Main airport is a short 15 - 20 mins from the city center trainstation which is the main link to the city.  Expo center about a 10 min walk north of the train station, when you see big iron man you are in the right place.

I decided to arrive late Saturday as they give you an option of Sunday morning number pick up. I love this tbh, and unlike other marathons the start is right outside the Expo.....

Arrived Saturday am at 7am and right on time they opened.  Straight to the big Hall number dished out.  One down side of any German marathon expect not much for free in the terms of goodies and pay for your shirt if you want one.  Was a free buff which by German race standards is very generous and gracefully taken.

Now you may not get much swag however what you do get over in Germany as a great route which always winds you through the city center and always a pritty desent support.  Frankfurt no difference in this respect.  The looping city section give a few chances for your support team to cheer you on. And the crowds build in all outer villages you pass by.

There us a section which is a few miles down an A road.  Think Great North Run and you gett the picture.  It is around hitting the wall time so could be tough.  Once you get to o 21 ish miles however you start to get the build up of support from the city as you take in the final lap.

The highlight by far us the finish as you leave the city and end up under the neon lights, red carpets and pumping music for your last 100 meters or so.  (they have a similar section in Swiss city marathon but you just run though theirs)

Medal was decent, as noted if you want a shirt buy your own.

No waiting for bags at the ends all very slick.

Only downside was having to chug up to the top level to hand the chip back in.. Only small issue though.

All in all a nice little run. If a little windy in sections.

My third race overseas and despite the language barrier everything was very easy to navigate. The expo was the best I've seen so far although it was only by accident that I found the goody bag area for athletes. We stayed in a hotel about 1km from the race start so I had a decent chance for a warm up without too many other people around as I made my way to the race area. I didn't find the starting corrals easily identifiable so I just opted to start at the very back and play catch up as I made my way around the course, the start of the course was a bit challenging as it is largely in an area with lots of narrow streets and tall buildings so the brisk wind was howling through some of the roads which made things a bit more challenging. More challenging than that was the unexpected arrival of the fast paced relay runners after the first few kilometres which was always going to be difficult as they became mixed up with us slower paced runners and created a small degree of chaos at some water stations. Everything else was top notch though, the water stations were fantastic with pretty much everything you could realistically ask for, and with lots of music bands along the way, mostly very good crowd support, a flat course and cool weather it was just the most enjoyable marathon I've done so far and I'd love to do it again. The finish is superb, inside a concert hall with a good flow of people passing from the finish line to the finish area where medals and refreshemnts were available and these too were excellent with tea, water, enrgy drinks, bananas, beer, bread and energy bars all freely available, another positive was that after the finish area you could easily filter back into the auditorium in order to stay warm after the race. 

The only other issues were self inflicted, pulling a muscle in the warm up, a low battery on my garmin and an injury blighted training plan meaning I was way off full fitness-so I have every reason to go back and do it again next year!

Wünderbar Windy Frankfurt! 
One thing you can never rely on is the weather spectacularly windy day for a Marathon!
Luckily we picked the Movenpick Hotel, HQ for the event & Elite runners, it had a great vibe plus selfie opportunities! Situated 5 mins from Start /Finish at the Festhalle which also housed the Expo so logistics for everything was really simple & the Collection for race number /goody bag which contained lots of stuff including an Alkofrei Rosbacher beer. Happy Days
If you want chip timing you had to pay deposit of 25€ which is a bit steep to make sure your returning it after the race. You had lots of free coupons on your race number including, Pace your Race wristband from ASICS & the Pasta Party on the Saturday which looked really popular as the Queues were out the doors!
The day itself was very well organised with wave Corrals to your finish time, as with any start it was a bit hectic so look for the very big balloons with your Corral name!
The route is around the City for first 7 Miles then out & back crossing the river to come back to city, lots of musicians on route & spectators although a bit rural in places not much to look at, its flat which is good for PB hunters if not windy!
There was also a Team Relay at the same time ‘Steffeln’ which I gathered by half way as these people joined us looking a bit fresh & feisty often barging their way through!
Could not fault the feed stations every 5km with water & Tee! also Banana, coke and Gels on the latter part of the course & still plenty for us slow late arrivals! Did find the cups on floor a nightmare plus sticky trainers from the spillage of coke, had to be careful not to slip. Not enough toilets on route just the odd Portaloo which you had to really look out for!
As you head back into city for last 4 Miles you repeat some of the course which included a cobbled area through old market town bit hellish on your feet!
Now for that welcoming finish line wow Wünderbar into red carpeted festival Hall of pumping music, laser lights and Cheerleaders! Totally awesome way to finish.
Such a shame you had to venture downstairs to retrieve your medals my poor hips! 
More beer and food available with medal area, nothing too congested & you could easily meet up with love ones again or go keep warm back in the FestHalle to watch more arrivals.
I think it was worth every penny and if you wanted to spend more you can add on a T-Shirt, medal engraving and a HD Video of the Finish!
For free you can get a BMW keyfob with map & your race-number on, get to the Expo for availability.
Great experience and first time abroad for any event & it all went smoothly.
I’m still smiling I’m a #visorclub Marathoner 

This was my first ever BIG city marathon and it was amazing.

