Fantastic city and fantastic organization - from landing at the airport (marathon info points), to the very nice goody bags, to the loads of water station during run, to the great course. After crossing the finish line, the text message is sent to your mobile giving your run time! Detailed results (time every 10K) are emailed to you, with a link to pictures.

A marathon in Prague could mean running all through the historic old town, all on tram lines and cobblestones, or out and back along the somewhat boring roads in and out of town. The Prague International Marathon tries to do a bit of both, and mostly succeeds.

Negatives:
A choice of pasta sauce (one without meat) would have been good at the pasta party.
More volunteers to help pour and hand out water at the water stations would have been good, and would have prevented having to arrive and wait for the water to be poured.
Not a lot of support away from the city center.
Not a lot at the expo.

Positives:
Lovely city.
Friendly crowd.
Mostly flat, although I could have done without the underpasses.
Four-thousand runners is a nice number. It took a few minutes to get over the start line, but then I was able to run at my own pace for most of the race.

It was my third marathon. I came 8th. I have to say that the organization for this marathon is brilliant: the stand at the airport, the pasta party and exhibition, the start on the old town square, the nice t-shirt, the party after the race on Sunday.... I'll do it again if I can next year.

Prague's organization is the best I've ever encountered. Extra drinks and feeding stations were added last-minute due to the extreme heat, meaning that towards the end you could drink every 2K. The course is very flat - unfortunately, in keeping this course flat, the organizers are forced to run the marathon along a series of out-and-back loops, which can be very disheartening, especially with 5 or 6K to go.

As well as seeing all of the sites of Prague the route takes you through some of the more industrial and less salubrious areas. In some ways this is quite refreshing because you'll see the real Prague as well as the touristy side of the city. There were bands of varying quality in 7 or 8 locations, which helped lift spirits. The crowds were congregated only in the city center and around the main attractions, the best of which would need to be crossing the Charles Bridge which was closed to the public, offering a unique experience for runners.

In general I would recommend this marathon; however it's not particularly easy on the mind due to the loops... the alcohol-free beer around the course for runners is a quirky idea although I didn't see a single person trying any!

Just would like to share here with you: I ran the Prague Marathon and it is a really great race in a unique city. Running through Prague, you will feel its magic and the spirit of running festivities as well. The organization was perfect, and while the expo could be bigger, it was interesting and worked well. From the start on the Old Town Square, to the ton of friendly spectators, to the music festival, and even to the after-race party with complementary beer - everything here made me happy. And then they gave a nice medal (with a possibility to engrave your name and time on it) - just wonderful. Some part of the course was going a little bit outside, but I have heard they are changing it for 2007 to be more in the city. Probably will go again. And here is my advice: you should try it as well. You will never forget its atmosphere.

If you are someone who is thinking about running this race, you should know that it's a good marathon and well worth running. I mean, come on people, we are talking about Prague here. The city of Kafka. Some people have complained about cobblestones at the start and finish, but then again, why are you running the Prague Marathon? I don't think many people run this race to throw down a PR; they do it so that can say to friends, "Oh yeah, went to Prague to run a marathon. Oh, you've never been? You really must go.... Nice place, that Prague."

As for the rest of the course, they ran us out of town and then back in on an out-and-back, which I don't mind because you get to see the leaders run by you and think to yourself... if only I work a bit harder. To people complaining about not enough "crowd support"... get over it, or only stick to the biggies like Boston and New York. Do you really expect the entire town to turn out and cheer all day long for a few thousand runners? Them's my thoughts... good marathon, not the best I've run, but well worth it.

Agree with some of what has been said by others, but I really enjoyed the Prague Experience (4:07:57), and have to say the Cobblestones had no effect on my performance. The heat actually got to me a little, so had to back off from my 4 hour target.

Overall the expo was very weak, so much more could be done with this. Absolutely agree with Simon as to merchandise, with so many 'tourist' runners, they missed a Big opportunity to sell race merchandise.

Yes the dual carriageways were boring, but, although they must have seemed like 35K, I don't think it was that bad. Crowd support was minimal, but the buzz up the finishing straight towards the Old Town was fantastic.

I would come back. Prague is beautiful, and the beer excellent post-race. I have a full report on my Blog at irishrunaholic.blogspot.com if you want a deeper impression of the race.

Everything was perfect except the water. They used a mineral water which was very heavy in minerals, which I'm not at all used to. I think it casued me to throw up during the race and weighted heavily on my stomach for the 2-4 kilometeres before. I wish they would use a more glaciar type mineral water rather than one from the underground springs variety next time.

If you run it, I suggest training while drinking this type of mineral water to get used to it.

Overall a scenic marathon. The first 5K is all throughout the town of Prague. Mostly on cobblestone or tram tracks. There are 2 long stretches (right by the 1/2 marathon mark and the last from 28K-38K). The two long back-to-back stretches are on nicely paved roads (thank goodness!)
They've improved race support by strategically placing volunteers all throughout the course and having rock bands play in the more far-end parts of the course.
They gave the following at aid stations: Mattoni water, Isostar energy drink, oranges, bananas, salt, sugar cubes, sponges/water.
I didn't notice many tourists along the course near the end (and I finished over 5 hours). Overall a really nice race. I hated the 2 small steps 60m from the finish line...
The engraving after the race cost some money (like 130 crowns?)
Also, the chip they use is the one where you wrap around your ankle.
Race Expo was a bit small from the others I've attended. Adidas had a big promo wheryeou have to run a certain speed on the treadmill for 10 minutes and u get discounts on their store or a discounted ipod.
Though I know this is an exaggeration, but it felt like 1/2 the course was on cobblestone!

Let me start with the positives:

1. Prague is a beautiful city and well worth a visit anyway.
2. The first and last KM are brilliant, as they are run in the old town with great support.
3. The music on the course is well-appreciated.

However, 35 KM of the course are run on a dual carriageway outside the city, and it's boring and repetitive with no crowd support.

If the Prague Marathon is to compete with the other marathons in the area, which are also run at the same time of the year (i.e. Vienna). It needs to promote itself better by actually having merchandise at the expo to sell and getting the locals to support the race.