Dublin Marathon v Amsterdam Marathon?

BenMicheal

Cant decide weather to do the Dublin Marathon again this year or opt for the Amsterdam Marathon?

Heard a lot of people talk highly of Amsterdam, but Dublin is my home marathon?

Anybody any experience of racing both that they could sum up the pros & Cons of both??

village runner

BenMicheal wrote: »

Cant decide weather to do the Dublin Marathon again this year or opt for the Amsterdam Marathon?

Heard a lot of people talk highly of Amsterdam, but Dublin is my home marathon?

Anybody any experience of racing both that they could sum up the pros & Cons of both??

Why not race cologne a fortnight earlier and jog around Dublin ? Might be my plan yet

BenMicheal

village runner wrote: »

Why not race cologne a fortnight earlier and jog around Dublin ? Might be my plan yet

Never thought of that? Could be a plan alright! I was drawn in by the IAAF Gold Label associated with Amsterdam :-/

plumber77

same situation myself.have done dublin a few times but gonna treat myself to amsterdam this year.I love dublin but i know it pretty well now and know exactly the spots where the suffering begins.Ignorance will be bliss in amsterdam..

Seanie_H

village runner wrote: »

Why not race cologne a fortnight earlier and jog around Dublin ? Might be my plan yet

Cologne is a lovely run. I did it 2 years ago when it hit a stupid 24/25 degrees in October (complete freak) but the course was nice and the field broke up fairly quickly at the start - one of my favourite marathons.

I was over for Rotterdam last week. Exceptional support, particularly at the end. From what I've heard and obviously others here will know best, is that Amsterdam isn't very well supported which might be something that's important to you.

My last three 42km'ers have been away so I'm looking forward to Dublin this year.

ThePiedPiper

I've done both, here's a few pros and cons:

Dublin
Pros:
Hometown,
Cheaper weekend when you consider airfares, etc,
Better crowd atmosphere,
Better atmosphere amongst runners,
Ease of access,
Organisation is good,
Pace groups,
Weather is usually favourable
Going on the lash after it

Cons:
Lack of motivation if you've done it multiple times,
Some tough parts of the course - I've fallen victim to Clonskeagh 2 out of 4 times

Amsterdam
Pros:
Start/finish in Olympic stadium is great
Expo is in the Olympic village
Showers after the race right beside the stadium
Very very flat course. I don't recall any hills, just a slight ramp up from the cycle path by the river.
Some nice parts of the course, the run out along the Amstel is very picturesque
It's a IAAF Silver Medal race. It feels slick and well organised

Cons:
You've to pay for flights and accomodation
The atmosphere is a bit dead
The course is pretty bleak for about 4 or 5 miles around the 20 mile mark
Course is a bit narrow along the Amstel, on a cycle path on the way back in from the countryside. I'd imagine it could be prone to a bit of congestion in the mid-field
Stadium is a bit out from the city centre, choose your hotel wisely

Overall
It's a tough one. If you're going over with a group of people for the weekend, Amsterdam's a nice city to visit, it's got a very fast marathon course, and is excellently organised. Dublin's good, it's your hometown race, and if you're going for your debut, it's the one to do. However, if you've done DCM 3 or more times, I'd advise jetting off and experiencing different races in different cities. At that time of year, Amsterdam is an excellent alternative.

corkrunner71

In a similar position myself. Was considering travelling rather than going back up to Dublin. Thanks for the pros and cons RFR

PDCAT

Thanks aswell RFR. Thinking of doing this in October as an alternative to Dublin.

JJJJNR

Same here and booked the flights they were only 110 last weekend, done DCM twice now and looking forward to this, training started this week.

ClashCityRocker

I'm doing Poznan as an October marathon :cool: I had thought about Amsterdam but eventually thought i'd go for something other than a "big city" type affair.

psychozeb

signed up for Amsterdam yesterday,it doesn't work out too much dearer for me than going to Dublin.only staying the one night and flights are €106 from cork at the moment,train to Dublin would be €60 odd.race is €65 Dublin cheapest is €75 amd one night accomodation only.have done Dublin 4 years on the trot and last year did Frankfurt just for a bit of variety.

ergo

RunForestRun wrote: »

I've done both, here's a few pros and cons:

Dublin


Cons:
Some tough parts of the course - I've fallen victim to Clonskeagh 2 out of 4 times
.

completely agree with this - have fallen victim there too the couple of times I've done Dublin - never found that actual hill at Roebuck too bad but the drag up Clonskeagh I've struggled with