EDP Porto Marathon

Buona organizzazione e tanta partecipazione . Tifosi solo nel centro di Porto .

Percorso che parte ed arriva lontano dal centro di Porto , a Matosinos . Rispetto al 2022 , nel 2023 abbiamo corso anche sul lato opposto del fiume attraversando il ponte Luis . Molto vento

I really liked the race, well organized, great route eventhough it was tough due to the weather conditions (cold , then warm, then rainy, with some wind). The race is quite early so not much cheering at the beginning.

Excellent race but tough, the cobblestones with the wind, the rain and the hills make this race quite challenging.

Percorso non piatto con curve strette ed andate e ritorno dall’inizio alla fine. Partecipazione pubblico scarsa ristori senza gel , il 99 % dei runner hanno misurato 400/500 metri in più .

The city of Porto ist really beautiful, and this usually is a good precondition for a nice marathon. And indeed, the first impressions of Porto Marathon in 2018 were very positive. So I was enlighted, that at the bib counter all runners got a paraticipant shirt and a participant backpack additional to the medal and the finisher shirt you get after the run. Then I came to the pasta party, which took place in the vault cellar of the building where you get the bib. What a great atmosphere! It was well-oranized, no long queues, and a saxophonist played in the background. This put me in a very good mood. Unfortunately this changed a bit in the next morning, when I took the metro to get to the start. Already for me it was difficult to gat a place to stand in the train, and at the next stops a lot more runners pushed themselves into the train. I wished that the Porto metro company would be more flexible and send more trains on marathon days. They should know about from the last years where it probably was the same. However, crammed tight like this all runners kept warm. Being crowded also characterized the first part of the marathon. The was a common start time for the marathon and the 15k family race, and the capacity of the course was much too low for such a huge number of runners. It took 11 kilometers until you got the chance to run without steady struggling with your neighbours, but even then the course was too narrow for the remaining 5000 runners. However, it was very nice to run along the shore ot the ocean with its high waves and at the river of Tejo with its impressing bridges. Only the fact of running against the wind disturbed the pleasure, especially because it was only about 12 degrees Celsius and it kept raining all over the day from time to time. And of course the wind changed its direction when I turned in order to run back to the start and finish area. Nevertheless, with better weather conditions it would have been a great joy to run the beautiful course. And maybe with better weather conditions you would not have to wait nearly half an hour in order to get back your clothing bag - without shelter in a open place. I never ever waited so long for this reason, and especially when it is cold and windy this is not acceptable. On the way back with the metro it was the same as in the morning. You had to push yourself anyhow into the train and hope that some others would leave at one one of the next stops. Okay, anyhow you get home, take a shower and then you have a look at the results list - and again you face a lack of organization which I never saw before: The runners are ranked by gun time instead by their net results! This must not be in times of digitalisation, and it is not usual in any other competition I took part (maybe besides the top runners). So, in conclusion, there are some positive aspects like the city of Porto itself, the pasta party, the marathon back pack anad participant shirt and of course the beautiful course, but also there is a dramatical lack of organization. If you intend to visit Porto as a tourist anyhow, the marathon is a good "add on option", but if your primary goal should be to participate in perfect organized competition, you probably should prefer another marathon.

A beautiful, scenic race but the organisation was awful. It's such a shame as running past the sea as the waves come crashing in is such a unique experience. You run along the river, across bridges and through the historic Porto streets. The local support was great and there were food and drinks every 5km. It could have been great but what happened at the bag collection in the freezing cold as the rain poured down was unacceptable. Hundreds of runners were left standing in the cold for over an hour because the organisers had not planned how to distribute bags to runners. It was a major health and safety risk and I'm amazed no one died. As the bags were not covered, some people found their clothes were wet so they had no warm clothing to wear. Before the race, the venue was not well signposted from the metro stop so some runners were not sure where to go. British runners also found the website hard to navigate. The Expo was good and the pasta meal was lovely. I would not do this race again but am proud that I completed it.

It was a rather long marathon at 26.6 miles but that may be due to running sideways.

Running in Porto is always an amazing experience: crossing three municipalities (Matosinhos, Porto and Gaia) gives a unique opportunity to enjoy the beautiful scenery along the sea and river. However, the organization clearly failed this year in providing the best conditions to the runners: queue lines for the wardrobes of more than 20 minutes in the beginning; the luggage was left in the rain and the runners had to wait over an hour to receive them back after finishing the race. Such an amazing route should deserve a much better organization.

It was especially rainy and windy, and the course was very packed with runners. I think it's a great course and event, but I didn't perform as well as I'd hoped.

Great route. Well organized.

Not easy but great place to run ...

Nice race :)

Very nice and flat

The 2018 edition was tough and the organisation wasn't prepared for bad weather...

sehr gute Organisation

Porto ist eine schöne Stadt, und auch der Marathon hat seine Vorzüge. So gibt es neben Medaille und Finisher-Shirt noch ein Teilnehmer-Shirt und einen Rucksack. Außerdem findet die Pasta-Party stimmungsvoll in einem Gewölbekeller statt. Das Marathon-Erlebnis selbst leidet jedoch unter der unzureichenden Kapazität der öffentlichen Verkehrsmittel, die einen hin zum Start und wieder zurück in die Stadt bringen sollen, unter der schlechten Organisation (z.B. lange Wartezeiten bei der Kleiderbeutelausgabe) und unter der Tatsache, dass verschiedene Läufe gleichzeitig starten (was zu Platzmangel auf der Strecke führt). Zur Abwertung führt auch, dass die Finisher-Plazierung nach der Bruttozeit berechnet wird. Für Marathon-Touristen ist der Lauf dennoch durchaus okay.

Some informations for the German runners.... Look at my homepage and read my report! http://ulrichberghaeuser.de/marathon/berichtemarathon.html