Spring Marathon for OTQ?

Shamrock in VA Beach and the Eugene Marathon are both fast courses but I'm not sure if you will get many people (if any) running at the OTQ standard. Grandma's probably is your best bet.

Boston bro

You likely want a much bigger race, but Myrtle Beach is flat, fast and certified. You'd also certainly win, but you'd have to do it running alone (if you're a man) going for an OTQ, since the winning time is usually around 2:30 +/- 5 min.

Houston marathon

Illinois, last Sat in April

Forgot about Phoenix/Mesa. VERY fast course with only one significant hill and about 1,000' drop from start to finish. Top-2 this year were 2:16:49 and 2:19:17. Not sure if an OTQ needs to be done on a "legal" course or not.

It was cancelled last year due to costs. Do you know if it's coming back?

Another option could be Carmel, IN. Not a big race, and you'd likely get the win. But quite a few people go there to run fast in April. Really only a good option if you live close by. They have some elite support, but I'm not sure if it's worth traveling fast to do.

Unless you can run the standard in a solo effort, Boston and Grandmas are probably the only races competitive enough. People will list stuff like Shamrock, R&R, Eugene, Vermont City. Maybe some people show up and the race is fast enough, but if not you're waiting until CIM in December.

There really aren't good spring OTQ options, which is why people hit CIM/Houston in the winter or flock to Grandma's before choosing a fall race. Boston is probably your best bet if you want people to run with but it can obviously be quite difficult to OTQ there. A lot of the races mentioned won't have many runners going for it, if any at all.

If Europe/Japan/Canada/Australia are options for you, that's something to strongly consider. Lots of fast/flat courses & much more dependable weather. Tokyo, Lake Biwa, Rotterdam, Hannover, Paris, London, Prague, Copenhagen, Ottawa, Gold Coast, etc.

Carmel Marathon is not ideal. The last 3 miles you are on the bike path fighting your way through 2:30 half marathon runners still finishing their first loop.

Ottowa

That's usually waaaaaay too hot to run under 2:20. Plus you'd be top 10 so you might not have much company.

London is moving back to April in 2023.

Sadly, Lake Biwa's last marathon was in 2021. They will not be continuing it due to costs. The Beppu-Oita marathon in February might be a good choice, assuming you can get into Japan by then.

Lake Biwa's back, baby!

japanrunningnews.blogspot.com

The Undeath of Historic Japanese Marathons: Lake Biwa Comeback Planned for 2023

After seeing its final edition in Shiga last year and then being absorbed into the Osaka Marathon in March this year, the legacy of the La...

Link:http://japanrunningnews.blogspot.com/2...

That’s winter. I’ll give my vote for the snickers marathon in albany. Though they just changed sponsors.

For what it's worth, I wouldn't say Grandma's is 'flat and fast', it's a middle of the road course for difficulty as it still has near 500 foot elevation change throughout instead of only about 100 at races like Chicago/Houston/Indy and the weather is sometimes a little warm since it's in June. It historically has a lot of fast times because there are a ton of people who show up who are generally capable of running around the standard or slightly faster, they have a very good elite athlete support to help men in the 2:12-2:17 range and women in the 2:29-2:36 range.

Eugene marathon in April is a similar difficulty course as Grandma's with elevation gain just under 500 feet, it could fit your timeline. It's nowhere as deep with competition as Grandma's but is a good course and the weather is cooler than Grandma's. But I'm not aware of any spring marathons that are on the same flatness level as Indy/Houston/Chicago in the United States. In Europe there are a lot more flat spring marathon options.

Assuming OP is male, will there be anyone else at Albany (Georgia) to run with at OTQ pace?