Registration the day before was really easy, large expo with a chance to grab some good deals, and picking up of number / tshirt was surprisingly quick. There was an optional pasta party at the beautiful Rathaus, good value (12 euros for pasta and a drink), an opportunity to speak with other runners or just listen to the live music from the string quartet.

The race itself was on a beautiful course, but I did have a few gripes. The temperature on race day was late 20s probably 30s when some people finished, but the water stations were shameful. Cups only, but the volunteers could not fill them in time, resulting in queues and people running into each other. There was taps at some stations to fill your own bottles, but only around 6 taps per station for up to 41k runners. You could lose anywhere between 20secs to a min queueing for water in the first half. Most stations were only on one side of the road and hard to reach due to congestion. I’ve never seen so many runners on the floor at an event, either through being knocked over or collapsed. Upon finishing there was no normal water available, only very warm bottles of sparkling. It wasn’t what I was expecting from a big city marathon. Other than this though it did have a big event feel, finishing on a carpeted road in front of people in stands was a great moment.

The bag drop worked really well, medal and tshirts were great (but heard of problems for some runners getting a medal), goodie bag was a bit standard, couple of drinks, some fruit etc... Fix the stations up and congestion and this could be a great event.

I really didn't mind the near 30 degree temperatures, I really liked the route, the marshals were fine, the medal, the tee, the EXPO, all good. I just cannot score it higher because of a lot of things that went wrong:

1. I had preordered a timing chip, it was not in my race bag from the expo. Apparently it was mailed, but I never received it and therefore I did not get a time for the marathon. And was also charged 39 euros for the privilege. 
2. They ran out of medals for the marathon runners. This is inexcusable.
3. They ran out of water. On the hottest day? Again, not good.
4. The tee was only pre-order, and there were no other tees to buy. So those who hadn't read the one email that mentioned it did not get a tee.
5. The communication was poor post race. They ignored us for days.

If they can fix all these issues it would be a great marathon. And I am sure that next year's race will be better and the kinks ironed out. It just sticks in the craw that so many things went wrong, and all were experienced by the people I knew. One did not get a medal, 3 did not get a tee, I did not get a timing chip.

The race I actually liked. It runs along the Danube, after starting by the UN buildings, you enjoy wide roads, and pass a stadium, and run through parks. It is a pretty and expensive city. Well maintained and the road surfaces were great. It is wasn't held during a crazy heatwave we would have PBd.

Where to start, it was a disaster from the get go, t-shirts had to be prerodered and you couldn't buy any at the expo, the starting pens had no rhyme or reason i to it, took over 40 minutes to get started, water staions every 5k ish, they said there would be orages en route, ther was none, some water stations had ran out, a blisstering hot day, there as no natural water at the end of the race and i was physically sick for about the last 7 miles, unless you can ran a sb 4:30 marathon I would not recommend this race, oh and they had no medals, so I paid 95 euro's and have nothing to show for it, its such a shame as Vienna is a great city and its a good course but the organisation is appalling, and they refuse to even respond to my requests about my medal ...