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☰
Long Beach Marathon Runner Comments
Back to Long Beach Marathon Information & Reviews
Course 4.0 
Organization 3.6 
Spectators 3.6
Number of comments: 242 [displaying comments 61 to 71]
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B. M. from Orange County, CA
(10/13/2009)
"Well-organized race, good BQ choice" (about: 2009)
3 previous marathons
| 2 Long Beach Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 This is my fourth marathon and my second time running Long Beach (I did the half in 2007). I was hoping to qualify for Boston, and I did, so I'm a happy camper. Overall, it's very well-organized. There were lots of porta-potties, and great post-race food. The cupcake at the finish was a nice touch, though my stomach was far too upset to even think about eating it. Spectator support is thin in areas but was great at Cal State Long Beach - thanks to all of the students out there cheering! The pros: 1) Very flat course. I have no idea what the person who made comments about the course being hilly is talking about. There are a couple of small, short hills around the CSLB part of the course, and a short hill around mile 21 or so, but nothing really challenging. Most of the course is pancake-flat. 2) Great course to try for Boston. The 3:40 pace group was right on target, and the nice, flat course and great weather combined to make it a perfect BQ race. 3) Great parking this year. The pre-reserved parking was a breeze. 4) Traffic was not bad if you plan ahead. Don't take the 710 into Long Beach if you can help it. The Long Beach Blvd. or Atlantic exits off of the 405 take you right up to the course and there was absolutely no traffic. 5) Nice technical t-shirt. 6) Nice finisher's medal. Cons: 1) The wave starts were messy. I was trying to run with the 3:40 pace group and got to the start line 10 minutes before the start and had to literally shove my way through an insanely packed crowd and just barely made it near the group. There also were people who clearly started in a wave that was wrong for them and were difficult to dodge in the first few congested miles. 2) PowerAde. That stuff is nasty and some of it needed to have been diluted more. Some random spectators on the course were giving out Gatorade, and several runners near me commented how much better the Gatorade tasted compared to PowerAde. 3) They should think about starting the half-marathon after the marathon. With walkers on the course already, the narrow bike path made it difficult to maintain your pace while trying to dodge slower runners/walkers. Starting the half-marathon a half-hour after the marathon might help relieve some of the congestion in those early miles. 4) Charging $10 for expo parking. They force us to come get our bibs in advance; why charge us to have to park to do it? For any Long Beach or OC residents, I highly recommend doing the ICR Beach Runner training program. Not only do you get specific training for the LB Marathon, but also on race day, the Beach Runners had a great tent area right by the finish line, complete with a massage therapist, porta-potties just for the group, and lots of post-race goodies. That made it such an enjoyable experience! And it was great to see other beach runners out there on the course. Thanks to all of the ICR Beach Runner coaches. | |
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D. L. from Los Angeles
(10/13/2009)
"Way too crowded this year" (about: 2009)
6-10 previous marathons
| 3 Long Beach Marathons
COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 3 There was a record crowd this year, and it showed. It was extremely crowded for the first 10 miles. Sadly it has really come to be dominated by the half-marathon. | |
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M. R. from United States
(10/13/2009)
"Get there early" (about: 2009)
11-50 previous marathons
| 4-5 Long Beach Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 The race was well organized, once you got there. The water stops and GU were great. The cheering section at the college was fantastic. Get prepaid parking. The only major drawback is that parking is horrific. Don't get off at Broadway. It took us an hour to go five miles. We had to start in the third wave. I had to run through crowds of people for six miles. I hope your race was better. | |
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R. a. from Long Beach
(10/12/2009)
"narrow and crowded course" (about: 2009)
2 previous marathons
| 2 Long Beach Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 2 Expect to be bumped and forced to zig-zag a lot. The course is narrow and cannot hold the number of runners the race features. Most of the half-marathon is on a five-foot-wide sidewalk, and the start is so crowded that you have to dodge other runners (even with the staggered start). Most the spectators don't cheer for anyone - a disappointment since this is such a big event. The course is not flat, and many parts the road are choppy. At the end, they HERD you through one line with no directions and don't allow you to go back, even to take a picture by the sand castle. | |
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C. T. from Riverside county
(10/12/2009)
"My first half-marathon" (about: 2009)
First Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 This was the best experience in my life. It was my first half-marathon in the town I grew up in. Just to see how things have changed along my run and to see and hear the people cheer for you was very cool. I love it. I will run it again. | |
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Patrice Porter from Anaheim, California
(10/12/2009)
"Fun but no finisher medal" (about: 2009)
