Berlin vs. Rotterdam · Ian
How to Enter Both the Berlin and Rotterdam Marathons
The 2027 application for the two flat records course closes together in November. In Rotterdam, it goes to whoever pre-registers clicks first, and in Berlin, it goes to whoever is selected by lottery. Place the dates·Entry fee·time limit·course side by side and note what overlaps when both are entered.
Full marathon 17,000 places for the 2025 Rotterdam Marathon (NN Marathon Rotterdam) were sold out within two and a half hours after registration opened. The organizers changed their approach the following year.
The 2026 competition received pre-registration and then randomly allocated seats among those who registered. And in 2027, again on a first-come, first-served basis.
This time, it is a first-come, first-served basis, with cut-off point pre-registration in front. Free pre-registration will close at 10 a.
m. (local time) on November 3, 2026, and when registration opens on November 4, seats will be filled in the order in which payment is completed first.
Also in November, entries for the Berlin Marathon's 2027 lottery will close on November 12. The results are on December 3rd.
This competition, whose name will be changed to “Generali Berlin Marathon” from 2027, is free to enter, and only those selected will pay 215 euros. Rotterdam is based on payment speed, and Berlin is based on lottery luck.
There is a huge difference between the two deadlines. Since the competition is held in April and September, there is no reason to choose between the two, and the difference is the timing of payment.
1Berlin·Rotterdam Marathon 2027 comparison table, registration method·Entry fee·time limit
Here's what each race's official information says as of October 26, 2026. · Race day — Berlin: Sunday, September 26, 2027 · Rotterdam: Sunday, April 11, 2027 · Entry method — Berlin: lottery (teams of 2 to 3 can enter together) · Rotterdam: first come, first served after free pre-registration · Entry period — Berlin: October 1 to November 12, 2026 · Rotterdam: pre-registration October 20 to 10 a.m.
on November 3; registration opens November 4 · Results and payment — Berlin: results by email on December 3; only runners who are drawn pay, starting December 4 · Rotterdam: pay immediately on the registration page on November 4; registration closes automatically once spots are gone · Entry fee — Berlin: €215 · Rotterdam: 2027 fee not yet announced (€150 for the 2025 race) · Time limit — Berlin: 6 hours, 15 minutes (from when you cross the start line) · Rotterdam: 5 hours, 30 minutes (from when the last runner starts), with cutoffs of 2:45 at 21.1K and 3:40 at 28K · Start — Berlin: 8:45 a.m. (2026) · Rotterdam: five waves 7 minutes apart, starting at 10 a.
m. · Average temperature in race month — Berlin (September): 15.3°C · Rotterdam (April): 9.2°C The line to check first is the time limit: 6 hours, 15 minutes in Berlin; 5 hours, 30 minutes in Rotterdam, with three cutoffs. Break Rotterdam's cutoffs down by distance—2:45 at 21.1K, 3:40 at 28K, and 5:30 at the finish—and they all work out to roughly 7:50 per kilometer.
That means holding that pace from start to finish. If you run 8 minutes per kilometer, your race could be over at halfway. And there's one more time that isn't in the table: 2:15 p.
m., when you have to cross the Erasmus Bridge (Erasmusbrug) again, heading back toward the city center. By the same math, Berlin's 6 hours, 15 minutes works out to about 8:53 per kilometer, so the two races' thresholds are a minute per kilometer apart.
Rotterdam MarathonSun, April 11, 2027 · D-158 · Rotterdam, NetherlandsSee race details
217,000 places in 2.5 hours, why the Rotterdam Marathon changed its application method twice
The 2025 race laid bare the weakness of first come, first served. In August 2024, two and a half hours of hitting refresh on the registration page decided runners' plans for the following spring. That year, organizers opened a separate €5 waitlist and handed out additional spots at random.
Starting with the 2026 race, they took pre-registrations from the outset: From September 9 until noon on September 22, 2025, spots were allocated at random among registrants who paid a €5 administration fee, and that race sold out through pre-registration alone. The 2027 system, though, mixes the two. Pre-registration is free, and when you pre-register has no effect on the outcome, according to the organizers.
