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☰
Maine Marathon Runner Comments
Back to Maine Marathon Information & Reviews
Course 4.3 
Organization 4.5 
Spectators 3.9
Number of comments: 132 [displaying comments 11 to 21]
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J. B. from Georgetown, TX
(12/22/2015)
"Wonderful marathon!" (about: 2015)
11-50 previous marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Great marathon experience, weather was perfect, course very pretty, organization and volunteers all wonderful and the goodie bag is just ridiculously packed with stuff! If I wasn't doing the 50 states and lived closer I would definitely do this one again. | |
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A. M. from Winston-Salem, NC
(10/13/2015)
"Beautiful course" (about: 2015)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Maine Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 Terrific volunteers. Well organized. Beautiful course. | |
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L. S. from DE
(11/25/2014)
"A great race in a great town!" (about: 2014)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Maine Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 I chose the Maine Marathon as a 50 stater based on this site and the reviews. I was very happy with my choice. The sponsors really stuff that goody bag, it was never ending and full of very useful stuff! The expo was small and easy, the bag check and start were very well organized, the course was absolutely beautiful, (very hilly however)the volunteers were enthusiastic and plentiful, (I loved the pre-peeled banana halves) and the medal was very cool. The only complaints I can think of, the shirts run way too large. It's a really cute shirt and even though I got the smallest one offered, its huge. Also, I could not find the finish line food. It was probably just me but other than some granola, I could not find any. I asked a volunteer and they clearly did not send me in the right direction. It was probably for the better because I walked back to my hotel and went out for lobster rolls and beer! Portland is a great town and we took advantage of the great restaurants and pubs. All in all a really great race! Kudos to the race director(s). Oh, and my black lab loved it too! | |
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Mike Brooks from Danville, Maine
(10/29/2014)
"AWESOME RACE ,GREAT VOLUNTEERS ,SCENIC" (about: 2014)
50+ previous marathons
| 6+ Maine Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 This is a race with little room for improvement. It is excellent from packet pick up at a nice expo and a pasta dinner next to Expo. The goodie bag runners receive is one of the best I have ever got and I have done over 200 different marathons. There is an early start for slow runners and walkers. There are free massages at the Expo ,before and after the race. The course is scenic with some hills where spectators cheer you on. It is mostly an out and back with a loop turnaround. There are plenty of waterstops with gatorade and cheerful volunteers. The finisher's medal is awesome as is the shirt.Plenty of food at race end makes for a perfect day in Maine. This is an all volunteer race with proceeds going to help children in need plus other non profits. Portland and the surrounding area have much to offer ,lighthouses , old forts excellent seafood , boat rides shopping at L.L.Beans and much ,much more. Make this race a vacation destination . Sign up early as the race sells out every year at 3,500 runners including the Half marathon. | |
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Paul Goodwin from Massachusetts
(10/17/2014)
"Awesome course, very well organized" (about: 2014)
1 previous marathon
| 1 Maine Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 This Marathon has a lot going for it! The cost for the Marathon was relatively small, at $80. And the field was limited to 3,500 total runners, most of whom would be doing the Half Marathon that started at the same time. Its always been held in early October, with average temperatures on race day around 50 degrees. When checking in to get our bibs we found the Goodie Bag was full of great stuff, including cold medication, granola bars, shoelaces, and even a can of baked beans. The bibs were great in that they had a different color for first time Marathoners. Unfortunately, both Paul and I had the wrong last names on our bibs(we later found out that all the first timers were wrong) This made for some great conversation and quite a few laughs! If you signed up early enough, you also got an Maine-themed long-sleeved tech shirt. All in all, for the $80 registration, you probably get about $60 worth of stuff! When we arrived for the race on Sunday, October 5th, we found plenty of volunteers assisting with traffic control. Parking was available at the University of Southern Maine campus, which was only about ΒΌ mile from the start of the race. The setup was well coordinated, and all the appropriate streets were closed well in advance of us arriving. Best thing was that they had plenty of facilities! The Marathon, Half Marathon and Marathon Relay all start at the same time in the morning and follow the same route. The course is an out and back, from Portland to Yarmouth and returning to the USM Campus. We were a bit worried about the rain, as it had poured the day before and most the night. Fortunately, it stopped early in the morning and was a perfect 50 degrees for the start. The sun came out right when the gun went off and singing of the national anthem and then the bag pipes playing at the start were very inspirational. This course is absolutely beautiful. As you start at USM, everyone runs around Back Cove in Portland, a large bay with picture-perfect views. This route takes you past the Cove, up to Route 1, then to Route 88 towards Yarmouth. Support on the course was great, with water and Gatorade stations every 2 miles, as well volunteers, medical staff and Police throughout the entire course. The first 5 miles are very flat, except for a couple overpasses. At Mile 5, where you turn onto Route 88, you start to hit the hills. The hills werent overly difficult, but they were relentless. Because it was an out and back course, you encounter the rolling hills from Mile 5 to Mile 21, then the last few miles were flat again. There werent a ton of people running, and the 3,500 runners stayed together pretty well until the 6.5 mile mark where the Half Marathoners turned back. That was a big change! Most of the runners turned around and the Marathon became much more open. Going up Route 88 into Yarmouth was a great run. The people are so friendly out there and everyone was