The course twisted and turned around the city center so much - with a huge amount of doubling back on yourself - that it became utterly tedious and very unattractive to run. The crowds, however, were great, and the organization was of a high standard if not perfect (the drinks area at the finish should have been the first thing available, not the last; and there were not enough toilets at the start - 35 for 8,000 people!). Brussels and Amsterdam are much nicer courses to run.

First time for me in the Frankfurt Marathon, and I thought the course was very good for a fast time. The leg massage, free and given by students, was great. So were the free food and the beer. The drummers on the route were fantastic, and there was a great indoor finish at the end. I will be back for sure.

This marathon was organized very well, though the start and first 7 KM were pretty cramped. The near proximity of the spectators was great. I could even (briefly) greet my family at KM 35. The finish was the highlight: "Red carpet" in the Festhalle with music, laser shows and the works! That was worth all the pain.

An excellent marathon, with a fast, flat course, that's well organised and well supported throughout. Frankfurt is easy to get around with good travel links and the start line is only a 1/2-mile from the main train station. Accommodation is also cheap.

I ran this race in 2006 and again in 2007. The course is fast, well marked and easy to follow... not that you'll have too many opportunities to get lost, what with 15,000 others running. I highly recommend this race for anyone wanting to experience a European marathon with a party atmosphere.

The ONLY area that could use improvement is the starting shoot. There were so many people and so little organization at the beginning. I don't mind that it took me almost 7 minutes to get to the start, but I did mind that I was fighting through plodding runners for the first 8K. They need to block off areas of the starting shoot better and map those blocks to goal times. I wound up picking my starting location based upon how "athletic" the people around me looked... far from scientific.

This was my first marathon and I couldn't have chosen a better one. Crowd support was off the scale for the entire course. It seemed as though the entire city had come out to cheer us on. Course was great, mostly urban, very flat. Great festival atmosphere, complete with live bands. Organization was excellent considering the enormous crowds. No complaints at all. Excellent race.

It was my fourth, and the best one. Very effective organization, festival atmosphere, flat and easy course, plenty water stops with big choice of drinks and some food, and an amazing finish in a concert hall with red carpet. Fan support was tremendous too. It was a really big pleasure for me to participate in such a great sport event, although I didn't get a PR. I recommend this marathon to everyone.

This was my first marathon and it was an awesome experience. It had a festive atmosphere with all the bands and crowd support. The course was flat and easy, with little hills. Registration was easy and you didnt have to speak the language.

Only negative comment I have is that the race was only open for 5 1/2 hours, which might be hard for first-time runners and they didn't have enough medals for everyone. My advice for running this marathon is to train to run faster than a 5:30:00.

This was my second marathon and my first overseas. The course is advertised as the 3rd fastest in Germany and there really were no hills to speak of. The industrial section of the course (first 7K and last 5K) are unremarkable, but the loop away from the center of town was quite nice. There could have been a better spacing of porta-potties as they tended to be clustered and quite far apart. The fan support for this marathon was tremendous. Runners who enjoy crowds, clapping, high-fives from kids and bands should strongly consider this race.

I ran the 2005 edition. I selected this marathon because I started to train quite late in the summer and wanted to find a marathon which is run as late in the autumn as possible. It was a very positive surprise. The organization was perfect: registration was very efficient, there was comprehensive and frequent service along the route and after the finish line. It was a little bit narrow during the first kilometer, but OK after that. The finish inside a very nice concert hall was really "gänsehaut pur," a huge culmination to the race. The route was OK, flat and easy to run, although at some places it was a little bit quiet and boring (especially at about 35 KM - a long leg through an industrial district). This time the weather was perfect (sunny, no wind, about 15 C); I have heard that this is not always the case in Frankfurt. I have run marathons also in Stockholm, Helsinki, Berlin and Paris and would rank this marathon in the second place along with Stockholm. However, Berlin stays my favorite and will hopefully be my next target.