I'm not keen on the name for this event, I think there are plenty of other events which would be stronger contenders for that title. But I guess the organisers thought it sounds grander than the Sunderland marathon.
I did this last year, but this year they introduced a half marathon and altered the route for the marathon itself. Last year we had about 18m south of the river and 8m to the north. This year the distances were about the same for both sides of the river. I enjoyed the first half more and the second half less as the bits they added seemed to include a few extra hills.
Incredible numbers of people from my club were running - 31 just for the marathon ! Then there were 11 for the half and 4 for the 10K. There was relay for the first time, but it appeared to have a very small number of teams, nothing like Vienna two weeks ago when there were 2700 teams. This event, being our closest marathon, has definitely inspired people from our club.
It was cold and windy at the start and during the race it varied between wind, rain, cold and about ten minutes of sun - a few of us, including me, managed to get sun or wind burnt. It was a very well organised event, not too crowded, well stocked and staffed drinks stations.
I joined six other clubmates who were running as a group. There were three other groups running at various speeds and it was great seeing the other groups and individual Striders on the many out and back sections. I have mixed feelings about out and back sections, it is great to see other people, but then you are always wondering where the turn around point is and you know what is coming on the back leg. You also get back to where you started but a bit more tired.
My group was aiming for ten minute miles. I stuck with them until about 18m when I felt myself dropping behind. They were about 3 minutes ahead of schedule at that point so I didn't worry too much about it. But then we had an into the strong wind section and two out and back sections which involved climbs on the way out and they disappeared into the distance. I just lost energy at this point. I had been hoping for sub 4hr 30min but I could see that slipping away as I was walking more. I then aimed to do better than my other six long events this year and I did achieve that. Just before the end I came across an old running friend who was marshalling and he ran with me for 400m which really helped. Then it was over the railway bridge to be greeted by lots of cheers from my clubmates and the crowd 
Into the finish just outside the Stadium of Light and then into the Stadium (impressive place) past the manager's area to get medals, tee shirts, goody bag and bananas.
Then it was cheering in other members of our club and then in the evening we went and took over a local pub. So although my time was a little disappointing (more work mid-week needed I think), it was a grand day out
This was a good city marathon. Pretty flat and scenic with regular water stations. My 80th marathon/ultra and my first one outside the UK. It was never going to be a pb for me, I am doing too many long races and no training so the plan was to enjoy the scenery and atmosphere. It would have been great to get under 4.30, a time which I used to achieve without much difficulty three years ago, but realistically sub-5 was the likely outcome. This would easily be my fastest time this year as my previous five marathons/ultras this year have all been hilly, off road and required navigation (HORN) events.
MelanieLH and I had help before the start, my sister lives in Vienna and we went to the house of one of her friends which was 50 yards from the starting pens We could relax, use their toilets and then just pop out fifteen minutes before the start and go into our allocated pen. It was clear that our pen contained people from other pens and it was fairly crowded. It is a while since I have done a large event and it did remind me of the VLM and GNR or rather what I don't like about those events, there are too many people !
Our pen was starting about 9 minutes after the main start. This was going to make it tricky to catch Haile Gebrselassie (who easily won the half marathon) so I decided not to attempt that ... Everything seemed to start on time and we took a bit longer to cross the line. The field was spread across both lanes of a dual carriageway and we crossed the Danube
http://www.vienna-marathon.com/?menu=0&url=starter&lang=en
and headed towards to the famous wheel of the Third Man fame where we turned left and into the Prata, a large park.
Before the start of the race I struggled with working out the route. The best way I can describe it as a letter 'X'. We started at the top right arm and ran towards the centre, then the bottom right arm, bottom left, top left and finally the bottom right again. The centre wasn't a single point but the Ring (the inner ring road which used to be the city walls, but the walls were all demolished about two hundred years ago and replaced by many of Vienna's iconic buildings), so when we got close to the centre we started to go round the Ring before going out on another arm. That is a simplified description, if you want more detail, go to http://www.fetcheveryone.com/routes-view.php?id=1295947
As we went into the Prata the course narrowed a bit which made the crowding a bit worse. We had been told it would be crowded in the first 10k, but it didn't really thin out until the half marathoners turned into the fantastic finish that we would be visiting 13.1m later. The first two drinks stations (every 5K or so) were chaos, they didn't have enough staff to cope with the demand from runners. It was a hot day, relatively speaking, with little wind. Three weeks earlier we had completed a marathon route completely covered in about four inches of snow, this felt so different ! We managed to stay together after these chaotic drinks stations and they were better staffed after this and some of these drink stations had bananas which I hadn't seen before (there was a downside to this, you expect to be trampling over plastic glasses in these sorts of events, but banana skins were more challenging !).
What made the race even more crowded is that it is popular with locals who participate in the relay event. Last year there were 6000 finishers in the marathon and 2700 relay teams, a staggering number. These teams were often a mixture of fast and slow runners, so we had fast runners flying by throughout the race or weaving round us the first half. I can see the attraction of the relay, there were two long stages and two short stages so lots of people whatever their ability could participate. The change over points were slightly chaotic, with incoming runners desperately trying to spot their outgoing team members. The relay also helped to bring out the crowds although they weren't as noisy as they are in many large UK events.
At the bottom of the bottom left arm was Schönbrunn Palace which we struggled to get a good view of because we were avoiding a change over point for the relay and looking out for my sister who was running the second stage (we never saw her, she finished the second stage before we reached the next change over point). We went back to the Palace the next day, it was stunning, a must see if you go to Vienna.
After the Palace there was an incline upwards back to the Ring, but it didn't feel very much. Then finally the half marathoners turned off through the arches and into the arms of the Hofburg Palace. And there was space
At this stage I lost Melanie. Normally we run together, but the plan this time was to see how it goes. She was after a good pb, a pb wouldn't be hard as her previous eight marathons/ultras had all been HORN events, but I wasn't in shape for what she was after. So at this stage she drifted away into the distance. I lost sight of her and the 4.30 pacer who was carrying a big flag. I was a bit disappointed that I seemed to be losing energy again, but I knew my training hadn't been adequate and I set out to just enjoy what I could see round the route. I also had to make a toilet stop as I had been taking on lots of water to cope with the heat so I knew there was no chance of catching M again.
I did see her again in the bottom right arm which we did for a second time. This contained a couple of out and back sections, one of them quite long. This was in the Prata where the spectators were thin on the ground. However, they had lots of music booming out of speakers, some of it classical (Vienna has style ) and we also had Robbie Williams asking to entertain us This made it a bit easier, but at the 34K I got hit by the dreaded cramp in my left calf. It was so painful I had to pull off and stretch, but it didn't seem to help very much. I had been very strict with myself in this event, regular shot bloks, s-caps and water, so I can only put it down to the heat and not being used to long runs on tarmac. I slowed down even further, but then it happened again, so I moved into a walk/run strategy. As I ran through the arches into the grounds of the Hofburg Palace at the finish there was more music and what greeted me was Call Me Maybe which made me cross the finish with a big smile
http://www.youtube.com/v/6kDcTDD6ye0
I knew I would be under 5hr and came in with 4h 47min which I was happy with I will let MelanieLH tell the story of her event.
We had a great six days in Vienna, we shall be back
