Vienna City Marathon - Race Reviews

Vienna provides participants spectacular views from the city. Volunteers and audience were perfect and expo was satisfying to meet runners' demands. However, there are some points must be improved: There was no blue sign along the route to follow best/optimum line which was highly confusing. Block 4 is for those who target to finish 3:50 (5:25-5:30 min/km)- 4:30 marathon (6:20 min/km) was really irrelevant and also for those to finish 1:50-2 hours half marathon. Thus, it was really crowded and making zig-zags among slower runners was annoying. Additionally, start times of marathon and half should be separated to avoid such things.

This was the first marathon with over 10.000 participants (in 42K; 21K and relay). The sanitation measurements were excellent, everybody has to get a negative antigen test 24 hours previous the start to get its bib number. The wide start has plenty of room. The race itself is flat, gorgeous scenery, with water and isotonic stations every 5km or so, they offered you bananas, but no gels, so you must carry yours! The weather was hot (20º-26ºC / 68ª-79ºF) but you get a big glass of non alcoholic wheat beer at the finish line. The medal pretty and golden star with a Swarovski crystal. Not that much crowd as a Major marathon, but there is enough support during the course.

Unfortunately, I just found out that its not possible to pick up your race documents on the day itself. I was planning to travel to Vienna for one day to run the marathon. Unfortunately I will arrive too late to pick up my race documents. I contacted the organisation if they could help me, but they were very unfriendly and unwilling to help. Yes, they can bring the documents to my hotel for an extra charge of 40 euro! They simply forgot that I already payed 100 euro during my registration.

Review for the 34th Vienna City Marathon 4/23/17 42.195km Finisher! Ah Vienna, The City of Light! Home to Mozart, wiener, and the once powerful capital of all of Europe! The Vienna City Marathon is truly a Gold Label IAAF Road Race. Well-organized! 2017 saw 12,000 full marathon runners, 15,000 for the half marathon, and 14,000 for the total number of relay runners divided into teams of four - held on Sunday. On Saturday, there's also the National Championships 10K, Vienna 10K, and for young children - Get active 4.2 and Get active 2.0 PROS: Flat scenic course with 9:00AM start time. Well-stocked & well-spaced hydration stations with mineral water, Powerade and there's even an official Coca Cola sponsored refreshment station. Great crowd support, with every sponsored stations making you feel like you've just crossed a sub finish line! And since the start time for full marathoners, half marathoners, and relay runners are divided within the same time blocks, there will always be fresh legs to compete against! Everywhere in Vienna is accessible by train, which are affordable! The CAT Train takes 16 minutes from Vienna International Airport to Wien Mitte Center. From here you can reach your hotel, starting point, or sightseeing destination via their safe fast/efficient, 24/7 subway trains. Viennese are friendly & polite when it comes to asking for direction. Most women, that I've walked pass on the streets, appear model thin and sophisticated, yet approachable. CONS: On VCM Race Day Sunday, April 23, 2017 @ 8:45AM. Cold temperature 41F with light drizzle & an 18mph wind making the weather feels more like 35F. More porta potty: I saw a few peeing in the wood. Other than these points, the 2017 VCM was a huge success! Vienna Sports World Expo, though smaller on scale, had all the making of a top rated venue from sponsors like Adidas whom I'd purchased the great fitting 'Theater of Emotion' tech shirt from and got my photo taken inside the cockpit of a custom BMW Laufsport VCM turbo with a chance to enter & win the actual car. The VCM Carbo Loading Party was also amazing! When & where can you dine on gourmet pasta or Viennese pancakes inside a fancy place like the Vienna City Hall wearing spandex jumpsuit? My one complaint, I wish they offer second serving for the price. RACE DAY: I couldn't be more excited, or concern. At the lineup, a group from Switzerland doing relay asked me to take their photos which lighten the mood. After 4km, someone from the crowd yelled aloud 'Khan! We support you in Vienna!' I had my mp3 headphone cranked too and can still hear the support. Near 19km, an announcer was standing in the middle of the street speaking in German. As I sprint toward them, both the crowd & announcer went dead silent. I didn't want to lose focus and kept running. As I passed them, I heard the announcer called out to me on his microphone 'ARCHDUKE!' and the crowd started applauding. All of the sudden my fatigue, hunger & jet leg left me and I felt empowered, running even faster. Coming from a proud yet humble beginning with entitlement, I didn't know what to expect and was hesitant to run in Vienna - the dynastic capital of the former Habsburg Monarchy. The Habsburg rule ended in 1918 with the abdication of Emperor Karl. The current government of Austria is fearful of uprising and does NOT allow entitlement such as 'archduke' to be use! All members of the Habsburg living in Austria are only allowed the distinction of Habsburg-Lothringen or Habsburg-Lorraine to their name. I had even written in advance to VCM road race director & staff, asking whether it is okay for me to use my title. I am pleased that they accepted me with open arm as an archduke & an athlete in Austria.