Whether you sign up on October 20 or the morning of November 3, you're in the same line. Once you pre-register, you'll get a personal registration link by email, and that link is the only way into registration on November 4. You can pre-register only once, and your name and email address must match the ones you'll use to actually register.
If you paid €5 to pre-register for the 2026 race, it will be automatically deducted from your entry fee if you successfully register for 2027. One line in the organizers' guidance is worth remembering: "Pre-registration gives you access to registration, but does not guarantee a race entry." In other words, payment speed has taken the place of random allocation, and on the afternoon of November 4, the runners who pay fastest get the spots.
3Registration begins on November 4, and the first runners to pre-register will be in line at 2 p.m.
Registration on November 4 opens in two rounds. The first, at 10 a.m.
, is reserved for runners who pre-registered for the 2026 race but didn't get a spot, and half of all spots are set aside for it. So when do first-time pre-registrants get their turn? At 2 p.
m. Once the first-round allocation sells out, runners who missed out for 2026 can also use their links again in the 2 p.m.
general round. How many spots will be left for the general round hasn't been announced. One thing is certain: Once the links go live, spots fill in the order runners finish paying, and when they're gone, registration simply closes.
If you can't find the link email, check your spam and promotions folders first. Have your card and account details out before 2 p.m.
, too, so you don't fall behind at payment.
4Entry is free, 215 euros only for those selected — Berlin Marathon Lottery
Berlin has just one hurdle. Enter the lottery with a personal account on the official website between October 1 and November 12, 2026, and you'll get your result by email on December 3. Charges begin December 4, for selected runners only, and depending on your bank, it can take up to a week for the payment to go through.
Runners born 2009 or earlier can enter, and while Nordic walking isn't allowed, walking is—as long as you finish within the time limit. The €215 fee includes a four-day public transit ticket for Berlin's A, B, and C fare zones, pacers in every start corral, a downloadable finisher certificate, a poncho at the finish, and a massage. Choosing a gear-check bag instead of the poncho costs an extra €5.
Teams can have two or three members. The first person enters as a team and receives a team code, which the others then enter, but a code can't be added once an entry has been submitted. Everyone gets in together, or no one does.
If one member can't run, that spot simply goes unused: You can't substitute another runner, entry fees aren't refunded, and entries can't be deferred to another year. If you enter as a team, be prepared to miss out together, too. If you aren't drawn, two options remain: an official charity entry or an official tour operator.
Berlin MarathonSun, September 26, 2027 · D-326 · Berlin, GermanySee race details
5Berlin enters record time, under 2 hours 45 minutes for men and 3 hours 10 minutes for women
Faster runners upload proof of a qualifying time on the same entry page. There are three standards, based on birth year. Runners born 1983–2009 need 2:45 for men and 3:10 for women; for those born 1968–1982, it's 2:55 and 3:30; and for those born 1967 or earlier, 3:25 and 4:20.
Only marathons run in 2025 and 2026 count, and they must be AIMS-certified races, races that count toward the Abbott World Marathon Majors Age Group World Rankings, or races on the USATF list. Virtual races don't qualify. Approval comes on the same day as the lottery results.
What if your proof doesn't meet the standard? That entry moves into the general lottery. So even if you're a few minutes short, you have nothing to lose by uploading proof.
6Berlin course, where the world record was set 13 times, the variable being the heat in September
The marathon world record has fallen 13 times in Berlin. The two most recent were Eliud Kipchoge's 2:01:09 in 2022 and Tigist Assefa's 2:11:53 in 2023. Both marks have since been broken in Chicago.
The start and finish sit on the same stretch of the Straße des 17. Juni, between the Brandenburg Gate and the Kleiner Stern. American YouTuber Matt Richardson, who finished the 2026 race in 3:03:21, summed up the course in one line: "Berlin, this race course is flat and fast." If you have to name a climb, it's the small hill at 7K that the Irish channel Ireland Running Adventures pointed out: "It's not much, but just got to maintain the pace."
