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)

Well, I guess it is nothing extraordinary after all… but it counts a bit for me ! 

This past Saturday, I completed my marathon number 60 since my debut in May 2004, and the race was my marathon number 50 within 22 calendar months (actually, run number 51 in the timespan of the past 22 months).

Well, it changes nothing, really… the important thing is always the next run… and I take one run at a time. I enjoy one run at a time.

Surely, as time passes by… experience and numbers do add up… but I tend to focus on… “this run”, i.e. being in the present moment.