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SEAFAIR Marathon Runner Comments
Back to SEAFAIR Marathon Information & Reviews
Course 3.2 
Organization 3.4 
Spectators 3.0
Number of comments: 65 [displaying comments 1 to 11]
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A. M. from Seattle
(10/9/2008)
"Very poorly planned event." (about: 2008)
1 previous marathon
| 1 SEAFAIR Marathon
COURSE: 1 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 1 When I signed up for the SEAFAIR marathon '08, it was because I would have a "once in a lifetime chance to cross the 520 on foot." I was well prepared. The website suggested using the shuttle from Bellevue to UW. However, they did not have enough shuttles and the majority of people were stranded on the wrong side of Lake Washington. They scrambled to get us to the halfway point. The bus driver was lost and no one knew what was happening. We stood on the side of the road for an hour or so and then began the half marathon. At the end they ran out of medals (VERY early). We were told that in compensation we could sign up for another event free of charge and our money would be donated to the hospital. I complained and was promised a refund. It never came and they stopped talking to me. The medal showed up almost three months later. | |
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C. S. from Seattle, WA
(7/10/2008)
"Short Course and Very Tough" (about: 2008)
11-50 previous marathons
| 2 SEAFAIR Marathons
COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 3 Did anyone else notice that the course was way off a full marathon distance, like by about a mile? My friend's GPS watch measured 25.2 miles, not 26.2. So, I traced the route on Google pedometer and realized that they cut off a significant section of the course in Kirkland. Besides the short course, there were the other problems with shuttle buses and running out of cups cited elsewhere that give this year's race poor marks in organization. Although I liked running across the 520 bridge, I think that the course can be greatly improved. It is certainly OK and challenging to have hills in a marathon, but it does not have to be to the degree found in this course. | |
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M. G. from Arizona
(7/9/2008)
"Will they deliver a better experience next year?" (about: 2008)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 SEAFAIR Marathon
COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 5 The comments so far are pretty accurate; there were numerous lapses on too many levels. I wrote a letter directly to the race director and to his credit, he admitted many of the shortcomings and promises wholesale changes for next year. As already stated, there were transportation and water/cups issues. Allowing for all the last-minute sign-ups probably did them in; they did not have enough resources or the nimbleness to handle the crowds - they should have known better. The record crowds were subject to the record heat - from there it was a lesson in resilience and patience. The course, while scenic in some areas, was also very challenging, especially in the second half of the race. Some hills forced many to walk. Many miles were shared with cars idling with their exhaust fumes - mix that with the heat, full sun, long hills, and lack of water/cups/water stations and you've got a challenging race-day experience. There were mile markers out there but no clocks. The expo was bare-bones, but the tech shirt, and race medal were great. The finish area was also bare-bones; little to eat, nothing cold to drink, and it was a long, hilly walk back to the host hotel. By far, the best part of the race was the volunteers out on the course. There were several turns but not a single one was missed. There were volunteers and law officers at every single point and they made sure we never tangled with traffic either. Also, many residents showered us with garden hoses along the way to mitigate the heat; thank YOU! This race needs a lot of work and the race director and committee seems to be aware of it. My hope is that novices will look at this day as an anomaly and won't be soured on entering other races. Constructive feedback from this website and others hopefully will help races/committees avoid the pitfalls of poor management, staging, and resource allocation. | |
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D. T. from Seattle, USA
(7/9/2008)
"Poorly organized event." (about: 2008)
11-50 previous marathons
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 4 (I ran the half-marathon.) How to improve this marathon: 1. Hills are fine, but mountain climbing is ridiculous. Cut out hills that require the majority to walk. 2. Water every 2 miles, please. Teach the volunteers what to do - i.e., hold the cups out at arm's length. White cups for water; green cups for Gatorade. 3. Water at the start. 4. Offer peanut butter for the bagels. What was good: The finish.... | |
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K. E. from Bellevue Wa
(7/7/2008)
"Nightmare race" (about: 2008)
4-5 previous marathons
| 3 SEAFAIR Marathons
COURSE: 1 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 4 This is my third year with this race. The first two years were fantastic, but then they changed it. If I had driven this course beforehand, I would never have run it. The hills are brutal, and I train on a hilly course. It's unforgivable that there were not enough shuttle busses and completely unforgivable that they let spectators on the busses when the line of runners stretched forever. It was NOT poor planning on the runners' part that caused so many to miss the shuttles. If you have busses "running from 5 a.m. until the beginning of the race" (7 a.m.), then I would say arriving at 6 a.m. should have been good enough. It wasn't. I ended up being dumped at mile 13.1 with hundreds of others (missing the running over the bridge, which is why I was running). THEN we got to wait for over an hour - with nowhere to sit and only one porta-potty - for the lead runners to pass so we could start. I have no idea what the "entertainment" was on the first half of the course was like, but it was nonexistent on the second half. Bless the locals who brought out the hoses. The icing on the top of the cake, though, was finishing and finding out that they had NO WATER BOTTLES. They ran out. AMAZING. There are stores all over the place, and they had little Dixie cups full of warm water to hydrate you after finishing in 90-degree weather. I could not take a bottle of water and sit in the shade, I had to stand on the cement with NO SHADE in order to drink water and rehydrate after the run. To add insult to injury, I have emailed the race director, and after a week have not received the courtesy of a reply. (A story in the local paper said that they had contacted all the runners, but I have received nothing.) I seriously doubt that I will ever do this one again. It was a disaster. I think I could forgive a "we messed up, and we are sorry," but ignoring the runners that you wronged is not okay. | |
