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Vienna City Marathon Runner Comments
Back to Vienna City Marathon Information & Reviews
Course 4.3 
Organization 4.1 
Spectators 3.9
Number of comments: 67 [displaying comments 21 to 31]
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a. r. from United States
(4/17/2012)
 "Great race, expo not so hot." (about: 2012)
3 previous marathons
| 3 Vienna City Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 PROS: Beautiful city and I loved the course. It is fast and flat. This is my third marathon and the fastest by 1/2 hour. Lots of water stations and good crowds cheering along the way. Friendly people and the corrals were organized (at least in my section). We stayed at the Vienna Marriott which was the perfect location. I walked back to the hotel from the finish. CONS: The expo wasn't great and the gift bag had nothing in it but water and promotions for future marathons. No finisher t-shirt and the ones for sale weren't worth the cost. The dinner was crowded, no place to sit and it seems very disorganized (they should have seating for different countries). I left after 10 minutes. You have to rent a timing chip for 10 euros (with tax) but you only get 7 euros back. | |
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N. S. from Vienna
(4/16/2012)
"good race, but what happened to my time?" (about: 2012)
1 previous marathon
| 1 Vienna City Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 First my issue: I haven't had my time registered. I am hoping that if others have had problems with their timing chips, we can talk to the organisers about it. Apart from that: nice course, through parks and the city. Good supporting crowd, but crowded arrival area. That was my first half marathon, but I found the arrival disorganised. Queue to get a medal, queue to get a plastic sheet (it was cold!), queue to get the final goody bag, queue to get out, queue to hand the chip back in... Overall though, a very pleasant run! | |
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Z. R. from Amman, Jordan
(4/21/2011)
 "One of the best if not for ..." (about: 2011)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Vienna City Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 Vienna is a great place to run a full marathon. I really enjoyed the run and think there are too many positives to list so I will focus on the negatives! My Garmin Forerunner 305 which has been accurate before gave me the 42.195 mark a whole 600 meters before the end! Probably because of the many turns in the course and the crowded inside track. So I was not able to take the shortest distance on most turns which cost me precious minutes. Also pay attention to the tram tacks, I almost tripped on one of them. Also the relay runners are annoying. They come in with full energy running past you and make you feel like you want to stop running if you know what I mean :). Also (past the) water/banana stations are littered with too many banana peals and cups making you have to slow down. I did make a new Personal Best but missed my target by 5 min. Again, this is a great marathon and a beautiful and culturally rich city to visit. If I run this again, I would know how to shave 4-6 min based on what I learned in my 2011 run. I strongly recommend it. | |
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A. G. from South Carolina, USA
(5/10/2010)
"A great race, but some niggling complaints" (about: 2010)
4-5 previous marathons
| 1 Vienna City Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 Vienna is a great city, the course is great, the race is great (I unexpectedly made a PR) - but some complaints: no T-shirt except at an outrageous price; total lack of enforcement of the starting corrals, so I spent maybe the first 45 minutes of the race trying to edge past slower runners who should not have been where they were (I promise you, I am not that fast!); and the pre-race "International Friendship Party" was very poorly attended (probably because it offered very little for the price and was in the afternoon). The spectators were OK, though thin on the ground in quite a few areas. I basically think this race does not have quite the same community support as some other big-city marathons, so their resources are a bit more limited - but all in all, a wonderful course, city, and race. | |
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S. C. from Johannesburg, South Africa
(4/28/2010)
"A bit disappointing" (about: 2010)
50+ previous marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 I felt a bit let down by the race. Maybe I did not do my homework properly and got taken in by the hype. A lot is made of the 30,000-plus runners, but 22,000 of them do the half marathon, so the second half of the marathon is a lonely affair - especially compared to running Paris the previous week and London the following week. The cost of the entry does not include a finisher's t-shirt. You can buy one for 25 euros before the event. We also attended the International Friendship party. For 8 euros you get to eat Kaiserschmarrn'. No drink is included in the price. We also did not see the thousands of runners that were supposed to be there. The ballroom was fairly empty. Compared to Paris and London, the 8 euros were a bit of a rip-off. The advertised cut-off time was 6 hours, but the clearing up vehicles were passing through before the 6-hour runners came through. The route through the park is great, as they have music playing the whole way into and out of the park. The crowd support along the way was great, and the band at about 37KM played throughout the day, even for the backmarkers. A well organized race, but you may be a bit disappointed if you have done some of the other big-city marathons. | |
