Tokyo and Bordeaux

Last night, I was at dinner with some business associates and was making small talk with two Japanese visitors. Casually mentioned that I would be in Tokyo in March for the Tokyo marathon. And to my surprise, one of them, MT, is also participating. It would be her second Tokyo marathon (got in on second round of ballot!) and her fourth overall.

MT provided me with more information about the race:

• Bags dropped off will be transported to the end point (not a loop course like Singapore's races).
  
• Bring along money to buy drinks of choice along the route... there are many stores along the way!
  
• Get a disposable rain jacket that can be dumped along the way.
  
• March will also be cherry blossom time!

She also ran the Bordeaux Marathon last year and of course, the unique feature is wine tasting along the way. Most folks spit out just to taste. After 30 km, food such as ham, oyster, etc are offered. And another novelty... runners must dressed up in costumes. Imagine that.

Bordeaux is definitely on my wish list!
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Top Marathons in the World

I recalled talking with Trailblazer some weeks ago enroute to Tampines MTB Park about running marathons internationally. He mentioned that there were some top picks that are MUST RUN marathons.

This is what I found so far:

Runner's World Top Ten
1. London Marathon, April
2. Berlin Marathon, September
3= New York City Marathon, November
3= Chicago Marathon, October
5. Boston Marathon, April
6. Stockholm Marathon, June
7. Rotterdam Marathon, April
8. Paris Marathon, April
9. Honolulu Marathon, December
10. Amsterdam Marathon, October

This was based on a survey of RW international editors, and the key criteria is not the elite field, but mainly the experience of the ordinary runner (of course, the two can be related: elite fields draw the TV coverage, which draws crowds, competitors and money to the race). Among other things, we scored the races for beauty, atmosphere and speed.

Then, there's the Six Marathons in Six Different Continents: The Best Marathons From Around the Globe:

Big Sur Marathon, California
Barbados Marathon, Barbados
Mount Kilimanjaro Marathon, Kilimanjaro
Sydney Marathon, Sydney
Great Wall Marathon, China
The Marathon, Athens

A more recent ranking (AskMen) shows the following:

10. Honolulu: 60% of the 25,000 runners in this tropical marathon have come from Japan
9. Paris: starts along the Champs-Elysees before winding through the city’s skinny streets
8. Rotterdam: over 800,000 spectators and 20,000 runners
7. Stockholm: on a Saturday afternoon in May or June, when the streets are swarming with loud crowds and the summer sun is hot
6. Dubai: the richest marathon in the world
5. Boston: began in 1896 on Patriot’s Day and is the oldest marathon running
4. Chicago: one of the fastest courses around
3. New York City: the largest marathon in the world, starts from Staten Island
2. Berlin: fast race and efficiently organized
1. London: king of the castle

Marathon and Beyond has the top 26 marathons in North America.

Here are some unusual marathons:
North Pole Marathon: World's Coolest Marathon, Apr 8, 2009
Santa Claus Marathon: cross the Arctic Circle (66'32'35") with Santa himself watching, Jun 27, 2009
Midnight Sun marathon: The Artic Race @ 70 deg N, Jun 20, 2009