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.
Within Spain, these two sit at opposite extremes. Valencia is pancake flat (62m of gain) and one of the fastest courses on earth (2:01:48 course record); Madrid is genuinely hilly (410m of gain) with a course record more than six minutes slower (2:08:18) as a direct result.
Madrid's open registration makes it easy to enter, as does Valencia's ballot in practice, but the experience on course couldn't differ more — Valencia rewards even pacing on dead-flat roads to a blue-carpet finish, Madrid demands real climbing legs through the capital. For a serious PB attempt, Valencia is the obvious choice; for a harder, hillier Spanish marathon, Madrid is the one.