The Erie Marathon race course is ideal for setting your personal best record. Flat, Fast & Fun, our course provides beautiful views of Lake Erie as well as the City of Erie Bayfront and miles of coastline beaches, marshes and wooded paths. Held on Presque Isle, in Erie, PA, many …
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The Erie Marathon race course is ideal for setting your personal best record. Flat, Fast & Fun, our course provides beautiful views of Lake Erie as well as the City of Erie Bayfront and miles of coastline beaches, marshes and wooded paths. Held on Presque Isle, in Erie, PA, many of our participants return year after year to run in our race and enjoy the natural beauty our location provides.
It doesn’t get much flatter with less than a 250 foot total change in elevation for the marathon. The running surface is mostly asphalt but there is still about a third that is concrete. However, most of the course offers a grass surface along the paved surface should you choose to run there. There is a considerable amount of shade and sun on the course so it just depends upon if your glass is half full or half empty. This is an all volunteer run race with a cap of 2200. We do not offer race tracking and pace groups are not guaranteed. The course is a Boston Qualifier and our new course in 2017 had a 44% BQ rate, second only to Boston itself.
In March of 2016, USA Today named Presque Isle State Park America’s Best Fresh Water Beach!
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Perfect.
It was PERFECT! I Boston Qualified! Weather was perfect! It’s relatively flat and there were MORE than enough air stations with water. They also had GU gel on course. There … MORE
It was PERFECT! I Boston Qualified! Weather was perfect! It’s relatively flat and there were MORE than enough air stations with water. They also had GU gel on course. There was a lot of energy by spectators and the volunteers were amazing. The scenery is beautiful too. There were also a lot of bathrooms available. And there are so many other runners! Which I really liked! It wasn’t too congested. I really enjoyed the whole thing.
Flat and fast as advertised
Nice flat course with water stops every mile and lots of pace groups. A little congested at the start, but it helped me from going out too fast. The only … MORE
Nice flat course with water stops every mile and lots of pace groups. A little congested at the start, but it helped me from going out too fast. The only issue is the traffic getting into and out of the park. Plan to get there early.
Pancake Flat. Perfect BQ course.
My 20th Marathon and absolutely the flattest I've ever run! Because of this, recommend training on long flat stretches if possible. I did BQ, along with over 30% of other … MORE
My 20th Marathon and absolutely the flattest I’ve ever run! Because of this, recommend training on long flat stretches if possible. I did BQ, along with over 30% of other runners. Because it’s the last weekend to BQ prior to Boston registration, there are a bunch of BQ hopefuls to run with, which I found helpful. You can tell this race is put on by a running club. Easy packet pickup, aid stations stocked with the right stuff and great volunteers. Very good swag. Pretty course, but only gave 3 shoes for ‘course scenery’ because the view of Lake Erie is covered by trees for most of the course. Only negative is that this area can get humid around the Lake, so keep an eye on this and maybe relax a little in the first half.
Would like to return
Smaller race is capped around 2,000 marathoners. Course is flat, two laps around a very pretty park. There was some shade with fun water stations each mile. The parking was … MORE
Smaller race is capped around 2,000 marathoners. Course is flat, two laps around a very pretty park. There was some shade with fun water stations each mile. The parking was at a nearby amusement park and was well organized. The park itself had long stretches of sand beaches that you can check out before or after the race. The short sleeve tech shirt was pretty and the cloth bag with a zipper top and movable inserts was really nice. The finish line had water, chocolate milk, bananas and sandwiches from Subway. The only funny thing was that my bag didn’t have any pins. Be sure to bring some with you. I would consider running Erie again with hopes of improving my time!