In flat Berlin, the variable is temperature. The September average is 15.3°C, and during the 2026 race, British YouTuber Ben Parkes said, "Very little wind. It's probably about 15° at the moment."
But Korean YouTuber KWONHWAWOON, who ran the 2025 race, reported that it was already 23°C at 7 a.m. In 2026, each start corral had its own entry time: Corrals A, B, and C went in at 7 a.
m., and the back corrals—H, J, and K—at 8:30 a.m.
The farther back your corral, the higher the sun while you're running. For a 6-hour runner, Berlin's 6-hour, 15-minute limit may look generous, but in a hot year, it isn't much of a cushion.
7Immediately after the start and 27km in, the Rotterdam Marathon splits at the Erasmus Bridge.
Rotterdam produced marathon world bests from 1985 to 1998 and earned World Athletics Gold Label status in 2025. The race starts on the Schiedamsedijk and finishes on the Coolsingel in the city center. Its reputation as a flat course is deserved, but follow the 42K run by Dutch runner Rene Kuijs, who finished the 2026 race in 2:33 and change, and you'll see the race split twice around a single bridge.
The first split comes right after the start. "Right from the start you go up the Erasmus Bridge, and you have to find your pace for a moment there, because you go straight up and then down," he said. Then comes the wind.
On the seemingly endless havenspoorpad, a path along the harbor railway, he took it at an angle from the front. The second tough stretch runs from halfway until you cross the bridge again at 27K—in his words, "a really annoying section," going "a bit up and down, up and down." Jelmer Priester, who ran the race for the seventh time that year, called the approach to the bridge "a bit of a no-man's-land," and on the bridge, his watch pace slowed to 4:35 per kilometer.
For runners near the front, this bridge is where you lose your pace; for those farther back, it's where you race the clock. The 2:15 p.m.
cutoff is this second crossing, and just over 1 kilometer after you come off the bridge, the 28K cutoff (3:40) awaits. April's average temperature is a cool 9.2°C. But in 2007, the race was stopped at 2:30 p.
m. on medical advice after a string of runners collapsed in unseasonable heat. Race director Mario Kadiks said at the time that it was "purely preventative."
On race morning, the start area opens at 9 a.m., backpacks aren't allowed in, and bag check and the changing rooms are only for runners who selected the option when they registered.
Miss that box on the registration page, and you'll be standing around on an April morning in throwaway clothes.
Editor's pick
Enter both. The Berlin lottery costs nothing to enter and Rotterdam's pre-registration is free, so pre-register for Rotterdam before 10 a.m.
on November 3 and enter the Berlin lottery before November 12. Where they diverge is the order of payment. In Rotterdam, you need to be in front of your screen at 2 p.
m. on November 4 and pay right away to get a spot, while Berlin's results don't come out until a month later, on December 3. Pay for Rotterdam and then get drawn for Berlin, and you're on the hook for two marathons in one year.
Sure, the five and a half months between April and September is enough time to run both—but make that call before you're staring at the payment button on November 4. For some runners, the cutoffs change the answer. If you're looking at a finish of around 6 hours, Rotterdam's cutoffs, which demand roughly 7:50 per kilometer all the way to the finish, are tight.
For those runners, the Berlin lottery is the main event, and it makes sense to skip Rotterdam. But if you're chasing a fast spring time and don't want to wait on lottery luck, Rotterdam comes first. On the bridge climb right after the start, don't look at your watch.
Berlin's results emails go out on December 3. If you don't get a spot in Rotterdam's general round, you'll have to wait for the official waitlist announcement, and no details on timing have been released yet.
Entry period · Accommodation
| Races | Itinerary | Entry period | INFO. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rotterdam Marathon | Sun, April 11, 2027 | Tue, October 20, 2026 ~ Tue, November 3, 2026 | Accommodation · See race details |
| Berlin Marathon | Sun, September 26, 2027 | Thu, October 1, 2026 ~ Thu, November 12, 2026 | Accommodation · See race details |
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