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.
Berlin's flat Tiergarten loop and New York's rolling five-borough route sit at opposite ends of the difficulty spectrum. New York carries 275m of elevation gain across its bridges and inclines — more than four times Berlin's 58m — and its course record (2:04:58, men) is nearly four minutes slower than Berlin's, a fair reflection of how much harder the terrain bites.
Both are ballot-entry Majors with enormous fields (Berlin around 50,000, New York regularly over 55,000), so scale isn't the differentiator — terrain and timing are. Berlin runs in September under calm conditions built for pacing; New York runs in early November through Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island, a course that rewards strength and crowd energy over pure pace management. Pick Berlin for the fastest number your legs can produce, New York for the bigger, louder five-borough experience.