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☰
Marine Corps Marathon Runner Comments
Back to Marine Corps Marathon Information & Reviews
Course 4.5 
Organization 3.9 
Spectators 4.6
Number of comments: 937 [displaying comments 581 to 591]
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R. H. from Houston, TX
(11/8/2005)
"There were FINISHER shirts???" (about: 2005)
11-50 previous marathons
| 3 Marine Corps Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 5 Great course! Great crowd! Organization needs help. Announcers kept 'crediting' the Marines for the organization but I don't think it was their fault! - Mr. Race Director, please take note! Someone commented about a red FINISHER shirt - did anyone get one? I saw it on display at the expo but never saw it again! I saw one at the airport! Apologies to the gov/military folks; civilian runners tend to be 'high maintenance' after 26.2 miles and don't like to trudge through the crowd, mud and grime!! But I'll still be back next year! | |
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K. S. from Lancaster, PA
(11/7/2005)
"Marines were Great, but fluids were lacking" (about: 2005)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Marine Corps Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 5 First of all, I want to thank the Marines for all of their efforts and inspiration. It is truly a special feeling to have a young Marine place that finisher's medal around your neck. The course was nice, although East Potomac Park was a long stretch of practically nothing. There were two aspects of the race that stick out in my mind as needing improvement. The first is the spacing of the water stops. Early on in the race having a water stop every 2+ miles wasn't an issue, but as the miles wore on and the temperatures rose, I found myself getting dehydrated. There was just too much distance in between fluids. The other problem that I experienced was the overcrowding on the course and the overall disorganization of the finish area. After running 26.2 miles I don't really feel like standing around for 10 minutes with no water or food. I agree that this a really good race, but with some improvements I feel that it could be one of the best. | |
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A. H. from New York, NY
(11/7/2005)
"Fantastic course, but poor wheelchair participants" (about: 2005)
3 previous marathons
| 1 Marine Corps Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 The course was spectacular, the crowd so supportive, and the marines handed out water and gatorade, sports gel very smoothly. The wheelchair participants were started after the first wave of runners, about 3 minutes ahead of the second wave, which had caught up with many of them by the 2nd mile hill. They constantly had to yell to get runners out of their way, which slowed them down and robbed some runners of their energy. The finish was too congested and it was impossible to find family members. Also, there was a huge congestion in front of the tents. Water and food should be made available in a more organized fashion. it was chaotic! Overall, I loved the marathon, the weather was perfect, and the spectators very energetic and encouraging! | |
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b. b. from indiana
(11/7/2005)
"great course, terrible organization" (about: 2005)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Marine Corps Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 4 The course was fantastic. The marathon is such a wonderful way to see all the monuments. The fans were very nice and supportive, but a bit sporadic. Now for the bad news. This was my 15th marathon and it was easily the worst organized event I have ever run. The expo was an absolute joke. The starting and finishing areas were incredibly choatic. There was no order to anything, and nobody seemed to know where to find anything. The finish area in particular was awful. Getting to the food was very difficult. There was no crowd control which led to spectators and runners pushing at each other to get around. The two wave start sounded good on paper, but there was no crowd control in sight. Alot of people slated for the second start actually started in the first one. The course in the beginning narrowed too suddenly which caused a big bottleneck and reduced the field to a walking pace for a few minutes. And finally, they started the wheelchair athletes after the runners!?!?!?! There is no excuse for that. The lead wheelchair person passed me at about mile six and I saw more than one person get knocked over by the police motorcycles that were leading the wheelchairs. It made for a very dangerous situation. This race was a mess. | |
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s. b. from dc
(11/6/2005)
"Great marathon overall, but fix the two-wave deal" (about: 2005)
1 previous marathon
| 1 Marine Corps Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 Kudos to all the organizers, runners, and spectators--all were fantastic! The Marine helpers were very supportive and attentive. And DC spectators really motivated me! My few suggestions are: 1) line up the participants in both waves according to pace times to avoid faster people getting stuck behind slower people, esp. at bottleneck sections; 2) reorganize the finish line area so more people can see the runners finish; 3) the finish area is so crowded--any way to spread out the tents, people, etc? Otherwise, fabulous job everyone; I'll be back! | |
