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| I've run six Marathons: 3 back home in Switzerland (twice Lausanne, once
Zurich), once Paris, once Berlin and once Nagano Japan. And Berlin was my
favourite! :) Very special with huge numbers of supporters and bands. Paris
follows close, also a great crowd but there are some more 'silent' parts. London
is probably the biggest in Europe, so probably good too (I haven't run it, only
helped at a drinks station with my running club), but London has some dull bits
of the course (a big part is not in central London).
In general I prefer bigger ones with lots of supporters.. as you probably
noticed, that just adds to the special experience. Smaller ones (eg Lausanne)
are tougher because there's almost no support on big parts of the distance.
Zurich is in between, smaller than Berlin etc. but still big enough to have good
support. But there are certainly other people who prefer the smaller, more quiet
ones.
Some of the big ones (eg Paris, possibly London) also sometimes have some
congestion problems due to the sheer nubmer of runners.. you can get stuck in
the first turn etc. but that's only important if you are going for a fast time.
Berlin again is known to be very fast (also very flat), not only since Haile's
world records. My personal best is from there too ;)
Nagano was a very special experience too. Japanese supporters are very cheerful
(even though different than here, there's more clapping and less shouting), and
they give you extra cheers if they spot you as European (ie white) person.. and
even more if you manage to give them a smile (not always easy during a marathon
though, I know..). The only downpoint there was that the course goes through
central Nagano in the first half (which is great) but then the second half is
outside a long way along a river, and more quiet.. even though this is the part
where you would need all their support.
Apart from those that I've run (and can comment on) there are of course lots of
others around the world. The site mentioned by kinderis is a good starting
point, you see there are Marathons all over the place... so just pick your
favourite spot, or favourite time of year...
Good luck with the ultra, kinderis. Haven't tried that.. there's a famous ultra
mountain marathon in Switzerland, the K78 (basically 78km distance with more
than 2000m uphill and back downhill - see http://www.swissalpine.ch/), that I
want to do SOME day in my life.. although I think not anytime soon...
Happy running!
Luzian
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