A good mix of city, park and riverside sections in the marathon.The starts were well thought out, with different paces being started at intervals, but lack of 'policing' and poor self-control meant that there were still many slower runners getting in the way. The drinks stations were adequate but being positioned opposite each other made it difficult to get through the middle on some of the narrower parts.(And why is it so difficult to throw a plastic cup to the side of the road?) With Relay runners, half-marathon runners and full marathon runners all setting off together there were some busy stretches, but it did get simpler, eventually. Vienna takes great pride in its marathon, and goes out of its way to stage a major event. However, from the runners' perspective there are many small details that could be improved.e.g. Clearer signs and directions for the pasta party, registration, and start areas. Instructions on how to secure the timing chip, and there was nobody to help collect them at the end. There was some misunderstanding about the different medals, for Full, Half and Team events. Baggage drop and pick-up were good, and there was plenty of fruit and drink at the finish. This was marathon #30 for me, so I have seen better and worse organisation. But with a bit more attention to detail this special marathon could become great, and fitting for such a city.

This is not a marathon for beating your best time. - It is totally packed with people since you will run together with half-marathon and relay marathon. There was no space for running my pace (5:20 per km) in the first 15 kms. I guess (I don´t have statitics for proving this) there are a lot of people lying about their time. - In the info of the marathon says that there will be water and iso every 5 kms. This is NOT ACCURATE. The first refreshment point was at km 4.8, the second one was at around km 9.4!!! Others were 400 meters after the km point. So you never know exactly where the next refreshment point is. You have to guess when to take the energy gel. Ok ok.. there were some shields saying 'water in 200m'. I saw them after km 20 when the crowd was gone. - As one can imagine, refreshment points in km 5, 10 and 15 were a chaos. - Between kms 30 and 35 one runs a big U which has no public and demotivate since you know after 5 kms you will come back at the same point. You will hit the wall in an isolated place with no support from people. - The app for cell phones is terribly bad. Your family and friends cannot follow your race properly. - It is mainly a half-marathon race. After the km 20 one can see that 70% of the crowd is no longer running. - In the places where the 'relay' takes place, runners stop for chatting or walk further on the track after finishing the relay. People waiting for the relay use place of the track for looking if the previous relay is coming. Positive: the scenery of Vienna is beautiful (when you can see it)

The marathon is superb. Vienna is a beautiful city with all the stunning buildings and sights. This helps while running. The running EXPO the day before was well organized and the chip transfer was really smooth. This whole trip was amazing and I would recommend everyone to run the VIENNA CITY MARATHON! <3

I participated for the first time in Vienna this year for the half-marathon and I had my expectations high as it was advertised as a major event with more than 40000 runners in all events combined. Unfortunately what annoyed me the most was lack of enforcement in the starting corrals. I was assigned to corral 2 based on my current time and I was attempting to at least challenge my PR. From very early on, I saw that as impossible as everyone around me was running at a slower pace and several times I was blocked to run forward. I understand everyone wants to participate and be part of the event but please do the rest of us a favour, respect the corral order and don't lie on the registration about your time. And a note to the organization - please scroll through the results and call out this people. Perhaps they will think twice about cheating on corral placement if you take action.

