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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 291 to 301]
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T. S. from Appleton, Wisconsin
(3/29/2007)
"Nice Course But Way Too Hot Without H2O" (about: 2007)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Georgia Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 4 I'm a back-of-the-pack runner going for 50 states. Course was beautiful, with steady hills. The organization needs to be rethought for next year. Liquids were in short supply for the back half of the pack and many were hurting through the home stretch. Would advise the first-timer to take a little flatter course and wait for more solid reviews that the water station issues have been resolved. This will one day rank as a top marathon but ING just seemed unready for Atlanta heat. Wish them the best and hope it gets fixed. Will be back in a few years and hope to rate it perfectly then. | |
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H. K. from Long Island, NY
(3/29/2007)
"Inaugural marathon needs better organization." (about: 2007)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Georgia Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 Heat, hills, and the lack of water and promised PowerAde made this a tough run. A fine course that needed more experienced volunteers who knew how to handle water stops. Big no-no was 10-year age groups throughout, a fact that was not published in any written materials. With normal 5-year age groups, I would have placed first instead of 8th! | |
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P. D. from Desert Hot Springs, CA
(3/29/2007)
"Very disappointed in ATL, Coke and ING..." (about: 2007)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Georgia Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 2 On the PLUS side... 1. Mizuno did a great job at the Expo and with their water station. Their tech shirt was great. Thank you! 2. The marathon course was hilly but interesting...but please describe the course as hilly on the website. Being from CA and not knowing the area, I was not prepared for the hills. 3. I also took advantage of the Heart CT scan at Crawford Long Hospital. Great to see some preventative medicine at work! NEGATIVES (lots)... 1. The Expo volunteers had us wait in line at 11am on Friday for over 40 min just to get in. Then we found out we really didn't have to wait. 2. The event couldn't plan for the 25+ degrees over normal temps or for the extreme pollen count, but they COULD have provided Powerade on the course. Coke is even headquartered there! At one point, someone went out and bought gallons of Gatorade at one station. Thankfully someone was heads-up for the dehydrated runners. 3. Traffic was strangely diverted in areas.. One pickup (complete w/gunrack) pealed out from a driveway, over some cones and almost over me!! He cursed at the runners as he drove away. 4. One water station had three volunteers visable...we had to dunk our own cups in a container for fluid. 5. How about timing devices at the mile markers? 6. How about more port-o-johns at the start? The lines had me waiting almost 30 minutes and until 4 min AFTER the gun went off. Glad it was a 'chip' race 7. No one to take my goodie bag on the UPS truck...simply had to toss it on. 8. Lots of cookies and warm coke at the finish line...yuk. 9. One water station late in my race (I finished in 4:30:00) ran out of cups. If you twisted upside down, a volunteer could pour water from the gallon jug down your throat! Only a few people gagged... 10. Except for the finish, only small pockets of spectators were present. The ones there however, were great and supportive. There were other mistakes, like poor signage at the marathon/half marathon split...the Westin Hotel not being able to direct me to the start (it was one block away)...but I can't list them all. For a big city like Atlanta, Coke, ING...I had high expectations that weren't met. Maybe Atlanta should talk to the city of Duluth that puts on a world class event like 'Grandma's' or Portland or Chicago or...well you get the idea. | |
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K. S. from Atlanta GA
(3/29/2007)
"Need Gatorade!! Kill Freedom Parkway!" (about: 2007)
1 previous marathon
| 1 Georgia Marathon
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 3 This was my first marathon but as a loyal runner of the Peachtree Road Race - the largest 10k in the World.. I guess I was expecting great things. I was amazed that there was ABSOLUTELY NO GATORADE on the course ... (not excusable) and it took me 2 hours to pick up my number.... I guess since ING was doing it and I'd heard such great things about NY and Boston that I was expecting organziation! The course was great except for the back & forth on Freedom parkway - talk about boring - and thanks for showing us a water station a mile ahead of when we could get to it! Don't get me wrong - I will run this again but I'm hoping that the orgranizers will get it together next year - and I will carry my own gatorade! | |
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T. B. from Jackson, Mississippi
(3/29/2007)
"Room for Improvement" (about: 2007)
4-5 previous marathons
| 1 Georgia Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 4 Although I have several complaints about this race, there were some positive aspects of the race: 1. The tech shirt was really nice. Very pleased with the medal as well. 2. The crowd support was fantastic. Some neighborhoods like Decatur and parts of Druid Hills really came out in a big way. Running through these two neighborhoods gave me a much needed boost and were the best part of the race. 3. I really enjoyed the course and felt like it offered a great view of the city. Areas for potential improvements included: 1. Hydration stations - I felt like this was a huge screw up. There was no PowerAde on the entire course!!!! I was appalled and could not believe that on a day when temps hit a record high, the organizers felt that running without proper hydration was safe. The water that they did have was warm at best. This was the biggest upset for me. I was at mile 8 before I realized that something had gone awfully wrong with the hydrations stations. When I asked a volunteer about the PowerAde, she explained that PowerAde "failed to show up." I am aware that PowerAde's error and weather was beyond the control of the organizers, but I feel that they could have made an effort to address this at some point on the course. There was one point on the course where there were no volunteers present at the water stop - only crates with 1 gallon jugs of water. Runners were drinking from the jugs and leaving them on the side of the road. What a waste! I even saw runners carrying jugs of water while running because by this point there was at least one missed water station. I would have to say that this was the most disappointing aspect of the race. Organizers will need to come strong in this area next year if this is going to be a lasting event. 2. Starting corrals - The start of the race was very unorganized and crowded. It did not appear that runners were corraled. It stayed extremely crowded until at least mile 3 and the 1/2 marathoners broke off. 3. Traffic control - There were several officers on the course, which was a plus. But at one point there were two officers giving conflicting hand signals to drivers and when another runner (who was a veteran running in honor of all active duty military) advised that there was a seven-hour time limit, the officer replied, "Yes, but we have got to get this traffic moving." I feel if the race is going to be advertised as having a 7-hour time limit, then runners should not be made to feel like they need to rush to beat traffic. Maybe organizers should consider starting the race earlier or changing the time limit if the city cannot accommodate road closures during peak travel times. | |
