The 5 World Major Marathons

The majority of people in the running community know the 5 major marathons:

Boston, Chicago, New York City, Berlin and London

I ran Chicago last year (2011), and will run Boston in 2013.  That leaves New York, London, and Berlin for majors that I am not running.  I want to run New York, but Berlin and London...I have no desire.  As in 0.  Even if I had all of the money in the world I don't know if I would want to run those two races.

I've heard a lot of people talk about running vacations, or turning a vacation into one focused around a race.  The only races I've ever traveled for were the Sam Costa half marathon (March, 2011), Ragnar Northwest Passage (July, 2011), and the Illinois Marathon (April, 2012).  All of my other races have been within driving distance.

Out of the races I've traveled for, Ragnar was through the Insulindependence group, so all I had to do was get my plane ticket and pay the fee and they pretty much took care of everything else.  For Sam Costa, I stayed with one of my friends.  For Illinois, I got a hotel and a friend went with me.  It was only a few hours from where i live and didn't require a whole lot of traveling hassles.

However, I'm learning a lot with Boston.  Plane tickets, hotel reservations, and logistical information need to be figured out ahead of time.  Lucky for me, my parents have offered to go with me so I have less work to do.  My dad bought our plane tickets when I told him which flights I wanted to be on.  They are also booking the hotels.  I've been busy lately with a variety of things, so having them take care of it for me has been a true blessing.

I can't imagine doing an international marathon.  I think I would get multiple headaches trying to figure everything out.  You know some people are "easy travelers" and others are difficult travels, or don't travel well, I definitely fit into the second category.  Not only am I unable to pack and will attempt to fit my entire closet in my suitcase, I don't do well with time change because I'm a very routine-oriented person.  Therefore, I'll leave Berlin and London off my bucket list.  However, Fox Valley?  That one is on it.