20 Races to do before you die

Wouldn't it be magical to be able to look back and say you've done all these runs. There are a good few there that would be once in a lifetime opportunities and what an amazing way to see a city!!

 I personally recommend the two South African races mentioned - Two Oceans and Comrades. Not to be missed!

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Comments

  • Scotty4Scotty4 ✭✭✭
    2 down...18 to goimage
  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭
    I've done one - don't fancy the others much image
  • Think they've missed a trick on this one. It's all very well them saying these are the 20 you should do before you die so you can get in Saint Peter's running club. But there is no information to help you plan it out?

    I suggest they send a everyday runner around all these places to report in the logistical situation. I will happily put myself forward due to my charm, diplomatic qualities, Language skills and above all excellent knowledge of both English grammar and spelling.image

     Let's say a budget of what err??? image£50,000 with options for expenses for exceptional circumstances? Would have to take a year off work to do it but I can take one for the team. image

  • Go Scotty! Which ones have you done?

     Was one enough Wilkie?

  • Ah Cake, how nice of you to offer. Perhaps Runners World would consider hiring you purely for this function??
  • Done one (NY) and planning Two Oceans next year.

    Not sure my body is up to the MdS but with my drinking head on I could do Medoc!

  • Good luck with your training Sue! I'm sure you'll love every minute of it. Hope you get good weather.
  • Scotty4Scotty4 ✭✭✭

    Kellyd, Great Wall Marathon in 2006 and New York Marathon last year. Both were absolutely fantastic experiences and I did them as part of an organised package (which wasn't cheap).

    I'd be interested to see just how much doing all these would cost. I'm about £3K down already

    I'm guessing Antarctica is the most expensive at US$15,750image

  • Berlin this year , Paris and Swiss 79K next year and Comrades 2010. Well thats the plan at the moment image
  • Berlin this year , Paris and Swiss 78K next year and Comrades 2010. Well thats the plan at the moment image
  • Oh my, Ultra Hawk, i'll live through you!!

    Scotty, i'd love to do the Great Wall, but wasn't that so much tougher than any normal marathon?

  • A few too many big-city marathons in there for my liking.  I'm sure they're great experiences, but is there really enough difference between Chicago, New York, Paris, Berlin etc to make them all 'must-do' races?

  • No, but the list has to have all the big city runs in to sound exotic image Sadly no one has taken up my offer so back to the day job image
  • I'll have a go Cake if you fancy funding them for meimage
  • Scotty4Scotty4 ✭✭✭
    Kellyd, yeah, the GWM is more of an event than a race. I saw grown men cry trying to negotiate the 18" steps on the final stages. I finished in 5hrs 10min. My normal mara time is 3hrs 45min. I'm very proud of my PW.image
  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭

    My PW is worse than yours Scotty - 6:38 to get round the Marathon du Medoc image

    There was so much wine to be tasted.....

    Kellyd - I've also done a big city mara (London), and yes, one was enough.

  • Scotty4Scotty4 ✭✭✭

    Singapore is an interesting city mara. Quite surreal as it started at 6am in the dark in a humid 25C which rose to 34C after 7 when the sun was up. Youch!!

    Wlikie, I am strangely drawn to the MduM for some bizarre reasonimage Was that where you discovered  the lovely 'Arse'?

  • You really wouldn't want to PB on that Mara , Wilkie image
  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭

    I am hoping to improve on my PW next year image 

    You should do it, Scotty - I'm sure you could better your PW too, with a bit of effort!  And it is great fun.

    Yes, that's where we found the Chateau d'Arse - amongst many, many, others....

  • Hi guys, 5 down 15 to go aqnd yes, there is enough of a difference between the big city races in my opinion to justify being there. There are two world top 10 lists and hope to complete with Honolulu next yeat. Both list have that plus FLM, Berlin, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, NY, Chicago, Boston, Stockholm and one has Paris, the other Washington. All completely different and the only ones I query are the two Dutch. Plan to do two oceans/comrades but also Midnight Sun and Siberian just because....
  • Not sure if MDS should be included, bit more than a marathon ! Hoping to do one next year if I don't fet in FLM, NY or De Medoc the two favourites, just coz they would be such fun....shopping and wine, perfick !

    Only got one Mara under my belt, Snowdonia 2007, but doing Dublin in Oct.

  • One 14K, a running festival where you can do a half ... other than that, they're all ****ing marathons.

    Not everyone wants to run a sodding marathon. Would've been nice to see a bit more balance.

  • Well BCDB, they're overseas events, and why bother going overseas for a half when there are plenty of decent UK HMs?

    That said, as I posted previously, there are too many big city marathons in there for my liking.  I'm sure there are lots of hidden gems of smaller races around the world.  Most of us could have guessed most of this list, it would have been nice to see a few smaller ones that we wouldn't otherwise know about.  But that would take a bit of effort, much easier just to pick the obvious ones... 

  • Some of us don't like doing marathons (my body won't stand up to it), and like to race abroad. Why bother going overseas to do an HM? I can only answer, why not?! Just because there's some decent HM's in the UK, why shouldn't I go off and race in Paris, Vienna, Prague, Marseilles, Rome, Ulm, Berlin?

    Somewhere on this site there's a list of top European races ... Marseilles-Cassis, Paris-Versailles, Stramilano etc.

    To focus almost exclusively on marathons is predictable, depressing and a mistake. But I suppose it provides a talkign point. 

  • Why not do the Great Ethopian 10k if you don't fancy a marathon?

  • Could do, but that doesn't really address the point that there's a massive bias towards marathons.

    If I don't fancy that then there's not many other shorter distances to pick from, eh?

    There's also the 5 mills cross-country near Milan, where you run through flour mills or something. I'd rather be doing stuff like that than running 26 miles round the north frigging pole.

  • I've done the Inca Marathon in Peru this year - Amazing! Why hike in 4 days what you can still gently jog through in 1! One of the most beautiful runs in the entire world to one of the modern wonders of the world and the view from the Sun Gate after hours of ups, downs and more ups is simply breathtaking.

    Comrades 2009 next year after Dublin. Love to do some of the others on the list - MDS, Everest, GWM North and South poles. So much more than just another city marathon..

  • WilkieWilkie ✭✭✭

    I agree, BCDB - I've done a couple of maras, and although I'd like to do the MdM again, I wouldn't bother with any others. 

    There are loads of other races: in France alone there are thousands.

    Marseille-Cassis is great fun, and the Transbaie, the Le Touquet 10 and 20k - and those are just the ones I've done image

    The Amsterdam half was good too - you finish in the Olympic stadium.

    My OH and I do a few each year, and make long weekends of them.  Definitely worth going for 'less' than a marathon.

  • Thanks Wilkie image

    I found a half to be just t he right distance for me. It's just the right level of challenge.

  • Wilkie -  how/where do you find out about all the foreign races, apart from the usual suspects that is !

    I did one of my Club "Sale Sizzler 5K's" in July, and there was a guy running from Teivo Stayers, Finland, well impressed !! Don't think he came just for the race, but wondered how he found out about it. Is there a website with races abroad, "normal" ones like us mere mortals do ?

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