Two of the fastest marathon courses on earth, two very different races. Here's every stat, side by side, to help you pick.
Indicative — based on GPX data. Both courses normalised to start at 0m.
✓ marks the better number on that stat.
Two of Europe's flattest courses, with Amsterdam (55m of gain) edging out even Berlin (58m) on paper. Amsterdam's course record (2:03:30) sits a little behind Berlin's 2:01:09, a gap explained more by depth of elite fields than by the course itself — Berlin's Majors status pulls a stronger field every year.
Amsterdam is open registration rather than ballot, making it the easier of the two to simply sign up for, and its October date sits just three weeks after Berlin's late-September slot — close enough that combining both in one autumn is a stretch but not impossible. If you want the Majors medal and record-course history, Berlin wins; if you want an equally flat course without the ballot lottery, Amsterdam is a strong, underrated alternative.