Vienna is a beautiful city and I signed up for the half marathon as it had all the signs of a good, enjoyable experience, however, I was a bit disappointed by the event organization. 1. If you rely on water booths, then you will be late by 2-3 minutes. At the first water booth, I literally had to walk for around 50m because of the congestion. Almost the same (maybe a bit better) happened with other water booths as well. 2. There were just too many runners, leading to people jostling against each other. Maybe the half marathoners and full marathoners should have been separated out. 3. If one hasn't participated in Vienna before, then he/she might be bumped towards the back of starting blocks. I was bumped into the second last starting block. 4. At one particular location, there was a slight bump on the path because of which I saw 3 runners falling down including me. My wife standing at that very spot saw around 15 runners falling down in a span of 15 minutes. 5. Despite organizers selling the event as an international one, there were hardly good English speaking helpdesks/information centers. In my case, when I asked them about pacemakers, they told me that there are none. Again, as I said there were all the good signs of a great city marathon experience but it was ruined for me. Of course, there were certain good things as well, like bib collection was one of the easiest I ever experienced, course was quite beautiful/rich in history, weather was great etc.

This was my third time running the Vienna half-marathon. I really love this race. The route crosses the Danube river, circles the historic city centre, runs through the famous Prater park - where the spring blossom and historic ferris wheel provide a great backdrop. Around the 17 km mark you reach Schonbrunn, the summer palace of the emperors, and then for the grand finale you run down towards the old city centre crossing the finish line in the grounds of the Hofburg imperial palace. As usual the hospitality of the Austrian capital city was outstanding, with an amazing package of pre-marathon events - including a sponsored concert of waltzes and polkas in the grand hall where Johann Strauss once conducted, and an international party in the townhall (Rathaus), in my opinion one of the most beautiful buildings in the world. Picking up the race number, T-shirt and time-chip was really quick and fun...no queues and lots of discounts on running gear, inteviews with top runners, and a nice cold pint of beer (alcohol-free of course!) The race organisers provided an excellent website http://www.vienna-marathon.com/?lang=en which made everything easy for me, a non-German speaker, and many thanks to the sponsors for all the free goodies, drinks and food in the post race bag. I've started planning for my 4th attempt next year! And if my personal enthusiasm for this event has persuaded you to give it a go in 2015 I look forward to seeing you there :)

I really enjoyed the race a lot. The course through the City of Vienna is amazing, passing all the sights of this really, really nice city. Picking up all the documents (including the number) was a really easy task at the well organized expo. Also the spectators were really friendly and enthusiastic, although there were a few spots along the course where almost no one stood (easy to notice where no subway station is nearby). All in all I can really recommend participating at the Vienna City Marathon, you won't regret it. I already signed up for the 2015 race again!

Overall a very nice marathon in a great city. The organizers do a great job with getting information out to runners in the months leading up the marathon. The organization for package pickup was great. Quite a few people on Saturday picking up packages but the process was quick and efficient. You have to pick up a chip at a different table than the race number, but since it went really quickly I have no complaints (outside of an additional 5 euro fee for the chip rental). The race day organization was great. Easy to find the starting blocks from the Ubahn, and the bag drop behind the starting blocks. The staggered 6 starting blocks went off smooth (last group leaving around 30 minutes after the official 9AM start). There was a quite a bit of congestion at times (to be expected with 40K runners) throughout the first 20K (Im a slower 4:00 runner). With 9K marathoners + several thousand marathon relay runners and 20K plus half marathoners, this race really could/should be split off into two races (on different dates or stagger the starting times by several hours, like Koln). Congestion cleared up totally after the half marathoners left the course after the first half. Overall the course was good. Not entirely flat, but just a few smaller inclines/declines to mix it up a little. There are two separate switchbacks during the latter stages of the race that were tough mentally. The second one around KMs 33 to 37 (or so) was the least enjoyable part of the course (and no crowd support in the area). They set up some loud speakers with music on this part to try to help, but still part of the course that could be improved. The finish in the Heldenplatz was great and a good ending to a nice marathon.

