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Nov 16, 2024

Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon (formerly the National Marathon) Runner Comments

Back to Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon (formerly the National Marathon) Information & Reviews

Course 3.9

Organization 3.5

Spectators 3.4

Number of comments: 286 [displaying comments 11 to 21]

More Comments: [ < 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 .. 29 > ]

S. W. from Washington, DC (3/17/2015) "RUN away from this marathon" (about: 2015) 4-5 previous marathons \| 1 Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon (formerly the National Marathon) COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 1 This was my 5th marathon and worst run. Pittsburgh, Boston and USMC were exceptionally well run. The Rock and Roll marathon was a disaster. Their race director should not have that job. They changed the course a month out to add a massive hill at mile 22. The course itself was .3 miles longer than 26.2. Bag drop and pick-up were incredibly far out of the way and poorly organized. The finish area was disaster. Bananas were hard and green, gatorade needed scissors to open (none on hand) and then you needed to walk almost a mile to metro up narrow steps and around the armory& for which you then waited over 35 minutes to even get into the metro station. Total cluster. The roads were blocked off so users and taxi were not an option home. Also no post race communication.
R. H. from Midwest USA (3/16/2015) "Good Marathon To Run" (about: 2015) 50+ previous marathons COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 I enjoyed this marathon despite the unfortunate timing of mother nature to greet us with a cold, rainy, and somewhat windy day. Despite the weather, most of us bundled up and enjoyed the race. The race was well organized. We received very informative emails prior to the race. The packet pickup on Thursday went very smoothly. The expo was fairly large with a good variety of running items being offered. The race started on time and the release of each wave was timely. There were plenty of water stations and the volunteers did a great job of serving us. They provided a very nice t-shirt for participating, but the real bonus was receiving a terrific jacket for finishing the marathon. The medal was pretty decent also. We did a lot of walking prior to and after the race which is what I would expect for a race that had around 18,000 participants. We had to hike a few blocks to get to the drop bag trucks. After the race, we walked a few more blocks to retrieve the bags, and then another quarter to a half mile to get to the Metro. As for the Metro, be smart and purchase your Metro card the day before otherwise you'll be waiting in a huge line after the race to buy a card so you can get on the Metro. The food after the race was good enough, especially the chocolate milk. The course is fairly scenic with several good glimpses of the nation's Capitol. As others have written, it's a rolling hills type of course with a long uphill climb in the Rock Creek area and a steep hill around mile 23 or 24 that many walked. In summary, I would recommend this race as the course was good with Capitol views and other scenic views such as the Rock Creek area, the volunteers were great, t-shirt, jacket, and medal were definitely keepers, and you get to run at our nation's capital.
J. M. from Maine (3/16/2015) "Worst Marathon Ever" (about: 2015) 50+ previous marathons COURSE: 1 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 1 After running nearly 60 marathons, this event was borderline negligent in their failure to plan for 40 degree temperatures in the forecast with wind and rain. The start, course, expo and particularly the ending were near chaos. Ending the race with soaked runners with no warming tents, transportation (they closed the metro) left runners stranded in a driving ice rain facing hypothermia. The medicine tents were over flowing in what looked like a mass casualty event. Bag drop off and pick up forced exhausted and expended runners to criss cross acres of open 1970s era parking lots to find their non sequenced bags and then a HIKE to try to get in line with thousands to the metro station&no guidance or markings & medical tents had insufficient staff and IVs to handle runners in distress. Never again, this race.
M. J. from District of Columbia (3/16/2015) "I had a great race, but there were HUGE ISSUES" (about: 2015) 4-5 previous marathons \| 1 Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon (formerly the National Marathon) COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 1 Living in DC and having missed the boat for the MCM, I was really excited to be able to run a local race through the city, and the course didn't disappoint me for that. Even though it was POURING rain, I had a great race and was very happy with how I did. That, however, doesn't change my analysis of the race and the major issues that I experienced, and my recommendation sadly is to steer clear of this race generally. PROS: -Great course, relatively flat, only one hard hill by mile 6, but it's