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☰
Georgia Marathon Runner Comments
Back to Georgia Marathon Information & Reviews
Course 4.1 
Organization 3.1 
Spectators 4.0
Number of comments: 459 [displaying comments 161 to 171]
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H. R. from Virginia
(3/30/2009)
"completely unorganized Georgia Marathon 2009" (about: 2009)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Georgia Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 4 The course was fantastically challenging. The neighborhood folks were wonderfully enthusiastic. The organization of the ING race was horrible. There were no volunteers at the beginning of the race, no bag check, and nobody to take us from our assigned corals to the start. People were climbing over others and several barricades to get behind the start line. There were minimal porta-johns on the course. Being female, I felt a little shy about dropping my drawers behind buildings, so I hiked up a hill off the course, around mile 9, to a construction site to use a random porta-potty not assigned to the race. Upon finishing I was almost plowed over by the motorcade for the first place winner of the full marathon, who had to weave through us half-marathon slowpokes coming in at the same time. At the end of the race I could not even get into the area where I heard there were volunteers giving water and bananas. | |
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R. T. from Atlanta, GA
(3/30/2009)
"Great Race" (about: 2009)
3 previous marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 This was a great race. On-course support was excellent. Plenty of water/Gatorade stations. Organization was good and plenty of people directing runners at the half/full split. My only complaint is that they didn't have clocks at the mile markers. It would be nice to have for next year. I plan on running this again next year. | |
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H. T. from MN
(3/30/2009)
"Enjoyable experience; hilly course" (about: 2009)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Georgia Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 It's great to have hotels, start, finish, and attractions all on Olympic Park. An excellent race: well organized; challenging, very hilly course; beautiful tour of Atlanta. No doubt the organizers have learned that way more bathrooms will be required on the course next year. | |
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S. T. from Atlanta, GA
(3/30/2009)
"Fabulous Scenery & Well Organized Event" (about: 2009)
6-10 previous marathons
| 2 Georgia Marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 I ran this primarily because I live steps away from the start/finish. I did the half in 2008 and full in 2009. I knew it would be a tough course. The half is hilly and the full marathon course is, at least to me, brutal. If you haven't trained on hills, beware! But it is a beautiful route at a time of year when dogwoods, azaleas, daffodils and pear trees are all in blossom. The route goes past many parks, beautiful old and new residential sections, and several city highlights. You pretty much get it all. I thought it was very well run, with plentiful cheering sections and water stations. The only thing I don't get it why they don't post a map of the corrals. That always leads to some confusion. Other than that, it's a great race and one that I think would be well worth one's time to travel in from out of town for since it is in a section of town right next to the CNN Center, World of Coke, GA Aquarium, Little Five Points, Underground, etc. Lots to do and see beside the race! And I wish just once that it would be sunny for this race - it hasn't happened yet in three years, but maybe in 2010! | |
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T. N. from Kansas City.MO
(3/30/2009)
"I expected better" (about: 2009)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Georgia Marathon
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 4 I ran the ING-Hartford marathon last fall and thought the ING sponsorship would bring some consistency to this race. I was wrong. The expo was great, but for me things fell apart with the start/finish area. It would have been nice to have a map of the design of the start/finish area in the packet. Helpful directions to and from the MARTA stations, since use of the rapid transit was suggested, would also have been nice. If the race course is open for 6 hours, those finishing in 5 should not find the food tent not just out of food but shut down completely. Few to no volunteers were around even at the one table holding bottles of water. I guess if I were ING, I would take a hard look at this race and see if I wanted my name on it in the future. | |
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B. T. from Savannah, Georgia
(3/30/2009)
"Almost there!" (about: 2009)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Georgia Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 Great race. ING always does a good job. Very hilly course!! My only suggestion would be not to place some of the water stops at the foot of a hill... it's hard to climb and drink!! | |