Ease of getting to start was excellent and superb local support most of the way around the course.

Super flat, super fast course with an incredible red carpet finish.

Would highly recommend this race!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lkB8a-qXak&index=7&list=PLjubA8Oz9GhSM4NVCwb5aeJmBRjSgIJKs

The Positives:

This was my first full marathon, and Frankfurt being my hometown, it was quite an emotional one. The course is fantastic, as it is truly a city marathon and you get to see so much of the beautiful city of Frankfurt. The pacers were super friendly and on point, and kept you going if needed to. The local support was great, and due to the infrastructure of public transport your friends and family can see you more than once. The aid stations were well organised and had everything you needed and more (bananas and bretzels in small pieces, cola etc). The finish is one of a kind, and gives everyone goose bumps, not just if you're a local and the Festhalle means something to you. It truly makes you feel like a star!

The Negatives:

Having run 8 out of 10 of my races in the UK, I must admit that the entry fee is extortionate, I paid almost 100 Euros just to enter, and you still have to pay for a finisher t-shirt on top, as well as for the non-disposable timing chip. (Beacuse why use dispaosable ones at no extra costs, like in the UK? duh)

The worst thing for me was the area immediately after the finish. I came in just over 4hrs, which is a peak time, and there was an enormous queue to get handed our medals, and then we still had to navigate our way within the finisher area to find water. ABSOLUTE NO GO! It was a hot sunny October day, we just run 42km, there needs to be water handed to the runners immediately! I could've done with the medal at a later point, but I needed water immediately. Many runners around me were just as shocked.

All in all, a great and potentially fast course with fantastic scenery and support. Would run it again. 

The 35^th Frankfurt Marathon was my second marathon after taking up distance running earlier this year.   It was a highly enjoyable experience on the whole and is definitely a race I would recommend.

The course is pretty flat with a couple of modest elevations early on, including just after 10k and from 35km but it is certainly a course that lends itself to chasing a PB.   The weather was also ideal with temperatures in the low teens and some tolerable sunshine.

Frankfurt is a good autumn alternative to Berlin, if you can’t get a place in that marathon, as Frankfurt entry is wide open right up until race day.   There were about 12,000 finishers, although it felt a little bigger than that.   The corrals were pretty crammed, which led to some congestion at the start (as did the sharp corner turns early on).

The start is at the Festhalle Messe, a sprawling building where the expo, number pick up, bag drop and showers are located over several floors.   There are also a couple of hotels very nearby, such as the Maritim, which are excellent bases for runners.

The atmosphere was pretty good for the majority of the course, although there were inevitably more isolated places where supporters were very thin on the ground. There were a decent number of musicians along the way to encourage the runners, including German oompah and steel bands.

The water and refreshment stations were every five kilometres, with power gels and bananas added from about half-way through.   I didn’t find them particularly difficult to navigate as the stations were quite long. 

The race itself went pretty smoothly.   I was in the first corral, albeit quite far back in it, and decided to run slightly slower than the 2:59 pacers.  To be honest, I didn’t have a massive choice anyway because of the early congestion.   By the half-way mark I had them back in view and gradually caught up with them by about 30km.   After running with them for a few kilometres I came to the realisation that I wasn’t going to hit “the wall” so pushed on at a slightly faster pace.

The finish involves running on some cobbled streets a few kilometres from home, which doesn’t help your aching limbs, but the crowd support offsets some of the pain. The finish itself is pretty unusual – you run the last 50 metres inside the Festhalle on a red carpet, with cheerleaders and blasting music carrying you over the finish line.  I came home in 2:57:57, so I am always going to have a positive view of the marathon.

Things that could be improved? The chip return area is really inconvenient to find – you are expected to make it back to a poorly marked corner of the second floor after running a marathon.   That could easily be located outside in the area just past the finish line.   In addition, it took a long time to pick up our race numbers on the Saturday afternoon – they weren’t pre-printed, which would have speeded things up a lot.   And, finally, the finisher goody bag was pretty lame – no finisher’s t-shirt, for example.