Libby Collins's Staging Area

I was a huge fan of the Pittsburgh marathon. The race organizers were very communicative every step of the way, the expo was easy to navigate, and you could not beat the crowd support. I was expecting some quiet stretches but that wasn’t the case, the locals were out supporting for most of the course, plus there were tons of pockets with live music/DJs. I thought the course itself was really nice – it starts downtown but pretty quickly takes runners over the first bridge (which offered some really pretty sights). There’s a rough hill during mile 12, but otherwise the course felt flat with some gentle rolling hills during the residential portions of the back half. The marathon finishes on a nice downhill and I appreciated the straightaway to the finish line (I hate when they throw in a ton of turns right at the end!) Overall I’m so impressed by my experience at this race. One con was that Dick’s apparently overbooked their group rate at our hotel, so we had a scare upon trying to check in that we’d have to move 4 miles further away from the starting line to a different hotel. I’m not really sure how you can prepare for that, but just something to be aware of. Otherwise, I loved my time running around Pittsburgh and would recommend this race to anyone!