shouting out words of encouragement. There were a few bands and musical groups set up along the route and several homes had their radios playing for us. As this route was a closed course, the fans were limited and it was primarily residents of the area. I really appreciated that these people came out to cheer us on! The bright yellow 'first timer' bibs were great as they made us stand out and so many people as well as fellow runners yelled your name and encouraged you with shouts of 'Looking good first timer', 'You are doing great first timer' etc.... We also had tremendous support from our families as they were able to cheer us on and hand us supplies multiple times from the designated fan locations at miles 6, 10, 16 and 21. Coming back along the home stretch is tough, as with any marathon. The views on the last couple miles made the agony a little more worthwhile. The finish was not too crowded, and was well organized. The medal is awesome, but it felt like 50 pounds when they put it around my neck at the end. There was plenty of food and drink to be had, and I was thrilled they had chocolate milk! Several vendors there if you wanted to visit them, and the massage tent was not too long a wait (thank God!). Best of all, there are a lot of great places in Portland and we were able to go to the Great Lost Bear Pub for post-race refreshments. (By the way, after the Marathon, we received messages that the organizers are reprinting bibs and sending them to our homes, such class!) | |
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Eddie Hahn from Crestline California
(10/11/2014)
"Improve the Aid Stations!!!" (about: 2014)
50+ previous marathons
| 1 Maine Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 2 Entertainment: A lot of variety, very motivated, great awesome varied style, quality sound. (Country, classical, rock, bagpipes, Japanese Taiko drummers, you name it!) Goody bag: Packed to the brim-to include post race-and not the typical 'future race flyers'-practical stuff like first aid-kit, pulse meter, muscle milk, etc etc. The post race goodie bag also had a lot of stuff, more post race fare than I have gotten in some time! (The chocolate milk shake mix drink was an especially nice touch). Sadly I had to chuck the baked beans, muscle milk and a whole bunch of liquid goodies when there was a mess up on my flight at the airport and I had to hand carry a bag I was supposed to check in. NO AID STATION SUPPORT other than WATER and GATORADE. No power bars, gels, gu's banana's or anything. Beautiful course. Challenging, scenic. You are on your own after the half marathon, which has 5 times the participants, splits off. | |
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Sven Jacobs from Basel, Switzerland
(10/9/2014)
"Excellent low-key race" (about: 2014)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Maine Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 3 Overall a great experience. All the other reviews do justice to the experience. From my side - as this was my first marathon run in the USA (I have run 19 others in Europe and Asia) here are some observations: - nice challenging course - those rolling hills do punish your calves! - great medal (especially compared to the standard bronze coloured small European ones), - great goodie bag (European goodie bags just tend to contain a bunch of folders but this one was overflowing with stuff!), - good techie, long sleeve t-shirt, - great Facebook page with frequent updates which really helped build up the anticipation - great volunteers along the course, - a LOT of water stops (in Europe typically you have a stop every 5 km only), - incredibly easy access to the start, loads of easy parking, - nicely organized expo with reasonable amount of stands for a relatively small race. On the negative side: - the pasta party was from 16:00 onwards at some distant location - if you were not local you would never find it. There were no printed directions at the expo - and why was it only from 16:00 onwards? I picked up my bib at noon and wanted to visit the old port - I am not coming back just for a plate of pasta! - absolutely nothing available at the water stops but water and gatorade - no gels, no bars, no bananas. That really impacted my end time - the marathon starts relatively early so breakfast will always be light (especially if you are from out-of town and staying at a hotel - on Sundays hotels do not start breakfast early!). Mid-way through the race I started getting hunger pangs and would have killed for a few banana pieces! Surely it would not have had such a big impact on the budget to have bananas at the last three waterstops? Overall though, a good experience. The weather was a little chilly at the start but turned out just fine. Loved the Scottish bagpipers, and was in awe of the soldiers marching the course fully packed. Really appreciated the minute of silence which was requested at the start for a young (26 year old) runner who had passed away a few weeks earlier... and a great cannon shot start! | |
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T. S. from Indianapolis
(10/9/2014)
"Beauty and the Bean" (about: 2014)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Maine Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 I don't pretend to be up there with folks who have run hundreds of marathons, but this was No. 27, and I can safely say it's the first one that had a can of baked beans in the goodie bag (thanks, Lisa!). That bag and its contents was just one of the reasons this was a great event. A beautiful course, albeit a bit hilly for a flatlander Hoosier, a welcoming community, super volunteers and enthusiastic fans. The beans? They're from local company B&M. Somewhere around Mile 23, you are close enough to the plant that odors of production waft across the course. Yum! I highly recommend this race. | |
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K. M. from Vermont
(10/8/2014)
"Beautiful course" (about: 2014)
11-50 previous marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 What a beautiful course. Trees were changing. Waterfront section great. Didn't feel as if you were doing an out and back course. Great goodies bags at expo and finish line. Pizza was yummy. | |
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T. E. from District of Columbia
(5/6/2014)
"A moving party through the fall colors of Portland" (about: 2013)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Maine Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 Low key, friendly yet serious runners, wonderful swag bag, well organized, cool shirt. Excellent race in many ways. Highly, highly recommend. |
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