also where the greatest concentration of spectators is so it was actually a very motivating part of the course. -There were stations handing out GU (see CONS for more info) -Marathon finishers got a free Brooks running jacket -Gear check had lines, but they used a bunch of UPS trucks so the lines weren't as bad as previous years and retrieving gear took no time. CONS: -One entire GU station was missing - they promised 3 but only 2 were actually there -A bunch of mileage signs were missing, including the 35K sign. -Gear check closed at 7:20 with no exceptions, so over half the racers had to stand in the rain for 30m to an hour waiting to start. -Water stations were an absolute cluster****. Not enough staff, too many runners, and only half of the water stops had Gatorade. I actually missed two of them because of the crowds, and ultimately had to resort to yelling and pointing to actually procure fluids. -The first half of the course is shared with half-marathoners, and it's AMATEUR HOUR, so experienced runners or runners who are easily irritated by this should steer away. -EXPENSIVE. There's a 20 dollar fee to register that isn't part of the $150 registration fee. -Literally no spectators on the second half of the course. NONE. Which is fine if you're prepared for it, but you could definitely tell there was a loss in energy for most runners -Apparently there were bands, but I could only hear them for MAYBE 1 minute of my run total. -The finish line concert ended within an hour of me finishing the race, so if you do the full then you basically miss out on all the stuff they try and sell you on. -Medical stations want half of your medical history before they'll give you 200mg of ibuprofen. REALLY? Give me the pills and let me run. -Cannot emphasize enough: WATER STATIONS ARE AN UNDERSTAFFED MESS. ADVICE if you decide to do it: -BRING YOUR OWN HYDRATION AND NUTRITION -Bring a GOOD playlist to get you through the second half where there are suddenly no runners or spectators -Be mentally prepared for the sudden disappearance of 90% of runners at mile 12 - it can cause a huge drop in energy -GPS gets messed up because of the tunnels -Rolling hills from 21-24 surprise a lot of runners -Be OK with the number of first-time racers - this can drive some people up a wall I had a great time, but I definitely don't plan to do another RNR event. There was just way too much amateurism from the organizers for a race that was so expensive and has been going on for so long. That said, for longtime DC runners, if you get a cheap bib (they can go as low as $50) and haven't done it, it's a cool course at the very least, but not one that I'm planning on doing again.
B. R. from Washington, DC (3/31/2014) "RNR top priority is $$" (about: 2014) 11-50 previous marathons \| 2 Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon (formerly the National Marathon)s COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 2 Ran this race in 2011 when it was the National Marathon and loved it. This is an expensive race to begin with, and RNR made it clear that milking every dime possible from me was top priority (e.g. charging for runner tracking, $25 to use some of the porter potties, $25 to park near finish, $20 per packet to pick up for friends/family!, etc). This will be my last RNR in general. Pros: Nice volunteers, wave start well organized. Nice shirt. Cons: Aforementioned constant solicitation of $$. Bands were far and few between and some not playing. Gatorade only every other stop. Course was much more runner friendly and scenic in 2011 (be prepared to run on rolling hills almost the entire time.) Start used to be at RFK, which provided shelter in the morning. Weather worked out well this year, but that won't always be the case. There is absolutely no where to take cover now.
M. J. from New York, NY (3/21/2014) "Still RNR but better than 2013" (about: 2014) 4-5 previous marathons \| 1 Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon (formerly the National Marathon) COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 Yes this is an RNR race and some people will hate that. But as someone who relies heavily on these reviews its important to give credit where credit is due. I ran 2013 and had to drop to the half. The race was pretty much as described. 2014 they took the feedback from 2013 and used is as an advertisement. After saying I'd never run it again I signed up and decided to give it another go. Pros: Far more volunteers this year Not that bad of a course. Some rolling hills, one big hill, and a lot of rewarding downhills. More space in the expo As much as I complain about RNR my PRs always come at their races because their corral start spaces runners out better than any other races I've run. Temps were 50s-60s F and clouds stayed out for a good percentage of the race which always helps. 2013's full sunshine made the water situation worse. Cons: Still gatorade only every other stop. And if the sun actually came out I'm sure they would have run out again. Annoying that it ends at RFK stadium instead of downtown which means a long metro ride back for most but at least its mass transit accessible. Expensive if you don't register early or with a coupon DC is a great city, mid-March is a great time of year to get a marathon in. Having the pleasure to meet some international visitors during the race I realize the importance of these reviews. This race is not perfect, but DC is very accessible, the hotels were not very expensive race weekend and the people were great. I'm glad I gave it a second chance.
