Marcus Flores's Staging Area

Such a pretty course and despite being in June, there was a decent amount of shade along the course. The hills were killer, especially in the heat, but nearly every mile had an aid station with water, gatorade, and snacks to keep you going. Plus all the volunteers were super nice. The swag, expo, and finish line festivities were a bit lacking, but overall a decent race.

Very scenic race around fields and other wide open greenery. It rained for a good chunk of the race and was super windy, plus some lightning near the end made it a bit less than ideal and limited crowd support. However, it was relatively flat and had a decent finish line festival.

The city is full of hills and we got to experience lots of them and made it challenging. It was an early and chilly start with rain for the majority of the race, so there wasn’t a huge amount of crowd support. The scenery was ok, with some running near/through the park. Overall an ok race.

Well organized race with great crowd support and entertainment along the way. There were a fair number of inclines, but nothing too crazy. The race swag was particularly nice, although the race packet pick up at fleet feet was a little rough since there was a long line going out of the door. The finish line festival was pretty nice too.

What a fun race! It was awesome to run from park to park and appreciate the different scenery that helped distract from the miles. Plus it was fun seeing all of the characters every mile or so that you could stop to take a picture with, although I didn’t stop to keep my finish team reasonable. It was unexpectedly hot, getting up to near 80 degrees by noon, so for the safety of the participants, they guided runners to an abbreviated route to the finish. However, the course was well organized and not particularly hilly, with a few small inclines when running over bridges and overpasses between parks.

Decent number of inclines, but what really made this race challenging was the rain and wind for most of it. The start line was a bit disorganized likely due to the weather, but the finish line festival was well organized and fun. Running alongside marines in their full gear was inspiring and pushed me to try harder. The scenery was great, and then running around the historical buildings and monuments was a unique experience.

As my first large marathon I ever participated in, I was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of this race. The expo was well designed, the pre-race corrals were well organized, and the post-race goodies were pretty good. What surprised me the most was the amazing crowd support, which made it feel like the runners were all part of a parade with all of the crowd cheering us on. While not an overly difficult course, the size of the marathon is a double-edged sword – there were too many runners to run at my full capacity during the race. I expected it to thin out as the race went on, but I never really got enough room around me to run the way I wanted to. Additionally, several of the runners would stop right in front of me unexpectedly during the race or at water stations, which added to my frustration throughout. I would recommend this race for the experience, but not for anyone looking for a PB.

As the title implies, this is my favorite marathon that I’ve run so far. The course was relatively flat, with some occasional hills thrown in for good measure. The crowd support was amazing, with lots of bands and other spectators helping to boost your energy. The race swag was great, and the post-race goodies were amazing, plus it helped that everything was well organized. I would highly recommend and intend to come back to run again.