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John Conroy from Syracuse, NY
(11/5/2005)
"Thanks!!!!" (about: 2005)
4-5 previous marathons
| 3 Marine Corps Marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 Thank you for another great marathon. Great job. | |
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B. M. from Washington, DC
(11/5/2005)
"SIMPLY AWESOMEEEEE!!!!!!!!!" (about: 2005)
1 previous marathon
| 1 Marine Corps Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 This was my first race and what a race it was!!! The Marines run a 1st-class operation. The scenery in DC is great. Very flat course. | |
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S. C. from Atlanta
(11/5/2005)
"Fun event, but a logistical nightmare" (about: 2005)
First Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 5 I ran my first marathon in DC this past week. It was an overall great experience and a great route. Unfortunately, the organizers need to go back to the drawing board and rethink the event. The start and finish seemed like amateur hour. Here are a few of my observations: - After the start, the congestion was pretty significant and anyone in the second wave would have been hard pressed to have run faster than an 11-12 minute mile pace for the first 5 miles. It took me until mile 6 that I was finally able to run at the pace I trained for. - During the race, we were constantly getting run over from behind by wheelchair racers. In the midst of all the screaming, it's hard to recognize the voice of a wheelchair racer saying 'on your right' when he/she is coming up from behind. I believe this category of racer was actually started in between the two running waves. - The concept of mixing running and walking is getting out of control. Within the first 100 yards of the race, beepers were going off and group leaders were yelling 'walk on my command.' Then, groups of 8 to 12 runners would immediately stop and walk causing even further traffic jams. Some walkers made the effort to work their way to the right side before stopping, but most just stopped in their tracks in the middle of the road. - At the finish line, I never would have imagined a finish of a marathon where there is NO food or water available. After getting a medal and depositing your chip, you walk another 5 feet into a sea of people. You stand in this unorganized pack for how ever long it takes before you give up. It is quite difficult to run 26 miles and then come to a standstill for an hour just trying to get to a tent which was completely out of reach. Twenty minutes later, I stumbled across a Marine passing out water bottles in the middle of the crowd. I never did find any food, oranges, etc. - Ultimately, I gave up and decided to walk the 1/2-mile to the subway. That was the next logistical disaster. Two machines to buy a ticket and a one-hour wait in another sea of people. - Eventually, I made it to my hotel. We chose one of the closest hotels to the starting line. It took about as long to cover the two miles as it did to run the marathon. And, most of that time was spent standing in line. It was still a great experience, a fun track to run with tremendous crowd support. I just don't want someone to get away with confusing a good city and a good route with a well planned marathon. | |
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B. F. from Atlanta, GA
(11/5/2005)
"Great fans, but needs work on organization" (about: 2005)
2 previous marathons
| 1 Marine Corps Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 The fans were great.... There were many of them and they were very vocal. They certainly helped during the final push. There were, though, areas where fans were sparse, such as East Potomac Park (boy, this was a tough leg of the course to grind through). But overall this was a plus. There were two areas on the negative side. First, something different needs to be done regarding the wheelchair participants. It was chaotic on the course... specifically, many runners didn't/couldn't clear a path easily/quickly. This was a cause of frustration, certainly for the wheelchair participants. Next, it wasn't clear where to go for the bag drop-off and post-race festivities. I'm just glad that someone I met on the metro told me that the race program was incorrect and she guided me in the right direction. These negatives didn't overshadow the positive experience overall. Great day, great fans, and, of course, the Marines were awesome. | |
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B. L. from Cleveland, Ohio
(11/4/2005)
"Well done Marines" (about: 2005)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Marine Corps Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 As promised, a great course with plenty of enthusiastic spectators. Two-wave system worked well for those in the first wave; not so well for those of us in the second. Besides the long walk to the start. A lack of corrals led to huge congestion for the first few miles with plenty of walkers to navigate around. It would be nice for those in wave-two to receive the same type of sendoff as those in the first. The finish area could be a bit more organized as well; with all the spectators crowding the runners, it was pretty slow going getting to the refreshment stand. The Marines, though, were awesome throughout the course. Having a young Marine present your medal is truly a 'never forget' moment. Keep up the good work Marines. |
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