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R. C. from Pittsburgh, PA
(3/30/2009)
"Scenic Course with Hills" (about: 2009)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Georgia Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 The marathon course is very scenic. Lots of hills, but most of them are moderate. Overall organization is very good. I would do this race again and recommend it to anyone. Only two or three complaints/suggestions: I did not get pins for my number in my race bag. The signs pointing out how to get to MARTA after the race were very poor. Not having race results on your website until the next day is very lame for a big-city marathon (especially when you have live race-day tracking). Maybe Active could pay someone to come in on Sunday and put up the results. | |
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Ryan Cobb from Atlanta, GA
(3/30/2009)
"An unforgettable first!" (about: 2009)
1 previous marathon
| 1 Georgia Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 This was my first marathon, and I loved it. The course was beautiful, interesting, and historic. The cheering sections were set up at perfect intervals, as were the hydration stations. I will definitely run the ING full again! The course did have numerous hills, but lucky for me, my training area is nothing but hills, so I powered right through them. My only area of advice would be to utilize Centennial Park more to your advantage. There could have been a little more going on at the finish. I will be back!! | |
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B. P. from Roswell, GA
(3/30/2009)
"Better Every Year, but More Room to Improve" (about: 2009)
3 previous marathons
| 2 Georgia Marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 In its third running, the ING Georgia Marathon has fixed most of the things that marred the first two efforts. The race snagged veteran big events guy Michale Hughes, formerly of the Atlanta Track Club, as its Race Director, and the logistics were much improved. Near-perfect running conditions, cool and overcast, made for an enjoyable morning tour of Atlanta's most scenic and historic in-town neighborhoods, four college campuses, and seemingly endless hills. Competitions for best hydration station and best cheering zone made for some wildly enthusiastic spectators even in the far reaches of the course. I've run this race three times now, and still have not seen where to cast my post-race vote for these categories, despite wandering the grounds in that search. The previous year's tornado-mandated course reroute and cramped start corrals were a distant memory. This remains very much a half-marathoner's event (and about 2/3 of the approximately 14,000 field are running the shorter distance). I ran the full distance in a slightly-better-than-average 3:50, and the post-race "celebration" was a ghost town when I got there. While food and water were plentiful, bananas were but a memory; city employees were removing tables, chairs and flooring from the pavilion tents - and this was 2+ hours before the course limit and scheduled end of the festivities. Mileage markers were more visible for the bulk of the course, but strangely disappeared for the last six miles of the marathon route. In that time, I saw only half-marathon indicators, and the much-welcomed "1 mile to go" sign. Hydration stations were reasonably plentiful but no course/sponsor provided gels or food. Some of the volunteers made up for that with orange slices, candy, pretzels (and beer), but missing gels was a weird omission. There was no redundancy in the mid-course timing mats, and a problem that lost the 13.1 mile splits for many full-marathon runners (I was one of them). All in all, it was an incremental improvement on an outing with the potential for greatness, but with lots of ways to do better. | |
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C. C. from Alpharetta, GA
(3/29/2009)
"Another good ING Georgia" (about: 2009)
50+ previous marathons
| 3 Georgia Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 As a returning runner of all 3 ING Georgia Marathons, I have seen the evolution of this race each year. Being local, I like running this race, since I don't have any travel expenses (except MARTA) and I am home pretty much right after the race. An organized start with designated corrals was nice. The course touches many parts of the city showcasing various neighborhoods. The hills were typical of the Atlanta area: rolling. Good hydration stations stocked with water and Gatorade. Gel packs and Vaseline also were to be had. Finish was pretty good, coming home into Centennial Olympic Park. The one thing, though, that hasn't changed and has been a nagging problem since the first version is the walking runners. They have the right to be there, like me, But if they're going to walk a race, being wall to wall on the race route, on cell phones, and oblivious to people trying to run it, that's frustrating. Hopefully the organizers can do something about the walkers who refuse to follow protocol on race day. All in all, a good race that has the potential to be great. I'll be back next year, as I have been here since day 1. Welcome to the ATL! |
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