Boards Spring Marathon 2012

tHE vAGGABOND

So loads of folks from around here went off and did the Barcelona Marathon earlier this year. I missed that boat, so I want to join in on something similar for next year, but we have to pick somewhere first - hence this thread..

I have heard talk of these three so far:

Paris, April 15th [my personal selection for the record]
Milan, April 15th also
Barca again - March 25th

So who would be interested, number one, and number two, where should we go

Brianderunner

Big spanner in the works is Conn unfortunately. Stuck bang in the middle of all of them. Paris or Milan would be good yeah for the variety although its difficult to fault Barca, pity its 3 weeks later this year.

tHE vAGGABOND

Conn is on April 1st

Personally, having done the half out there, I have zero interest in doing the full or the ultra to be honest.

But we will see where this thread goes, if anywhere

Brianderunner

tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »

Conn is on April 1st

Personally, having done the half out there, I have zero interest in doing the full or the ultra to be honest.

But we will see where this thread goes, if anywhere

I also have zero interest in Conn. Problem is a lot of our regulars will. Running an ultra on the 1st April doesnt bode well for a marathon a week before/2 weeks later. My preference would probably be Paris too for what its worth.

rainbow kirby

Dunno if I can be arsed doing a spring marathon, but might come for the beer :pac:

misty floyd

If London falls through for me (which it probably will), I was thinking about Barca.

Vienna is meant to be a good one too (15th Apr). I'd also do Rotterdam again (15th Apr), I thought that was a great marathon.

robinph

Londinium for me. They have beer as well, just maybe not always the sun.

menoscemo

Brianderunner wrote: »

I also have zero interest in Conn. Problem is a lot of our regulars will. Running an ultra on the 1st April doesnt bode well for a marathon a week before/2 weeks later. My preference would probably be Paris too for what its worth.

I'd be happy enough to do a marathon 2 weeks after the ultra, it just probably won't be a goal race. If I had to choose between paris and Milan I'd go with Paris I guess.

G-Money

Just to throw a different one out there, Copenhagen? It's the 20th of May I believe.

RacoonQueen

I've already chosen mine. :cool:

I'd go back to Barca like a shot if it wasn't so close to Conn.

baza1976

Did anyone else think when they read the thread title that there was going to be a "Boards Spring Marathon 2012"????

Oisin11178

Yeah they are all to close to conn for me. Have mine picked already. Blackpool is back next year on march 11. Literally pancake flat,got a big pb there last year. Cheap place and easy to get to.

couerdelion

I was thinking of doing a marathon next year and Blackpool looks good.

It's easy to get to (Aer Lingus fly to Blackpool, Ryan Aer fly to Manchester and then a couple of trains).

It's cheap to stay (Loads of B&B's)

It's flat.

The beer is cheap for afterwards and they do proper fish and chips!

Brianderunner

Blackpool in early March? Windy, cold and miserable most likely. Bound to be a premier league game not too far away though!

Oisin11178

It was very well organised when i did it last year. Number pick up on the morning to. Decent water stations. Big enough field to. Half marathon run alongside it also. They close the golden mile, no cars at all on the route plus tonnes of Marshalls. As the previous poster said accomadation is very cheap and aerlingus fly into blackpool airport. Sometimes a big city marathon is not the best option for a pb.

tHE vAGGABOND

According to this forum thread I found via a google search Blackpool Marathon was cancelled this year and the website does not exist anymore.

Does not look likley to be on again [but that said, based on 2 seconds of looking about it].

I could very easily be convinced about Vienna or Rotterdam - I just fancy doing one outside of Ireland with a few folks for a laugh.

DULLAHAN2

tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »

I have heard talk of these three so far:

Paris, April 15th [my personal selection for the record]
Milan, April 15th also
Barca again - March 25th

Which of those three would be the best for a PB? Hear me ''PB'' i have to do one first:D

menoscemo

DULLAHAN2 wrote: »

Which of those three would be the best for a PB? Hear me ''PB'' i have to do one first:D

In a recent article in Running times, Milan was rated as the third fastest marathon in the world (behind Berlin and Rotterdam). I hear Paris is quite flat as well.

christeb

keen to do a spring marathon, but wouldn't want to go back to BCN, even though the weekend was perfect. Overseas marathons should be a unique thing, not to be repeated.

With that in mind I'd consider Rotterdam, CPH, Milano, Roma or Sevilla.

TheTubes

menoscemo wrote: »

In a recent article in Running times, Milan was rated as the third fastest marathon in the world (behind Berlin and Rotterdam). I hear Paris is quite flat as well.