Very disappointing race! Poorly organized start. No color-coding for the speed/pace groups or separation for half-marathon and full marathon - everybody was clamped together to start and to run the same course. The half marathon participants finished, and the full marathon runners had to go 13.1 more miles! No free t-shirts - you have to pay money and get at EXPO. Outdated time-chip - they charge money to rent it, and after we returned it, they gave us some money (not the full amount)back. At the finishers villiage was total chaos, and very little assistance if you have questions or help. The best thing about this race was a pasta party at the City Hall day before. The course was not much to look at, but pretty flat.

As mentioned they ran out of medals for half marathoners. I emailed the race director and they will mail me one - not quite the same but I'll take it.

They run out of medals for the half-marathon even though they knew the numbers and took our money for one months before. Beautiful course, shame about the lack of organisation. No info about how to get one.

One of the most beautiful cultural cities in the world. The course starts along the Danube River and then takes you through the ancient streets of the city, past many historical sites. The course is narrow at times, particularly in the later stages, but by then the field has spread out. The fans are sweet, if a bit reserved. One of the best marathon courses in Europe I would say.

The Vienna City Marathon has the feel of a big event. It is one of the better marathons to run in Europe. The organisation is superb with several neat features, such as the ability to download an app for the event onto your mobile phone in the weeks' preceding the race. Meanwhile, the registration expo is vast with masses of exhibition stands selling merchandise. Mizuno have the contract as the official merchandise supplier and whilst the t-shirts were nice, it would have been good to have a greater choice of products to buy such as sweatshirts and hooded tops. This is where the bigger marathons such as Berlin and New York stand out. Another feature of the organisation was the pre-race information pack that was available to download as a PDF file. Written in English and German, this was one of the best event guides that I have seen for a marathon. The results from the race appeared online within hours of finishing, together with an SMS text being sent to your mobile phone. The results diploma was also available the following day and a nice touch was having an image of the finishers' medal displayed on the diploma. The medal is beautiful and one of the best within my marathon collection. The course starts across the Danube River and thereafter remains within the city centre, taking in all of the magnificent buildings in Vienna. The course is flat but tight in places, particularly towards the later stages. One improvement would be the removal of the out and back section between 31km to 35km. Here the road is split into two, with runners facing each other. It is not so good seeing competitors who are several km ahead of you pulling away. In truth, it is a fairly uninspiring part of the course. The finish makes up for this though, as you run underneath an arch into historic Heldenplatz, surrounded by crowds on either side of the plaza and with a red carpet guiding you up to and across the finish line. The weather could have been better. It was a grey, overcast day that felt chilly with temperatures never rising above 11ÚC to 13ÚC / 52ÚF to 55ÚF and slight drizzle in the air towards the later stages of the race. It could have been far worse though, had the heavy rain forecast materialised. This was quite a difference from 2011, with race reports indicating a particularly hot day without a cloud in sight. Vienna therefore comes highly recommended, particularly given the fast course together with the super efficiency of the event. Just be prepared for all kinds of weather, given the mid-April date.

A great city and great course for sure. The medals were actually not that good and a t-shirt would have been nice. The starting lines can be confusing with one side of the street starting 300 yds back compared to the other side of the street. The volunteer people could not explain to me why that was. The reason is in the back of the book they give you at packet pick-up, which I read later. Trying to find a smoke free restaurant is impossible and I was even faced with many people smoking at the post race area. I strongly suggest that they at least make that area smoke free. WE are running to be healthy!

Vienna is a beautiful city to run a marathon in. The course is very nice and supporters were good. 36000 runners entered but many were doing the half marathon (or a relay) so I felt green with envy seeing them head for finish half way! I'd prefer if they started later to give us a push for the 2nd half. Main negative comments are; T-shirt should be included in the price. Glad I didn't opt for the shirt as an extra - for 25euro it just was not worth it. Having to pay a rental for a timing chip is just mean. Not only do you have to queue to return it after running 26.2 miles, but they dont' even provide a plastic tie so it can be snipped off your laces. You have wobble around and undo your own laces and then queue up. C'mon organisers..this is an easy fix and an unnecessary hassle to your entrants. Staff at the expo had little knowledge of the event, course or where to find things like timing splits wristbands (which I discovered by accident on way out after asking 5 members of staff). If you know about the above in advance, then go for Vienna and enjoy it. The actual race day experience was good and the city and park is a nice setting.

