April 6th 2025
Vienna City Marathon 2025, a beautiful city, running in the footsteps of legends, and plans A to E – a self-indulgent race report.
The start line of a marathon is so very far from the start of the journey, that sometimes it can be almost an afterthought. However, for me, the start line of Vienna City Marathon 2025 at times felt more like an unachievable dream, than any rational thought at all.
Plan A – A shiny new PB (currently 3:26:50)
I signed up to this after racing in Edinburgh in 2024 and being grumpy that when everyone was racing their marathons I still had 6 weeks until mine. Wanting to turn the tides, I went for an earlier race, but that also meant an earlier start to training. With the 16 week training block starting 10 days before Christmas, I can’t say I was over enthusiastic about it, but once I got that first long run in, things felt good. Sadly, the next day (Christmas Eve), I woke up with norovirus, week 2 of the training plan and plan A was already looking shaky.
Getting into the new year, trying to get back on track, and then Sheffield got covered in snow, and ice. Treadmill running is the worst, but I tried my best to keep at it. By mid-January I was really not feeling this marathon, and felt a little like I was going through the motions for the sake of it, and then Brass Monkey half happened. This was scheduled as a benchmark race, to see where I was at. I’d hoped to dip under 90, which I failed at by seconds at Retford in 2024 in the build up to Edinburgh. So I was perked up massively by going under 89 minutes, pushed all the way by the feeling of being hunted down by the ever improving Kathy Liddiard on her way to a huge PB. Was plan A back on??
No, it wasn’t. A week later, in the last mile of a recovery run, my knee started to hurt for no particular reason, and the next day I was struggling to walk. Week 7 of the training block saw only 21km covered, nowhere near target. Another couple of low mileage weeks followed, and a muddy slog fest at the National cross country (a race I was determined to run and one that my knee actually held up ok on), and before I knew it I only had 6 weeks left, and hadn’t run more than 25km in one go.
Plan B – run and enjoy Vienna, and use it as a training run for a May/June marathon.
With the knee feeling better, I managed a 24km run the following week, 16km of which was supporting the 10-half marathon training. I started looking at other marathons, maybe Milton Keynes? Leeds perhaps? The following week I headed to Rother Valley with some other weary long runners, also carrying niggles. The plan was to do 28km (32km for Kathy), but by doing laps it meant we could stop if the niggles got too much. Sadly for me, that was about 17km before the knee became unbearable. After setting the others free, I had a walk back to the car park, which seemed to loosen it, and carried on for a bit more but at a vastly reduced pace. A total of 23km covered. Plan B was now also off the table.
Plan C – Survive
The plan now was just to get round Vienna, but the next couple of days brought that into question. After the struggle around Rother Valley, I struggled to walk for a couple of days. For some reason, going fast didn’t cause any pain so track sessions had been a regular feature, if only I could run the marathon at 5km pace. And that week, that’s pretty much all I managed, with a couple of short runs. What should have been the last big week of training, and last long run, was less than 60km in total and a 16km “long” run that still caused pain. Plan C was looking unlikely.
Plan D – have a nice holiday and ignore the race
I’d consigned myself to not running Vienna at all. I was already into my taper (can you taper if you haven’t really trained?), the knee issue hadn’t gone away, and I hadn’t done nearly enough mileage to run 26 miles. With the flights and hotel already booked, I thought a nice city break would be the focus.
That first week of taper I managed a 7 miler, and a track session, before pacing 2:10 at Sheffield Half. Worried about all the downhill, and how that would impact my knee, I can’t say I was looking forward to it. But, it went surprisingly well, and was the longest run I’d done in months without any pain at all. But it was too little too late.
The week after involved a 5km leg in the Northern Road Relays up in Redcar, with the second half of it into a brutal headwind. I did a pleasingly fast time considering the broken training. But on the bus back, there were lots of questions about Vienna, I was telling people I was 70/30 in favour of running, but really it was the other way round. I did realise however, that I hadn’t done any prep for either going away, or in any anticipation of racing.
