017):

Reasonable entry fee of 50USD, start in the central square in the centre of Seoul (Gwanghwamun Gate), finish in the 1988 Olympic Stadium, plenty of refreshment stations with water and Pocari Sweat (every 5km, and stations with sponges in between), bananas and chocolate biscuits (?) from km 20, ideal running temperatures due to the time of year (6 degrees in the morning, later around 18 degrees and blue skies), fast, almost flat course (winning time 2017: 2:05:59)

Rather bad (2017):

Registration on the official website almost impossible without knowledge of Korean, announcements at the start only in Korean, very few toilets on the course (small alleyways and bushes along the course were misused as toilets), very few spectators - some more spectators from 38 km onwards, no special support at the finish, e.g. aluminium foil for keeping warm, no information on where to find the results lists and no information on where to see (or buy) photos. no information on where to find the results lists and no information on where to see (or buy) photos, possibly also interesting: very "empty" goodie bag (medal, biscuit, cake, banana, water)

Furthermore I can confirm the point often criticised on the internet that the small lorries with the clothing bags leave at 7.30am. As I was in the last starting block, I had to wait until 8.20am before I could cross the start line. At 6 degrees in the morning itt means dressing warmly and disposing of your clothes later or you have to move, move, move ...

In addition to the race number, the start package included a brochure with information about the marathon, a blue Adidas singlet shirt with "Seoul Marathon 2017" printed on it and a discount voucher for "personalised" (name) Adidas running shoes.

The course was a typical city marathon route. It went past several sights (gates). At the beginning on very wide streets, later it got a bit narrower but on most of the course there was enough space to run. The highlight was certainly the run into the (empty) Olympic Stadium.

Booking a hotel near the start line (Shilla Stay Gwanghwamun) was a good idea. The advantage was, that after dropping off my bag of clothes in the morning before the start I could walk back to the hotel (5min.) and wait for the start inside the comfortable hotel room with a warm cup of tea ..

For pictures pls. check the German verson of this post.