A fresh wave of German marathon runners are hoping to make their mark in front of a home crowd - and one plans to attack a barrier which will put him in world class.
Arne Gabius will be making his debut over the 26.2 miles in Frankfurt at the end of next month and he is aiming to start in style by chasing a time of 2:10.
Gabius, who was seventh in the 5000m at the European Athletics Championships in Zurich in August after winning silver in Helsinki in 2012, is looking to build on his half-marathon best of 1:02:09 from New York in March.
As bmw-frankfurt-marathon.com says: 'No German marathon runner has been this fast since the end of the 90s. Michael Fietz won in Frankfurt in 1997 in 2:10:59 hours, two years later Carsten Eich won in Hamburg in 2:10:22.'
The German marathon record is 2:08:47 by Jorg Peter from 1998 while the country’s No. 1 in 2014 is Andre Pollmacher with 2:13:58. In Zurich, he finished eighth in 2:14:51.
Breaking 2:10, or even hitting that sort of time itself, would be some way to start his marathon career and such a time would make Gabius, a 33-year-old doctor from Tubingen, among the fastest in Europe.
The European Athletics rankings are led by Mo Farah with 2:08:21, one of just six men to have dipped under 2:11 in 2014.
Debut marathons can go either way.
Farah ran a fine race in London but he was never able to make a winning bid as Kenya’s Wilson Kipsang triumphed in 2:04:29 while one of the most famous first marathons was on that same London route in 2002 when Paula Radcliffe powered away to victory in what was then a course record of 2:18:56. A year later she broke the world record with her 2:15:25, a time which still stands.
Gabius will be joined in the race by fellow Germans Philipp Pflieger, who is chasing 1:07 for the first half before then planning to go quicker for the second 13.1 miles. Others include Julian Flugel, whose debut in April in Hamburg saw him finish 14th in 2:15:39, and Manuel Stockert, who is running his first marathon.