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T. K. from Houston, TX
(3/29/2007)
"NEVER AGAIN!!!" (about: 2007)
1 previous marathon
| 1 Georgia Marathon
COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 5 If this was my first race, I would swear off running for a long time! I am completely disgusted with how the race was run. There are pros; Great Expo ( I picked up some really cool things), Great participants bag, and WONDERFUL spectators. Now for the Cons (so many I will try to cut them short); I think they picked every hill in Atlanta for this course, nice! NO WATER OR POWERADE! How in the heck can they put on a race in that kind of weather and not have water? I would think that they would watch the news just like all the rest of us! Im upset with myself that I looked at the map and believed that they would have the 19 water stations that they said they would. Silly me. If it wasnt for those angels that sat out in the sun, running their water hoses and giving people ice and pretzels, there would have been some serious crowding in the hospitals. I am very disappointed with this race and dont think I'll change my mind even after they fix the 'glitches'. | |
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J. C. from Atlanta, Georgia
(3/29/2007)
"2007 marathon leaves much to be desired" (about: 2007)
1 previous marathon
| 1 Georgia Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 5 Please have the expo/packet pick in a different location next year - I have never had to wait in line for packet pick up, like I did Friday for an hour. I heard the wait Saturday was in excess of 2 hours! I was hoping it wasn't an indication of how race day would go, but it was. The Marta train broke down and escalators out of the station were out of service, requiring a pre-race walk of a couple hundred stairs and several blocks. The start line was hard to find and I would recommend grouping or "corraling" runners based on time of completion. That way walkers wouldn't be trampled if they were in front, and runners wouldn't be frustrated getting stuck behind walkers. I read in the press release that, "Even though adequate water and sports drink supplies were at the scheduled locations on the course, it was the logistics of getting it into the hands of racers that fell through." This isn't all true. There was NOT adequate water or sports drinks at scheduled locations. There was no water left at the 4-mile station, and the 6-mile station was non-existent even though there were signs for it. There was NO PowerAde on the entire course, period, and I asked at every station. So, no water or PowerAde for marathoners from mile 2 to 8 in temperatures in excess of 70 degrees. I did receive a small bottle of warm water at the finish line, but post-race refeshments were minimal. There was no fruit left by the time I got there, and I could not get another bottle of water. I do want to thank the ATL citizens for being such amazing spectators!! The spectators and beautiful course will make me consider running this race again. | |
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J. W. from Tennessee
(3/28/2007)
"What a Shame" (about: 2007)
2 previous marathons
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 2 I finished in the top 33% of the marathoners and there was only one station that had PowerAde on the whole course. The race director in a news release today said sports drink supplies were at the stations but were not given out. (?) I looked hard for the PowerAde and didn't see a drop in the vicinity of the stations except at one. She conveniently failed to mention in the news release that the hydration station between miles 6 and 7 were non-existent, so we ran 4 miles without water, which got us off to a bad start with hydration. If I had not carried several PowerGels with me and had some generous spectators giving out water in the dry stretch, I would not likely have been able to finish due to loss of electrolytes and water - especially with the high temperatures. Also, poor hydration station design made it nearly impossible to get to water at early stations. Finish area was huge disappointment. No PowerAde anywhere and they were handing out Cokes?! This marathon has a lot of great potential but messing up hydration is a huge mistake and should have been a top priority for the safety and health of the runners. The kicker is that the director's comments were out of touch with the reality in the race, and that's offensive. | |
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T. Q. from Orlando, Florida
(3/28/2007)
"disorganization regarding lack of Powerade" (about: 2007)
1 previous marathon
| 1 Georgia Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 5 Now I know what is meant by relying on 'the kindness of strangers.' Were it not for the wonderful homeowners who supported the runners, many would never have been able to finish. I was toward the end of the pack - mile 7(?) before there was any water, mile 26 and no Powerade at all! I count 18 Powerade stations on the map provided the day before. Relying on this I didn't pack any. THE LACK OF POWERADE WAS INEXUSABLE AND SHOWS A RECKLESS DISREGARD FOR THE SAFETY OF THE RUNNERS! How about breach of contract? There should have been corrals at the start, and food at the finish. All I got at the end were 2 small bags of pretzels. I have Georgia on my mind alright... and it's a nightmare. I can only assume that the glowing comments were from ING employees. Take some responsibility here folks. I hope ING uses more foresight in financial matters, and more care for their clients than they did in planning the race. | |
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J. R. from North Georgia
(3/28/2007)
"Great Half-Marathon Course" (about: 2007)
2 previous marathons
| 1 Georgia Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 Yes the PowerAde was missing, and the expo was unorganized - at least early on - but the half-marathon course was outstanding! I found the course had a nice mixture of flat terrain and rolling hills. Of course, I was not prepared for the long hill at the end, which caused me to stop and walk more than once on this hot day. But the course was well thought out, fun, scenic, and moderately challenging, with great fan support. I will make this an annual event without a doubt! |
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