I'm hoping to make Dublin my 2nd marathon, if that goes well it would be nice to go away for a spring marathon. Milan sounds nice

Edit:
Boards.ie is paying... right?

liamo123

No spring marathon 4 me in 2012 but I know a few lads who ran Malta in late Feb I think and they were well impressed with it....

Oisin11178

tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »

According to this forum thread I found via a google search Blackpool Marathon was cancelled this year and the website does not exist anymore.

Does not look likley to be on again [but that said, based on 2 seconds of looking about it].

I could very easily be convinced about Vienna or Rotterdam - I just fancy doing one outside of Ireland with a few folks for a laugh.

Yeah is was cancelled 11 months in advance because the race directors wife was very sick i believe. The original site is down but there is a new one. Im on the phone right now so i dont have it to hand. Ill post it later.

jprender

I've signed up for Conn, but was/am sorely tempted to do the Seville marathon in mid-February.

It will be my first marathon whichever one I end up choosing.

pc11

Considering Seville too for what would be my first. I've been there a few times and have friends there.

Any good reasons not to choose Seville? Anyone? Bueller?

Though Blackpool did sound promising also.

Van.Bosch

Oisin11178 wrote: »

Yeah is was cancelled 11 months in advance because the race directors wife was very sick i believe. The original site is down but there is a new one. Im on the phone right now so i dont have it to hand. Ill post it later.

http://www.fyldecoastrunning.com/blackpool-mainpage.html

DULLAHAN2

Blackpool is the one i would choose as MAN UTD are paying the day before hand and it is only an hour on a train from blackpool. But would like to do the milan one

TFBubendorfer

Not that I will do it again next year, but I can highly recommend the Vienna marathon.

- beautiful city
- extremely well organised
- very flat
- very well supported
- easy to get to from Ireland
- excellent beer

Tec Diver

I was chatting to a work colleague yesterday who is based in Barcelona, he will be doing their full next year as his first marathon. He's asked me to run it with him so I've said I would. I haven't run it before, so why not!
I did the Conn full this year but wouldn't be interested in doing it again.
So yes, I'll be doing Barcelona next year...

Woddle

TFBubendorfer wrote: »

Not that I will do it again next year, but I can highly recommend the Vienna marathon.

- beautiful city
- extremely well organised
- very flat
- very well supported
- easy to get to from Ireland
- excellent beer

Hmm getting interested now. Just reading a bit on Desi Davilla who has had a good couple of track races on the back of a spring marathon (Boston). If it's good enough for her
I'd have to add another criteria for selecting a marathon, it would have to be April and I wouldn't want to commit till Feb/March.
So it would have to be a marathon where I could book flights, hotel and entry at a good price but leave it very late in the day to book.
Rotterdam on April 15th is another I'd like to do but probably doesn't meet the above given taht it's so popular.

cunavalos

Woddle wrote: »

I'd have to add another criteria for selecting a marathon, it would have to be April and I wouldn't want to commit till Feb/March.
So it would have to be a marathon where I could book flights, hotel and entry at a good price but leave it very late in the day to book.

It might be a bit late for a spring marathon but there is a new manchester marathon this year on 29th April
http://www.greatermanchestermarathon.com/
You couldn't find an easier place to get to and entries should be relatively easy to get as london is around the same time.
I am giving it consideration but will see how dublin goes first. I suppose the only drawbacks are that as its the first marathon in 10 years there is no feedback/reviews available on route and organisers.

ronanmac

I'm thinking of doing a spring marathon next year also. I was considering Seville as it sounds like it's flat and is great value. Having a Boards crowd running en masse would be great, sounds like Barcelona (also on my shortlist) went very well this year.

opus

robinph wrote: »

Londinium for me. They have beer as well, just maybe not always the sun.

Same for me, well at least I hope so seeing as they cashed the cheque for the entry fee.

SharkTale

New destination, cheap as chips, Ryan Air flight and still could put in another spring marathon all going well.

menoscemo

SharkTale wrote: »

New destination, cheap as chips, Ryan Air flight and still could put in another spring marathon all going well.

I would definitely be up for ths, but it seems that Ryanair don't fly there in february. I think they only fly there in the summer months....

jprender

I think the best way to Seville is to fly to Malaga and then get a train across.

I'll sign up for it if there are enough takers.

BeepBeep67

Thinking of popping my cherry in Rotterdam, could be a crew going from Bray and Sli Cualann.

Brianderunner

menoscemo wrote: »

I would definitely be up for ths, but it seems that Ryanair don't fly there in february. I think they only fly there in the summer months....

