[ RACE.2026 ] 🇳🇱 Rotterdam, Netherlands
NN Marathon Rotterdam Training Plan
11 April 2026
Rotterdam starts at the foot of the Erasmus Bridge, crosses it twice, and finishes on the grandstand-lined Coolsingel. In between is one of the flattest, most PB-friendly city marathons in the world.
What the course is actually like
The only climbing on the course is the Erasmus Bridge itself, crossed near the start and again around 27 km, plus a couple of short wooden-bridge bumps. Everything else is pancake-flat streets through Rotterdam's modern, post-war cityscape and along the Maas.
The layout is a loop with the start and finish close together, ending on the Coolsingel - a long, wide, straight boulevard packed with grandstands, famous for the fast closing splits it seems to pull out of people. The second bridge crossing is the one to respect: modest on fresh legs at 3 km, noticeably less modest at 27.
How to train for it
Rotterdam wants the flat-course fundamentals - long goal-pace blocks, even-effort discipline, strength work for the repetitive load - and very little else. There is no terrain to rehearse beyond knowing the second Erasmus crossing arrives when the race is starting to bite.
The April date shapes the training more than the course does: your build happens through the winter. Northern-European runners know this bargain well - dark-month consistency traded for a cool race day. Treadmill blocks and indoor tempos count; what matters is arriving in April with the winter's rhythm intact rather than rebuilt in March.
Weather and what to expect on the day
Mid-April in the Dutch delta is typically cool and fair - conditions that have made Rotterdam a spring PB fixture for decades - but it shares the lowland weather lottery with Amsterdam: wind is the variable, and the river sections and bridge are exposed when it blows.
The city treats the race as a civic event and the support is dense for a course this fast. Start conservatively despite it: the flat profile and the crowd both invite an over-eager first 10K, and the Coolsingel finish is far sweeter approached at pace than survived.
Which distance are you running?
Official site: www.aims-worldrunning.org/races/701.html
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