First Marathon

Which Marathon would be a good one for a first timer other than London? By that I mean good crowd support, not many hills and cheap to get to and stay.
Has anyone done the Minneapolis marathon - do you have to have a qualifying time?
I am not aiming to do one this year, maybe late next year or early 2004.
Thanks, Tiny.

Tiny

My 'Guide to International Marathons' book lists Rotterdam as a maximum 10 out of 10 for first timers. The course profile doesn't look too bad and the crowds are 8 out of 10. Of course its not too far away but far enough to make a good week-end out of it. Its run in April around the same time as FLM so you could follow the same training programmes as everyone else from RW. The website is www.rotterdammarathon.nl.

I haven't run it myself so I can't give you any personal info. I have run the Frankfurt marathon twice and that is quite good. Not too difficult with good crowd support in the city centre. Thats held in October. Berlin is also a good one but the organisation wasn't too good I thought.

Theres always the 'Big One' over in New York though you may be too late for this year as its held at the beginning of November. The last 4 miles are tough too through Central Park but the crowd support the whole course it absolutely fantastic, it really stays in the memory for a long time!!

Stay away from the Potteries as your first one as its has 'a few hills'. Manchester is a good one but you may not find too much crowd support.

Whichever one you enter, enjoy every single minute but make sure you follow a structured training programme and above all else - LISTEN TO YOUR BODY!!

All the best

Thanks slaphead

I am only training for half marathons at the moment and find that hard enough so I am going to take training for a marathon very slowly. I'd love to do New York, and Manchester - as that is my local one, but as I am pretty slow I didn't fancy being way behind everyone at Manchester. I'm going to go and watch it again this year.
I'll check out the rotterdam site.
Thanks again,
Tiny