Eindhoven Marathon

Flat but exciting course. Music and fantastic fans that created a good atmosphere all the way. Well-organized. Short distance between Central station - Race office - Start area. This was my 5th marathon, and I am happy recommend Eindhoven.

The start was a little low key, plenty of space for the ~2000 entrants but little music & only family to cheer the start. There are plenty of pacers at the start. Race course is well laid out - wide smooth roads, few slight grades, no issues with footing, sharp turns or bottlenecks. There was water and energy drink every 5 km but then for some reason they started having separate water and energy drink stations which were 2.5 km apart beginning around km 25 which was a minor annoyance. There were a decent number of spectators, DJs or bands on course to keep things interesting. Last 2km to the finish was fantastic with music, crowds etc. Weather was a bit cool around 5 deg C with slight wind. Thanks to the clocks around the course and pacers I was able to beat my goal time and get a 3 hr 15 min time. The entrants in this marathon were plenty fast so that did not place me as high as I would normally expect. After the finish there wasn't much - like most Dutch races they had water and energy drink and that's it. No food or fruit.

This is still a well organised race with a fast flat course and music (bands, PAs etc) all round. However, they now only let the elite runners put out their own drinks. Also the course has been changed - it used to go bang through the town centre at half way and you got a tremendous lift from the support. Now it skirts the town centre half way, and has several miles with no real support... the bit through the building site with a headwind was new and hard to love. The upside of the course change is that 4h+ runners get to see the leaders come through, which is fab. Runners from outside the eurozone should note that now they only take bank transfers for payment, no credit cards. But you can usually sign up at the expo for cash.