Flat Marathon Courses

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Flat Marathon Courses

Rickshaw
Runworks 2005 5M Racer
San Francisco, CA
Joined: 26 Nov 2004
Posts: 1157

Flat Marathon Courses Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2004 1:45 pm

What marathon courses are generally considered the flattest/fastest? I know Chicago has a reputation for being fast if you can stay ahead of the crowds... any others?

mfox

South Orange, New Jersey
Joined: 19 Dec 2004
Posts: 367

Re: Flat Marathon Courses Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2004 1:56 pm

I ran the Philadelphia Marathon back in '99 and the New Jersey Marathon in '03 and found both to be pretty flat. I th ink the NJ Marathon was the flatest. I think both are regarded as good first-time marathon courses for their flatness and good for a Boston qualifier.

Bricks
Runworks 2005 5M Racer
Chicago
Joined: 09 Dec 2004
Posts: 222

Re: Flat Marathon Courses Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2004 2:02 pm

I've heard Philly and London are a couple of the faster ones.

Pretender
Runworks 2005 5M Racer
Kansas, OK
Joined: 14 Dec 2004
Posts: 100

Re: Flat Marathon Courses Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2004 7:31 am

I haven't run the course, but the Oklahoma City Memorial just has to be flat! :)

Rickshaw
Runworks 2005 5M Racer
San Francisco, CA
Joined: 26 Nov 2004
Posts: 1157

Re: Flat Marathon Courses Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2004 10:22 am

Pretender wrote:
I haven't run the course, but the Oklahoma City Memorial just has to be flat! :)

That's what I thought about the Des Moines marathon. Boy was I surprised! I should have remembered that Des Moines is French for "hills." It actually wasn't too bad, but certainly not flat.

Runner58

Joined: 07 Jan 2005
Posts: 30

Re: Flat Marathon Courses Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2005 9:54 am

Well, if you are into travel, the Lausanne marathon (www.lausanne-marathon.com) is beautiful and very flat, indeed on net a bit downhill. It follows the Lake (that's Lake Geneva) so you have a veiw of the French Alps, Evian, etc the whole way on one side and Swiss vineyards on the other. It is a biggish race but not overwhelming. Zurich also has a very flat nice race, but a limited sign-up. (also follows Zurich's Lake shore) London is a zoo; hard to get a good time do to the crowds and confusion, unless, of course your are at the head of the pack. Berlin where the WR was set. BTW, they say that a slightly rolling hill course is faster since it allows you to vary the muscles you use a bit.

Rickshaw
Runworks 2005 5M Racer
San Francisco, CA
Joined: 26 Nov 2004
Posts: 1157

Re: Flat Marathon Courses Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2005 12:41 pm

Sounds nice, although Switzerland is a bit far for me! I've since signed up for the Napa Valley marathon, which is a gently downhill course, with about 300 feet of elevation drop from start to finish.

dg12

Fort Worth Texas
Joined: 07 Jan 2005
Posts: 3

Re: Flat Marathon Courses Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2005 11:21 am

Houston Texas is on of the worlds flattest and fastest.

Rickshaw
Runworks 2005 5M Racer
San Francisco, CA
Joined: 26 Nov 2004
Posts: 1157

Re: Flat Marathon Courses Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2005 11:30 am

How big are the Houston crowds? The race is early in the year sometime, I think, like January. It must be coming up soon?

MarkUlrich

Joined: 07 Jan 2005
Posts: 3

Re: Flat Marathon Courses Posted: Mon Jan 10, 2005 2:04 pm

Yes, the Houston Marathon is coming up... THIS Sunday, in fact! See www.hphoustonmarathon.com. Austin's Marathon (in mid-February) is significantly more hilly than Houston's marathon, but as a point-to-point marathon it is net downhill, and thus many claim it to be faster than Houston. I can't comment though, since I haven't yet run it. I have however run both Chicago and Houston and feel that both are approximately equally fast in terms of elevation. However the weather in Houston in mid-January is typically cooler, and thus gives an advantage versus Chicago (held in mid-October.) On the other hand, the crowd in Chicago is larger (1-million vs. ~40,000 spectators.). Both are good Marathons and have very good support.

miina

Joined: 02 Feb 2005
Posts: 6

Re: Flat Marathon Courses Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2005 3:47 pm

The Portland marathon is pretty flat except for one nasty hill at the 16th mile. I've also heard that the Sacramento marathons tend to be pretty flat courses as well.

allen

Utah
Joined: 16 Jan 2005
Posts: 27

Re: Flat Marathon Courses Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 7:03 am

The new Salt Lake City Marathon in April is mostly flat, but the high elevation will kill you if you're not used to it :(

Rickshaw
Runworks 2005 5M Racer
San Francisco, CA
Joined: 26 Nov 2004
Posts: 1157

Re: Flat Marathon Courses Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2005 10:20 am

I hear the North Pole Marathon is pretty flat too, but for some reason it's still not a fast course. :-)

ginger

Cambridge, MA
Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 46

Re: Flat Marathon Courses Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 5:15 pm

California Int'l (Sacramento) and Las Vegas are both supposed to be relatively flat and fast, although both have the danger of windy days (as does napa). There also was a marathon (austin tx maybe?) that a few years ago advertised that it was so fast that if you had run a marathon within 10 minutes of your boston qualifying time within the last year, and you ran their race, and didn't qualify for boston, they'd refund your entry fee. Can't seem to find it now though ... anybody remember that?

Rickshaw
Runworks 2005 5M Racer
San Francisco, CA
Joined: 26 Nov 2004
Posts: 1157

Re: Flat Marathon Courses Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 6:01 pm

Yes, that was the Austin Motorola Marathon, now called the Freescale Marathon. They made that offer in 2002, I think. I ran it in 2003 so it wasn't a lot of help!

ginger

Cambridge, MA
Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 46

Re: Flat Marathon Courses Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2005 1:42 pm

I thought that was an intriguing marketing ploy. Do you think they had to give lots of refunds and that's why they stopped doing it? Was it a really fast course?

Rickshaw
Runworks 2005 5M Racer
San Francisco, CA
Joined: 26 Nov 2004
Posts: 1157

Re: Flat Marathon Courses Posted: Wed Feb 09, 2005 2:39 pm

It's a net downhill course, but not hugely so. I think CIM is a faster course. I actually doubt they had to give many refunds. Only 10%-20% of people can run a BQ time or close to one, and probably at least half of those have already BQ'd. So of the maybe 10% that are in striking range of a BQ time, probably half or more made it, just because they trained for it, and because the course is a bit downhill. So maybe they had to offer refunds to 5% of the runners, and I bet most of them didn't bother to follow through on it anyway.

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