4-5 previous marathons
| 2 Long Beach Marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 This was my fifth half-marathon, including running this same one last year. Although I haven't been able to run much this year due to health issues, I was excited to attempt this beautiful course again. Unfortunately, by the time I made it to the finish line (I wasn't that late) there was no medal, and more specifically no person or flier, or explanation of any kind on when I would receive the same. Today, the site is crashed and there is no email that explains what to do next to get our finisher's medal. By Saturday, they knew how many starters they would have, so that could have anticipated being short medals and SHOULD HAVE had a flier for those of us not receiving our medals explaining what the process would be to receive our medals. The tech shirts are lovely. The parking was more organized. The goody bag was hollow (only two goodies). The weather was great - nice and cool, but not cold. Given the foregoing problem with the medals, I'll have to reconsider for next year. | |
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J. M. from Irvine
(10/12/2009)
"challenging but fun" (about: 2009)
4-5 previous marathons
| 2 Long Beach Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 I think that the half-marathoners have an easier time, but for those running the full marathon here, it is quite a challenging course with plenty of hills. The few you encounter early across some bridges around the bay aren't too bad because you have the energy, but once you get to the college campus you hit some pretty steep ones around the late teens in mileage. Probably the worst, though, comes approximately at miles 22-24 - a long, steady, inclining hill. This is just plain cruelty since everyone is on their last legs here and it can get to you. The last two miles are then downhill and fine to the finish. The way they organized the aid stations was also a little confusing to me. I think they had a water only table in between the tables with PowerAde, which would have been fine if they stuck to that. But it seemed sometimes that there was no PowerAde when I thought it was coming, which made me start to wonder and guess what was coming up. Some stations also seemed to mix it pretty rich and syrupy, which made me a little nauseated. It almost makes me want to pack my own Gatorade so I don't have to worry about it. It is a challenging marathon, but as long as you're well prepared for it, it's fun. | |
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A. P. from Pasadena, CA
(10/12/2009)
"Perfect First-Time Runner's Venue" (about: 2009)
First Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 I ran my first half-marathon yesterday in Long Beach and enjoyed every second of the event. The course was mostly flat and the weather was perfect for running. The views through the streets of Long Beach were scenic and inspiring. I had a perfect run and recommend the Long Beach International City Marathon to anyone considering a first-time venue. | |
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p. n. from southern cal
(10/12/2009)
"Beautiful marathon, perfect weather!" (about: 2009)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Long Beach Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 3 This was my 24th marathon, but first Long Beach full marathon, and I PR'ed! We were blessed with perfect running weather over a great course. I couldn't ask for more. Fans at CSULB were awesome... when I thanked them for volunteering, they thanked me for running! Otherwise, I thought spectators were slim... even at the finish line, considering the size of race. I'll admit it's not fair to compare with NYC or even LA, but I thought that Long Beach would generate more spectators. Regarding organization, they had my name misspelled and didn't have me registered with the correct or incorrect spelling. They corrected it pre-race, but at the expo it was still incorrect and had to be fixed again. The expo ran out of goody bags. They should give goody bags out with the numbers. Thankfully, they didn't run out of shirts. We got cool tech shirts, and it was nice to have women's sizes!! It would've been nice to have marathoners with different shirts from the half though. Nice job on medals! Carbo load dinner: I signed eight of us up for the L'Opera dinner. What a nice restaurant, and we couldn't pass it up for only $20, including a cute t-shirt! the salad was great, and four different pastas were listed, but we only got one piece of each, and each was only the size of a quarter!! They were more generous with the dessert biscotti (several cookies) and had an out-of-this-world dark chocolate-covered strawberry not listed. Everything was really excellent, but it wasn't much of a carbo load. They really should give an adequate serving even if they have to charge more! All in all, job well done for a logistically confusing area. Thanks for the hard work!! | |
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L. V. from Westminster, CA
(10/11/2009)
"Great Course!" (about: 2009)
2 previous marathons
| 1 Long Beach Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 I had such a rush running the half-marathon today. The weather in Long Beach was PERFECT! The course is on a lovely, scenic route that goes along the ocean and through parts of downtown. The crowd was awesome, and there were water/PowerAde stations at about every mile or so. Lucky for me, they passed out food right after the finish line because I was STARVING: Banana, bagel, energy bars, and a cupcake@ :) I saw some massage tables and beer served at the post-race booths too. Fun times. |
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