Positive: Run through a scenic city / very good accessibilty through public transportation (start, finish and pasta party) / music on course where only a few spectators are (e.g. Hauptallee in Prater) / very nice last 200m (through gate 'Heldentor') / splits taken every 5k / visible km-marker / pasta party (Int. friendship party) at the Ballroom in the City Hall Negative: Expo very crowded (floor layout with little aisle space) / long lines for pick-up of bib at Expo / access to corrals needs to be enforced (slow runners were in 1st corral) / water stations were not prepared for slower runners (cups were not filled) / tons of banana peel on the ground after water stations / webpage down through the entire race day (live stream for family members could not be followed) / published app did not work at all (text message service was discontinued) / pick-up of checked bags without clear signs (appr. 25 trucks!) / insufficient amount of port-a-johns in start area Suggestions: Display race course on a board and/or video sequence on screen at the Expo / consider registration through a reference race in order to give runners a chance to get into a corral where similar paces are ran / introduce pace groups / more locations where pictures are taken (finisherpix)

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

It was my first marathon, but as a novice, i found the organization, track and warm people of Vienna fabulous. The city is also a great place to know and to rest the day before and after the marathon. Completely flat, with a good weather. I would like to come back every year.

I really enjoyed this race and the course was beautiful with interesting sites of Vienna. Pretty fast course: ran a BQ time. It was a beautiful day but a bit warm for marathon running. Not too bad, but not ideal. Even though they have start corrals, they don't really enforce them, so the start was a bit chaotic. Not too many porta-potties... get your business done at the hotel. Fans are sparse at times, but the last couple of kilometers are great. They crowd the course like the alpine climbs in the Tour de France and it was really cool running to the finish. The finish area is fantastic in "Heroes' Place." Showers are a great idea and make it nice to hang out in the beer gardens after the race.

The organization was very good. The course is almost perfectly flat. Plenty of water stations ,with friendly workers. Spectators were only at certain parts of the course. The finish was fantastic, in the courtyard of a museum. Great goody bag at the finish. The exhibition hall was only average. The Vienna Boys Choir performed for the runners and family only with a purchased ticket. Great. Downer was you had to purchase the race t-shirt. Yes, the weather was near perfect. Great race.

It was nearly a perfect race. Ok, the spectators aren't comparable with those in Berlin, and the course wasn't as amazing as Roma, but all in all, it is worth it to run this one. Ps. Weather was hot.

I really can't imagine a better event. Every race will have its ups and downs, but they are often your own fault or just bad luck. When you have 25,000 people to manage, some are going to have an awesome day and others terrible; such is life. I just hope I can keep coming back to this race each year till I drop dead. Equally, I couldn't believe how warm and friendly the Viennese are considering I don't speak a word of German. Maybe it was my Australian accent but I spoke English in the Billa supermarket and almost everyone understood me. I love all the Viennese... see you in '08.

Vienna has been my best marathon experience to date. It is a beautiful city with a well organized event. The course is flat and fast; there are a couple of stretches along the course that repeat, but some of it was through a nice shady park, so nothing worth complaining about. Some great fan support, especially in the city center. And the finish area was set up with a fest-like atmosphere in the Heldenplatz in front of the Hofburg palace. The expo was rather large with plenty of displays worth exploring. The carb party was awesome! It was held in the historic Rathaus (City Hall) and they served kaiserschmarrn - a delicious Austrian dessert! My only complaint is that the T-shirt was a little expensive for the poor quality... part of the logo came off after the second washing... . The Vienna City Marathon is a first-class event and I highly recommend it!

Very well organized; better water stations than Berlin.