World Marathon Majors get a rival? European Marathon Classics officially launched!! London is part of it

Warsaw but not Rotterdam? I know Copenhagen is also in the Netherlands, Rotterdam is the far more premier race. Maybe second only to London on this list. I guess this is capital city marathons only. Except Frankfurt.

Copenhagen is in Denmark and not Netherlands..

Amsterdam also missing theoretically which is the capital of Netherlands..

Yes, okay, I should have realized I'm mentally fried this evening. I was stretching and conjuring to try to make this list make sense. Maybe it's something to do with entrant numbers threshold.

When did that happen?
I have to brush up on my European geography.

Madrid is an underrated and beautiful marathon. Grueling hilly course though.

Good. Because not everyone wants to travel to the US. If people have enough money to chase 7 stars then they are gunna have a far better time chasing this one in Europe

Europe also has a half marathon series something like this- I can't remember the name but it's on Instagram. I thought that was cool- it lends itself better to a grand prix scoring competition because runners can do more than two a year.

This is such a strange collection. If I were to make a European circuit, not counting the WMMs, my first choice would be Valencia. Second would probably be Rotterdam.

I hope this circuit does well. They should give a prize to elite athletes that perform well in multiple of these marathons within the same year. Let's say 10 points for a win, 5 points for 2nd place, 3 points for 3rd place. Or do a sliding scale that awards points up to 8 places like the Diamond League. Highest total score in a calendar year gets a financial reward.

Europeans are going to eschew coming to the US for many years to come. Who wants to come to a country being overrun by right wing masked paramilitary forces, where the President and his party are openly preparing to rig national elections this Fall?

Not to mention daily mass shootings and out-of-control costs of travel and hotel costs in large cities.

Heck, I'm an American and I feel these ways. If I were a European, I would not consider traveling to the US in the next few years at the very least.

Wonder why no Valencia or Rotterdam?

Sounds like a decent marketing tool to get more attention to their races, might boost participation and help with tourism. But I don’t see this changing the sport much unless it generates a serious funding boost for the elite fields. Then we might see races get massively diluted. Especially considering Sydney, Capetown…etc.

There are only so many elite matchups that are compelling.

Maybe they're in discussions with the WMM.

It’s called SuperHalfs. In general this seems like a less elite race focused version of the Majors geared at Europeans. The majors are more exclusive and global, and all have more of a focus on the elites than this. The SuperHalfs is somewhere in the middle as it shares the Europe part but the elite races are a big part in all of them.

Charities don't have "rivals" since they are for the Love of Running. They're all running buddies and they meet up in Malibu each year.

Vert der Ferk?