T. M. from Washington (3/21/2014) "This is not a good race" (about: 2014) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon (formerly the National Marathon) COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 2 There are too many people for too few aid stations. People backed up at the aid stations and you had to serve yourself. This is a poorly organized race.
M. A. from Jupiter, Florida (3/18/2014) "Worst. Marathon. Ever. (or close to worst!)" (about: 2014) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon (formerly the National Marathon) COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 1 First - volunteers, thank you!!! Organizers - amateur hour. Packet pick up was disorganized. The volunteers were very friendly, but, very uninformed. Go down to the basement for bibs, go back up stairs for bags and shirts. Good luck finding the exits. Pre-start/Start- yes there were corrals, but, anyone could go into any corral. Not a huge deal to me, but, then, why have the wave start? 25,000 runners... only 13 water stations, 6 Gatorade stations. Seriously? And the stations were not very well manned. By the second half of the race, you had to get your own water at some of the stations. Poor volunteers. Good luck getting them to come back. Post race - very little food or drink. No directions to metro. At 5 hours, they seemed to be closing up shop. If this was an independent race, I would give the organizers a lot more slack, but, as a Rock'n'Roll, you should have 5-10 more water stations, 15 more Gatorade stations and a lot more aid station support.
J. A. from West Virginia (3/15/2014) "Your race is what you make it" (about: 2014) 6-10 previous marathons COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 This is a big race in a big city so you need to deal with it. Plan ahead for traffic and porta potty lines. Overall good. Nice course. Pretty. One hill that isn't bad. Wave start was good. Plenty of runners on course. Not too bad. Wish there had been more bands. Overall it was fun.
K. S. from Takoma Park, MD (5/17/2013) "what a strictly-for-profit marathon looks like" (about: 2013) 6-10 previous marathons \| 3 Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon (formerly the National Marathon)s COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 3 I ran this twice when it was the 'National Marathon' and now twice since it has become part of the Rock-and-Roll Marathon business. This year was probably my last, and I don't expect to run any other R&R events. Although the organization under National Marathon had its flaws, it had a much better feel to it. For the entry fees the R&R corporation charges they really should be more runner-focused, but it's clear that their bottom line is the financial bottom line. PROS: - ok, I'll hand it to them for getting Metro to open at 5:00am. That does cost extra money ($30k per hour), and it made getting to the start by metro much more feasible for a lot of participants. - wave start was well done - the new route for the first half was nice, but they got lucky this time (see the Cons section below) - the 7:30am start is better than the 2012 start at 8:00am, but not as good as the 7:00am start that just about coincides with sunrise CONS: - sports drink only at every other station (ie, every 4 miles)?! I've never seen a race so stingy with sports drink, except for the 2012 edition of this race. - changing the start line meant not having the Armory to warm up in as they have in the past. If they had gotten the 40-degree rain that was predicted there would have been a lot of cold, wet, unhappy runners. And some year that will happen. - it's all about max'ing the number of runners, especially half-marathoners, without providing the facilities to support that many runners - the placement and ordering of the bag drop-off relative to the starting corrals was crazy and very inefficient. The bag pickup was worse, with volunteers basically telling runners to climb in the school bus and find their own bags amidst the unordered pile. A couple final comments. I can't believe the person who posted that miles 10 & 11 were 'scary' and that it's good there was a police presence. Yes, there are homeless people in DC, and some of them live under the same underpasses that we ran through. But scary? Or the person who complained that the Armory (site of expo) was in a bad part of town. Please, go back to the 'burbs. Second, I'm ambivalent about the second half of the course. I'm glad the course goes east of the Anacostia, but the combination of fewer runners doing the full and routing them through parkland much of the way makes for kind of a lonely run. I'd love to see what happen if they reversed the course direction some year!

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