Leidsche-Rijn Marathon

It was a splendid day for people who like to run in warm weather. The course was flat except for the few bridges in between. There was a big crowd in Utrecht; outside of the town there weren't as many spectators. Still, lots of cheering and supporting, and children handed out drinks and wet sponges - I really appreciate this. Only complaint: the race should start earlier in the day.

I ran this for the first time in 2010. What a great, (relatively) little marathon. I wish I had discovered this before and made it an annual visit. There were a few thousand runners running a mainly urban course through a very attractive Dutch town. Great location, around 500 meters from the train station. Adequate water and isotonic drinks every 5K or so, with bananas in the second half. As usual for The Netherlands, it was almost completely flat, so it's a good choice too for PR attempts. One of my few complaints (for other events too) is the obsession with pacers; on some of the narrow roads, it can be a real pain in the neck to fight through crowds of runners gathered around the two "balloon carriers." This was a small event, but it still had pacers in 15-minutes splits from three hours to four and a half. That can mean a lot of traffic jams for those of us gaining speed. There were limited spectators except at the sports center where the start and finish were located - but then, it was Easter Monday. The changing, storage and toilet facilities at the start were outstanding. Nice technical t-shirt as well. There were various distances of races throughout the day, so there were lots and lots of runners of all ages (and shapes) at the start and finish. Nice, simple entertainment laid on too. It genuinely felt like a community event. I would really recommend this race for others.

The course has a lot of variety: suburbs, the old city center in Utrecht, past farms and a magnificent castle in the country side; even through a small forest. There were fewer than 1,000 marathoners, but when we caught up with the half-marathoners, the course became quite a bit more congested. The course was very flat, but the cobblestones in Utrecht were very rough - three out of four runners in our group blistered fairly nastily. We had trouble deciphering where to pick up race numbers: our taxi driver, and a woman at the Tourist Center both had never heard of the location for number pick-up. However, once we got to the race, it was very nicely organized. All in all, a highly enjoyable event.