Life can take unexpected courses quite unintentionally. Take for example my marathonrunning. Who would have thought 6 years ago when I was not able to run even 2 km that I have now completed 68 marathons (in less than 4 years) !

Who would have known that running can bring you so many experiences and ‘friends’ all over the world. These days, I meet known faces whereever I run in Denmark, Sweden, Norway or Germany. That is such a pleasure and is for me a very important dimension to the madness of all these marathons.

Lately, I’m getting quite a number of new German running buddies… very sweet and very dedicated people. I think no other Nation on Earth deliver a running event with such perfection and quality than Germany… and I find the Germans extremely friendly towards both each other and ‘us foreigners’. Delight… delight… delight !

The German Marathon Club 100 has displayed a little story about my site and my marathon stories, read here, I am very humble towards their attention and kind words ! I guess it makes sense to share the passion !

May the Force be with you 😉

Some marathons fall in a group we could call ‘eccentric races’. The Elbtunnel marathon in Hamburg, Germany is for sure one of them ! It is a race well organized by the German Marathon Club 100 (www.100mc.de) and it takes place in the old Elbtunnel, ie. under water and in the two narrow tubes that the tunnel is made of. The marathon is completed after 48 1/2 round… my gosh ! Please find pictures from the race via my list ‘MY MARATHONS’ and watch the video of one whole round of this crazyness !

Take a good look at this picture 😉

So – what is it ?

It is my finisher medals collected at the five World Major Marathons, the five greatest and most prestigeous marathon races in the World, i.e. the London, Berlin, New York, Boston and Chicago marathons.

I have had the pleasure to travel with the Danish ‘Marathon Travel’ to these races and with great expericences and friendships in the bag as well.

I can only recommend you to take on the challenge of collecting these heavy, hard earned pieces of metal ! You will meet the very moments of peak experience and personal fulfillment at these Majors !

You find, as always, pictures from these races in my list ‘MY MARATHONS’ in the menu at right (or use the links in the text above). 

Time to account for 2007: 31 completed marathons in the book and one DNF. Two months (Feb and Aug) with just one run.

31 marathons ! That is just insane !  Some of the biggest experiences were collected in the big city marathons like Barcelona, Rome, Boston, Vienna and Chicago… but for sure, many of the small races are close to the heart as well, cf. my previous post on the best marathons of 2007.

Another great goal was also reached, namely the completion of the ‘World Major Marathons’ … for me, done by Boston and Chicago in 2007 (Berlin, London and New York already done).

So…. time to be happy… best wishes for 2008 !

Just like last year, I give my you my take on the best marathons in 2007, i.e. amongst the ones I have participated in myself. Incredibly, it looks like that I will reach 31 marathons completed in 2007 alone (still have two to do during the Christmas holiday !) making it 66 in toto for me ultimo 2007.

I have divided the marathons into four groups. I have left ‘my own’ run GARMIN Rudersdal marathon out of my evaluation, of course I find that marathon to be a very, very special one – for a number of both subjective and objective reasons, but nevertheless I’ll not rank it here amongst the other races.

As always, you find links to the races via ‘My marathons’ in the menu.

Overall
1. Vienna (Austria)
2. Rome (Italy)
3. Barcelona (Spain)
4. Storebaelt Nature (Denmark)
5. Banemarathon (Denmark)

Big-city marathons
1. Vienna (Austria)
2. Rome (Italy)
3. Barcelona (Spain)
4. Boston (USA)
5. Chicago (USA)

Nature
1. Storebaelt Nature (Denmark)
    (well, and GARMIN Rudersdal ! ;))
2. Vänersborg (Sweden)
3. Magdeburg (Germany)
4. Natursti (Denmark)
5. Öland (Sweden)

 Small races
1. Storebaelt Nature (Denmark)
2. Banemarathon (Denmark)
3. Vänersborg (Sweden)
4. Sydkystmarathon (Denmark)
5. Zürich New Year Midnight marathon (Switerzerland)
    (DNF for me, but a great experience !) 

These are lists based on my personal experiences, of course. To mentain memory of the best races ‘ever’, I better have a category of the ‘all-time best’ marathons as well. Here, the big marathons do live up to their famous names !

Best ever
1. New York (USA)
2. Hamburg (Germany)
3. Vienna (Austria)
4. Rome (Italy)
5. Berlin (Germany)