Depends where you're flying from . Although flights from stansted are already over £100 for that weekend.

Getting it out of the way early on in February would be nice alright. It was quite nice to see everyone doing LSR's for London this year having already done mine in Barca.

tHE vAGGABOND

If there was a group going anywhere I would likely at least give a good think to joining in - Seville seems as good as any - to be totally honest I was thinking/hoping one of the huge city marathons, Paris, Milan etc, but could be persuaded to go along with a gang anywhere at all for the craic

I see the price before end of year is €21, which puts some 5k type races here to shame - wow.

Getting there may be a pain, but maybe we fly to Malaga and get a train or indeed just do the Dublin - London - Seville flights, making it a fraction more expensive, but still fine in the grand scheme of things?

Regarding the early race - will being in "full training" all over Christmas not be totally weird?

PS: Like many people I have an entry in for London, but fully expect to get rejected! As its a case of 5-6k people getting a "international" place out of many hundreds of thousands of applicants! We will know that late Sept/Early Oct anyway.

rainbow kirby

tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »

Regarding the early race - will being in "full training" all over Christmas not be totally weird?

It's actually great if the weather isn't too bad, if you've got some time off work over the festive season it's a great time to train hard and get loads of sleep in at the same time. I got the only 50 mile week I've ever done in over the holidays last year.

RacoonQueen

BeepBeep67 wrote: »

Thinking of popping my cherry in Rotterdam, could be a crew going from Bray and Sli Cualann.

I would LOVE to do Rotterdam. Only two weeks after Conn Ultra...39.3 as the last long run? :pac:

tHE vAGGABOND

So it sounds like we are all over the place here, and that we have a bunch of 1's and 2's going here or there - but no "mass" exodus to do a single race like last year, which is a pity..

If we were to decide on doing one, RK made a good point that what made Barca a bit attractive to folks last year is that everyone booked early and got cheap flights sorted.

robinph

Start thinking of ideas for an autumn 2012 one now, other than Dublin, then we can all see about getting cheap flights and hotels sorted in the new year.

anymore

What about Rome in march ?

rainbow kirby

robinph wrote: »

Start thinking of ideas for an autumn 2012 one now

Hehe, I might *just* be fit enough to think about another marathon by then :pac:

If it's to be an autumn one, I'm all over Berlin like a fat kid on pie.

tHE vAGGABOND

rainbow kirby wrote: »

If it's to be an autumn one, I'm all over Berlin like a fat kid on pie.

Depending on if I get my second rejection from new York, as I expect

But Berlin does sound good - far enuf away that folks could save some pennies and plan around it...

The nut jobs could do Dublin too, of course

RacoonQueen

tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »

So it sounds like we are all over the place here, and that we have a bunch of 1's and 2's going here or there - but no "mass" exodus to do a single race like last year, which is a pity..

If we were to decide on doing one, RK made a good point that what made Barca a bit attractive to folks last year is that everyone booked early and got cheap flights sorted.

I know some of us booked in September last year but most didn't book till much later. Antwerp was meant to be mine last year. That's another on my list of possibles if I do another marathon.

TheTubes

tHE vAGGABOND wrote: »

So it sounds like we are all over the place here, and that we have a bunch of 1's and 2's going here or there - but no "mass" exodus to do a single race like last year, which is a pity..

If we were to decide on doing one, RK made a good point that what made Barca a bit attractive to folks last year is that everyone booked early and got cheap flights sorted.

I don't have any strong opinions on which one I'd like to do but if there were cheap flights/accom somewhere in a reasonably big city I'd be up for it.

Krusty_Clown

Boston Marathon - April 16th 2012. There's still another month to get your qualification times!

Oisin11178

I have a qualifying time but with the new system i can forget about it.
Not going to do a fancy spring marathon next year so i think Berlin is on the cards for next year.

menoscemo

Oisin11178 wrote: »

I have a qualifying time but with the new system i can forget about it.
Not going to do a fancy spring marathon next year so i think Berlin is on the cards for next year.

If it's as good as it's supposed to be, I'll be rebooking it as soon as i get back from doing it this year. Apart from being a cracking course, it's my favoutite city in Europe by far.

Be warned Berlin sells out fast. For this year you had to have it pretty much booked before Christmas, the price also goes up as it fills up.

Another great thing about berlin is that you are back and reested for pacing Dublin.

Ruu_Old

The Illinois Marathon on April 28th. Flat and fast, my homeplace event. Was huge this year but I doubt it can grow much larger, every single hotel was full. Even in nearby small towns, some are already booked up.

http://www.illinoismarathon.com/