The next couple of days was spent looking into it: where was the expo? What time was the race? How do I get to the race start? And back from the finish? In amongst the research, I stumbled across the entry price and was reminded of how much I’d paid to enter. Was I willing to waste that much? I also saw that, with the half marathon starting at the same time, there was an option to follow the half route from 20km and get a finish time in that instead. My knee had been uncomfortable, but hadn’t been in pain since the start of the taper, maybe I could start after all.
Plan E – Start and see what happens, with the intention of finishing at half way
So, new plan in mind, I did lots of last minute logistical planning, and was off to Vienna. The start on Sunday was next to Donaupark, so I used the parkrun on Saturday as a practice for getting from the hotel to the start. The parkrun is in a really nice park which included the Korean Cultural Centre Vienna. It could be fast, and flat, in an almost rectangle around the north east of the park. A nice little warm up for the race. Speaking of which, the temperature for the parkrun, and the rest of Saturday, was well into the 20s, not good for my northern blood.
After a little bit of sightseeing, including the Riesenrad, a giant ferris wheel dating back to 1897, I loaded up on schnitzel and went for an early night.
Race day:
Thankfully the temperature had dropped on Sunday, but this was to a equally balmy -1, and with a 20mph wind. The contrast between Saturday and Sunday could hardly have been greater.
Getting to the start was easy, I had had practice after all. After a bit of searching, I found the lorry for my bag drop, and hovered around. I had an extra t-shirt to throw away at the start, but wasn’t willing to discard any of the long sleeve layers I had, so hung around until the last few minutes before dropping my bag off by the 8:30 deadline. There was half an hour to go to the race and I suddenly became aware I couldn’t see any other bare arms anywhere, and I had planned on running in a vest. Had I made a mistake.
After a few messages of encouragement, and a reminder that the reason I was the only one running in a vest is because they don’t all have my northern blood in them, I was thankful when I found a hotel reception near my start pen that had opened their doors, and turned their heating up, for runners to take shelter. It didn’t feel too bad if you weren’t in the shade, and when the wind wasn’t blowing, but that was hard to find.
Famed for their classical music, the warm up was a waltz, as they attempted to break the world record for most waltzers at once.
The Race:
The first km was over a bridge, which really showcased the 20mph winds. The plan for the first few km was settle in to a comfortable pace, something that felt easy, take in the surroundings, and enjoy it. See how long I could go before the knee started to hurt and I needed to either fight through it, or call it a day.
At about the 3km mark we entered the Prater park. This is a long, flat, tree-lined boulevard that is no longer open to traffic, so is well used by runners, cyclists etc. It is perhaps most famous as the setting of Eluid Kipchoge’s sub 2 hour marathon run back in 2019. Kipchoge, and his team of pacemakers, ran the full nearly 4km stretch, ran round the roundabout at the end, and back, as a lap. It’s hard not to be inspired by someone who set out on such an apparently unachievable goal, but would not take no for an answer. Legend!
The route went half way up the Prater boulevard before heading off into the city. The streets were lined with people all the way and I found the pace, equivalent of a 3 hour 50 time, to be manageable so far. I really enjoyed this first half, taking it all in, seeing what Vienna had to offer, but knowing worse was to come.
A nice little rhythm saw me round the far end of the route, near the Schonbrunn Palace at 10 miles, and still feeling really comfortable, if a little surprised. Heading back into the city the next 5km was run along the tram route. With the road and tram tracks providing a sprawling route for runners, there was plenty of space, even when the 3:45 pacers and their hordes came streaming past me.
Now the decision. Turning the corner just at 20km, there was the banners. On one side, the Marathon, on the other the Half Marathon and to the Finish. I’ll be honest, I didn’t give it much thought, I was having fun, so ran straight through the marathon side, and committed.
The second half started with a little downhill, and my knee was still holding up. I even managed to up the pace. From 10km onwards, I was taking gels every 6km, so took my third at 22km. The next was to be at 28km and I remember seeing the banner for that on the Prater Boulevard the first time through. Knowing I didn’t need to worry about distance markers until I hit the Prater, I switched my brain off and settled in to a new, slightly faster rhythm.
