Gay Renouf's Staging Area

The marathon is two loops of the half course, and the number of half runners dwarfs those running 42.2. This is a minor inconvenience at the end as both races merge. The course is very convoluted but extremely well marked and with volunteers at every turn. You run through the old town, through Central Park and along a river path. Very scenic. The tshirts come in female sizes (yay!) and are pretty splashy.you can stay at the Radisson just across the street from the expo, start, and finish – very easy! All in all, an interesting place to visit and great event.

The course might be hard (my Garmin said 450 m elevation gain and loss), but everything else is easy. In February, one can stay on the Riva (waterfront) and the expo, race start and finish are all just a short walk. The organization was excellent, with many volunteers guiding the runners on a convoluted course – a lot of it on the waterfront, and some in the old town going through Diocletian’s palace. The medal was plain but weighty, and the race shirts are delightful- unique striped design with women’s sizing available. Split is a fantastic place to visit, and the Mediterranee restaurant in Hotel Ambasador was so good, we ate there many times.

This race is well organized and a joy to participate in. It’s about half in residential areas, and half along the coast with a lot of undulations. The many canted roads are a bit of a problem. The swag for marathon is an amazing UnderArmour jacket – this is one piece of swag it is worth not going green for. There are many hotels very close to the start/finish – we stayed at the Huntington, and they would not allow a late checkout – you would have to run 2:30 or faster to get back in time for checkout.

A beautiful course with top notch spectators holding some goofy signs. One of the fastest courses I’ve run on, with lots of wide streets. Nice, cool weather. Organization not great though – package pickup unnecessarily slow and awkward; same with passing security into the start area – took over 30 minutes.

A race with a lot of buzz; many spectators, who yelled “well done” and “fair play to youse”. Great medal! Perfect weather and a fast course.

Make sure you give yourself enough time to get to your corral. All but the two fastest corrals have to be entered by going way around the start – at least 1.5 km extra. Downsides are the extreme crowding on course, plus the finisher shirt is unisex, not well made, and they don’t reserve your size, so I ended up with a shirt that hung 4 inches past my fingers.

Beautiful sites to see – lots of running in the old town and ten bridge crossings. However that also means 7 km of cobblestones (mostly rough ones). Nice medal, unimaginative shirt, nice pack pack-style bag that I used a lot until it fell apart.

In 2024, the weather made this race an adventure- rain, snow, and sleet! It tours through old town, then a 17 mile out and back along the lake – all pretty flat. I wouldn’t recommend for marathoners slower than 4 hours – half marathoners starting later overtake you aggressively and there’s no separate finish line. Nice medal and fantastic t-shirt.

Beautiful race starting in the Roman and medieval city of Chester and travelling down country roads into Wales. I entered this race because I would get credit for a marathon in a new country – Wales. Alas, it neither started nor finished in Wales and had only 11 miles in that country. Reminder

I’ve run this race a dozen times and I love it. The course is beautiful and the 500 or so marathon runners make it very relaxed and not crowded. They always have great t-shirts with women’s sizing which I appreciate very much.

Unforgettable event! Arrive by zodiac off a small cruise ship to see penguins! Run between the Russian and Uruguayan research stations. Constantly uphill or downhill (5,000 ft elevation gain and loss); lots of wind, mud!

The race is a one way course from Cascais on the ocean along the coast into town through cobblestones and past ancient. You take a train out to the start. Gradual inclines and declines. A great t-shirt.

The race starts and ends at the UNESCO Giant’s Causeway filled with hexagonal pillars of different heights. It is spectacular, and the race takes you right through it. You run on the coast in an out and back. The variety is incredible- bike path, many stairs, sheep gates, packed sand, huge boulders, and lots of single track. Challenging and thrilling.

This small, uncrowded race is an ideal Boston qualifier. It has long straightaways, and you can almost always run the exact marathon distance. However, it’s sometimes cold, and runners have been known to get lost. Swag was great at one time, but in the 2020s, mostly useless junk.

This race had perfect weather. The course is not fast with 7 km of large gravel, and a very steep uphill RIGHT before the finish. It was well organized and medium sized – about 1,000 if I remember correctly.