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R. B. from Las Vegas, Nevada
(7/5/2008)
"A diamond in the rough; it's on my list for next y" (about: 2008)
1 previous marathon
| 1 SEAFAIR Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 3 I've heard and read a lot of negative remarks about this race, but I enjoyed it from start to finish. The expo was so-so, a one-day event. My only suggestion is: next year, don't stage it in a parking garage. I ran the half marathon and loved, loved, loved the course. It was scenic and challenging. The hill at mile 7 was very tough, but I chugged up it without walking. To me, the hills at 11-12 were tougher. I enjoyed finishing in Downtown Park, very shady and "comfy." Regarding the shuttle buses, I feel if runners had arrived earlier it wouldn't have been as big an issue. In my humble opinion, allowing family/friends to ride with runners to watch them start was a bigger factor, rather than the number of buses. I will run this race again in '09, provided the expo/shuttle issues are addressed. Crowd support wasn't overwhelming, but very supportive. | |
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R. B. from Kingwood, TX
(7/4/2008)
"Should be on your annual 'Must-Do' list." (about: 2008)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 SEAFAIR Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 My wife and I ran this marathon together. It was hot, and I mean hot, but what do you expect at the end of June? It was hilly, probably the hilliest of the 34 marathons we have run. And, there was some confusion, not unexpected for a first-time course. Bottom line is that we loved it. The expo was well organized (my wife loved the store selling returned running shoes for $50), the pasta dinner was a good value, the volunteers and citizens were very helpful (particularly those with sprinklers and garden hoses). We loved the course, much of which was along or near the lake. The photos taken in this race, especially those of us crossing the floating-bridge, are keepers. The race officials made it clear that the runners should be at the bus stops as early as possible, with the buses starting to run at 5:00 a.m. By our standards, we were late (5:15), and found few runners and lots of buses waiting. We were quickly transported to the start line, where we took care of our pre-race business. After the race, we talked to a number of participants who grumbled about starting late or missing the bridge portion of the race altogether. We found that many of these had shown up at the bus stop at 6:30 or even 6:45, for a race that is supposed to start at 7:00. More buses would have helped, but tardy runners need look no further than the mirror for the source of their problem. I think that the organization responded to the problem quickly and correctly, first by delaying the race a bit, and then by bussing the runners to the halfway point of the marathon so they could run a half. As 90 percent of the runners were half-marathoners anyway, they still ran their race, though they missed the bridge run. While they did not affect our run, there were two problems that should be addressed; (1) the runner drop-off point was too close to the start line and quickly became congested with runners. This definitely slowed down the return of the buses. I expect that the buses could drop off the runners a ways away and let them take a warm-up jog to the start. Also, (2) I talked to one runner who had planned to be accompanied by six family members on the bus to the start. I imagine that not only would they clog up the bus, but also would slow down a runner getting to the bus in the first place. Let the family wait on the other side of the bridge for the runner to come by. The end of the bridge was near the bus stop anyway. In any case, though we are members of the 50-states marathon club, and seldom do a marathon in the same state twice, we are giving serious consideration to adding the SeaFair Marathon to our list of annual "must-dos." | |
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d. c. from la habra, california
(7/4/2008)
"hot and hilly and not very well organized" (about: 2008)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 SEAFAIR Marathon
COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 2 I heard that this new point-to-point course added more hills than the old loop course. I can believe it. The toughest hills are on mile 7 and at the 23 and 1/2 mile mark. There are too many steep uphills and downhills, which put a lot of strain on your quads; and also because of the heat, you have the tendency to cramp up. Organization was not good for this marathon. When a city hosts a full and a half marathon on the same day, keep in mind that more runners will always run the half marathon. Now that the Seafair Marathon is a a point-to-point course, you need to have a lot more than 5 buses to shuttle over 5,000 runners to the start line. They needed to have more fluid stations on the course because of the hot day. They were spaced too far apart. They also needed more volunteers to hand out the fluids. I have never ran a marathon that had no race clocks on the course. What was up with that? They should have started the marathon about a half an hour early. What was good about the marathon? Crossing over the 520 Floating Bridge because there was a nice little breeze blowing off Lake Washington. The scenery was nice. It was nice going through the upscale neighborhoods of Bellevue and Kirkland as well as Medina and Clyde Hill. Also, I liked the neighbors with their garden hoses spraying down the runners. This was too tough of a marathon. Maybe I'll do the half marathon only. | |
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M. P. from Seattle, Washington
(7/3/2008)
"Too Unorganized" (about: 2008)
11-50 previous marathons
| 3 SEAFAIR Marathons
COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 5 I was very unhappy with this event. Too few port-a-potties, they ran out of cups, they ran out of medals for half-marathon walkers... the list goes on. | |
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H. R. from Seattle
(7/3/2008)
"Keep the new course; change shuttle" (about: 2008)
11-50 previous marathons
| 3 SEAFAIR Marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 3 Very challenging, hilly course; loved it! For those who want a flat course, try the Seattle Marathon in November. The shuttle was a huge problem; need more buses and a different drop-off point away from the porta-potty lines and start line. Also, dump the Gleukos sport drink. But keep the course.... |
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