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.
It's hard to find two more different marathons. Boston demands a qualifying time, descends 400m over a famously hilly point-to-point route from Hopkinton, and has run continuously since 1897. Valencia is a ballot-entry, pancake-flat loop (62m of gain) built specifically to produce fast times, with a men's course record (2:01:48) more than ten minutes quicker than Boston's despite Boston's own strong 2:01:52 mark aided by its net downhill.
Boston in April is as much about the history and the qualifying standard as the race itself; Valencia in December is a pure, unsentimental shot at your fastest possible time. There's no real overlap in what each offers — Boston for legacy and achievement of entry, Valencia for the number on the clock.