Best Marathon to run sub 3

EMPM

Not this year but maybe next year i hope give sub 3 a shot. Which marathon do you think would give me the best chance of doing this.

Thanks

Krusty_Clown

Dublin is pretty solid. A good course (largely flat). Good support. Almost guaranteed good weather. Water in bottles. Sub-3 pacers. Perhaps course knowledge (if you live in the area or have run it before). Hard to find a more suitable marathon, to be honest.

gerard_65

Find a point to point, downhill, strong tail wind, marathon. If you do let me know.;)

Itziger

gerard_65 wrote: »

Find a point to point, downhill, strong tail wind, marathon. If you do let me know.;)

Killarney then i guess!

ThePiedPiper

EMPM, if you're looking to go to Europe, here's some of the fastest and flattest races within a couple of hours away:

Berlin, London, Amsterdam, Seville, Paris, Budapest.

Any of those marathons are excellent courses, with a great chance of running sub-3 if you're in the shape.

Of the lot, you might be a bit lonely at sub-3 pace in Budapest, I placed 75th in it off a 2:58, so there's not a whole lot in the way of company, plus the course has a lot of out and backs, so can be a bit testing.

Seville is an absolutely brilliant marathon, unbelievable value, excellent organisation, and it often dubs as the Spanish championships. I think about 400 of the 3,500 finished sub-3 the year I did, so there was a lot of runners to work off at that pace.

In terms of pacers, AFAICR, Berlin, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Budapest had them for sub-3. (Note: Sub-3 pacers in Budapest were pretty poor, was at 2:55 until 10 miles, at which point one of them pulled out injured). Pacers were all spot on in the other races.

ASIMON0V

Florence / Firenze is good for it; very flat with margnal elevation loss, good pacers and support with loads of eye-candy to take the pain away, and cos it's in November there is little chance of errant weather.

TRR

Berlin or London are fast but Dublin is hard to beat. If you live close to Dublin takes away hassle of travel & sleeping in an unfamiliar bed etc. As said above course etc is grand.

average_runner

Venice is net downhill.

Caprica

I'd go with Berlin, had my first sub-3 there, very flat course with great support. I think London is another good one, good course with amazing support from the very first mile, ran it last year when sick but stuggled towards the end. Never ran them but I would imagine Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

Dublin is not my favourite course, I think the last 10k is tough, but I have been sub 3 on it. Support on the course has improved greatly in recent years.

TRR

Caprica wrote: »

I'd go with Berlin, had my first sub-3 there, very flat course with great support. I think London is another good one, good course with amazing support from the very first mile, ran it last year when sick but stuggled towards the end. Never ran them but I would imagine Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

Dublin is not my favourite course, I think the last 10k is tough, but I have been sub 3 on it. Support on the course has improved greatly in recent years.

Have to disagree with you there slightly, I think last 10k of Dublin is very fast. Basically all downhill, few patches are quiet supporters wise but I have always found it fast.

EMPM

Thanks for all the replies, I have done Dublin twice and will be doing it again this year, aiming for 3:15.

I do like Dublin but I find the last 6 miles tough but I'm sure the last 6 miles are tough in every marathon. I like that it is in October, so I have the summer to train.

London looked great last week, it's close, have family living there, it ticks a few boxes and it would be great to do one outside Ireland

robinph

If you have a good for age time then London is a good course and you'll then be able to start from near the front without much in the way of congestion. It will still be busy all the way round with other runners and you'll be unlikely to find the pacers. If you are confident of your own pacing then it won't be an issue.

Dublin you will have a clearer road, the pacers will be easy to find and run with, and apart from a couple of very short hills there is nothing much to trouble you on the way round.

Of the two London is faster, but I think a sub 3 attempt would be better done in Dublin.

Itziger

Hey, EMPM, I forgot to mention Valencia. Belcarra and myself did it last year. It's in November, gives you all Summer and then some to train. Flat and lots of 'quality' runners.

Cheapish too, about 45e now I think. Ryanair fly direct, metro from airport...........

psychozeb

Frankfurt marathon is as fast as Berlin and size wise would have similar numbers to Dublin.looking at stats from there and there ia a way higher percentage sub 3.lovely race and on same weekend as Dublin.