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P. K. from Slovakia
(4/22/2010)
 "I liked it" (about: 2010)
4-5 previous marathons
| 1 Vienna City Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 This was my first real big marathon, with world-class athletes and a big crowd. It felt really good being cheered by so many people in a pleasant city. The weather was nearly perfect - a bit windy and quite cool after the run. I had to walk quite a lot after finish to reach my clothes from the lorries that carried them from the start to finish (since the two weren't at the same place), so it's good to have someone at the finish to give you a warm pullover. The only drawback, mentioned already, is the missing t-shirt; but it's probably the cost for the professionally mastered organization of the big mass. Yeah, and the goody bag was rich and the medal is pretty. Definitely will be coming back. | |
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F. H. from Vienna, Austria
(4/19/2010)
"Beautiful course; nice, friendly people" (about: 2010)
1 previous marathon
| 1 Vienna City Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 This is the first full marathon I've run, and overall, it was a fantastic experience. The course is flat and fast, and it takes you along some spectacular sights. The finish area on the Ring - the big, broad boulevard that circles the old town - is especially incredible. The organization was professional; everything worked just fine. All of the staff I interacted with seemed helpful, friendly and motivated. There is no organized transportation to the starting area, which doesn't matter since the public transportation in Vienna is excellent and there is a subway station right there. Sometimes the refreshment stands seemed a little crowded, which had more to do with undisciplined runners than with the staff, though. About the crowds, well, where there were spectators I found them cheerful, supportive and enthusiastic. However there seemed to be substantially fewer people lining the streets than last year when I ran the half marathon. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that many international runners couldn't start this year because air travel was shut down for days because of the volcano in Iceland. Oh well, overall still a big thumbs up for the event. | |
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S. I. from Stockholm
(4/20/2009)
"Fantastic crowds!" (about: 2009)
2 previous marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 This is an interesting event as the half-marathon and marathon are run at the same time, with the start/finish at the same point, which makes it a MASSIVE event. The organization was excellent from start to finish. Everything was perfectly handled. You even had the possibility of setting out private refreshments if you wished. The finish and finish party were absolutely fab!!! A culturally impressive track, although I don't understand why the park takes so much space. Massive and very friendly crowd support throughout the race. I highly recommend this race. | |
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J. E. from Connecticut, USA
(4/19/2009)
 "99 euros without a T-shirt and pasta party" (about: 2009)
50+ previous marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 3 The course race is not bad... running in the park and roads inside Vienna. Paying 99 euros for this race, I expected to get a t-shirt and a pasta party. If I wanted a T-shirt, I had to pay 25 euros. I paid 5 euros for the pasta party, with only ONE serving - and drinks were not included. In all of my marathons, this is the first time that the organizer of this event wanted to get money from the runners in every way possible. The organization is very poor, especially after finishing the race.... Nobody was directing us where to go for food, chips and bags. I think that this is a beautiful race, and I hope that the organizers will think of giving T-shirts and pasta party for all runners - and having more people directing runners after the finishing line. | |
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Andy Walker from Guernsey
(8/25/2008)
"Top European marathon" (about: 2008)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Vienna City Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 Top-class marathon. Excellent course with lots of variations between city and parks, with a nice start across the Danube (easy to get to by metro). No wait to pick up your number. In the goody ba there was even some washing powder amongst a few things. Big expo with lots to look at (and conveniently located near the fairground, which is handy for a bit of a pre-run chill out). Great support along the way and superb marshaling. Fantastic city to visit with loads of history. Great finish area with food, massage, etc. in city center. Only downers are that the water was in cups (as it was hot this year, bottles would've helped) and some poor runner discipline (cutting across and stopping dead at feed stations). |
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