I don’t know what happened but 20-35km was the fastest three 5km splits of the race. Getting onto the Prater, I could see the next km marker, thinking “that’ll be 27km so I’ll have another km before a gel” I was surprised to see it was actually the 28km marker, bonus! Another gel down, this time the Prater route was down one side, a left turn for an out and back, then back down the rest of the Prater, around the roundabout and half way back down again. Basically, it meant runners on both sides of the road, so lots of distractions. I even saw a Hillsborough & Rivelin vest flash past on the other side.
Hitting 30km my watch decided it was a good idea to tell me it only had 10% battery left, great. My watch might not have, but I was still feeling pretty good and I suddenly started to realise that not only might I actually finish, but I might be able to run all of it, something I’d only done once out of my 5 previous marathon attempts.
After everything from the last few weeks and months, that hit pretty hard, but I held it together, and the pace was still there up to 35km. Now firmly back in the city, things started to get tough. My knee was ok, but the lack of training was coming for me. I just needed 7 more km, then 6 more, then 5 more, that’s just a parkrun, I can run a parkrun, right? I really hate measuring in parkruns, but it was getting me through. It was especially getting me through when my marathon-tired brain wasn’t exactly mathing right and I thought 38km was only a parkrun to go. That was another nice surprise half a km later when the maths caught up with me and I realised it was less than that.
Back on the tram route, a different one this time, and a slight rise up towards the last few km. The pace dropped back to what I had been doing in the first half, but that was ok, I wasn’t hitting a wall, I wasn’t coming to a grinding halt. That was a new experience.
By this time, the GPS on my watch (which somehow was still going) was about 500m over distance, but I looked up and saw a small banner with “42km” on it, and about 200m further down the road an archway. That was it, that was the finish so I pushed on, managing to find extra pace. I got to the 42km banner, sadly it was not the 42km banner. It said “42.2km runners, you have reached the final curve.” What did that mean? Was that not the finish line ahead? How far was left?
Running under the arch, and around the corner, I could then see the actual 42km banner, followed by a 200m long carpet and the actual finish. Oh, I was actually going to do this. How on earth did this happen? I even managed to keep that “sprint” finish going a little longer, all the way to the line. 3:46:00
I was absolutely exhausted, but I had done it. I started the marathon, I had finished the marathon, and had run every step. My watch battery lasted, and somehow my body was in one piece.
The aftermath:
Within seconds of crossing the line I got a message of congratulations from Kathy who had been tracking me the entire way. I was convinced she knew I’d finished before I did. It was a bit a treasure hunt to find the lorries for the bag collection, and I’m sure the signs took us all the long way round. I was starting to remember that it was actually cold, and the wind was still strong (every now and then on the route you’d turn a corner and be faced by an icy headwind, but otherwise, once I got going, the cold was a blessing).
I’d pre-ordered a t-shirt but didn’t want to pick it up at the expo as I didn’t want to tempt fate, so I hunted down the merchandise stall to go and retrieve it. They were nice, so also treated myself to a hoody.
People often tell me that I run with a lot of guts. I’m not sure that’s a good thing, I’d prefer to run on talent, but you have to deal with what you’re given in life. Anyway, I haven’t always seen what they see, but in this race I did. It wasn’t the fastest, it wasn’t the prettiest, but it also wasn’t the slowest I’ve done, and it was also the first time I’ve done a negative split in a marathon. I was almost 4 minutes quicker in the second half and gained over 1000 places.
Overall, I would highly recommend Vienna the city, and Vienna City Marathon, was a beautiful course, and if you like you’re running history, running the same tarmac as Kipchoge did, was amazing. I would not recommend doing a marathon without properly training, it’s not easy. Come talk to me, or one of the other coaches in the club if you want some advice on a training plan, we’re happy to help.
Striders results
Malcolm Baggaley in 3:46:00, position 2971
Full results
The men’s winner was Haftamu Abadi in 2:08:28, the woman’s winner was Betty Chepkemoi in 2:24:14
https://vienna.r.mikatiming.de/2025/
