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New Jersey Marathon Runner Comments
Back to New Jersey Marathon Information & Reviews
Course 4.3 
Organization 4.5 
Spectators 3.9
Number of comments: 464 [displaying comments 31 to 41]
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S. r. from On the finish line of the NJ Marathon
(5/17/2013)
"Finish on the boardwalk" (about: 2013)
11-50 previous marathons
| 4-5 New Jersey Marathons
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 Bring everything you need. Small expo. Plan to get to the start EARLY. Rte 36 is jammed and you can miss the start if you are caught in traffic. The half marathoners have an earlier start which means my house guests are done long before me. I am a marathoner. | |
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Adam Stivala from Miami, FL
(5/9/2013)
"NJ Marathon is progressively declining" (about: 2013)
11-50 previous marathons
| 6+ New Jersey Marathons
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 1 NJ Marathon was my very first marathon in 2007, and it was a wonderful experience. I have run the race 6 times now since 2007 (excluding 2012), and the race is getting worse every year. Damage from Sandy had nothing to do with the decline. Just glancing at statistics, the enrollment in the Half and Full is also declining. The course is nice, but for the Marathon, there were almost no spectators and it was a GREAT NJ May day, perfect temps! The logo, shirt, and medal are so commercialized now and have lost the appeal of the old Horse Shoe medal with every town's name participating. The finish line for the full was embarrassing - Gatorade and left over pretzels from the Half Marathoners, and a bag with a beat up banana and a couple salt water taffies. I am a proud NJ native, was always proud of this race, and have been a Pace Group Leader for NJ Marathon 2 times now; however, I think, sadly, 2013 was my last NJ Marathon. | |
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J. S. from Quincy, IL
(5/8/2013)
"Lots of spectators all around and awesome medals!" (about: 2011)
3 previous marathons
| 1 New Jersey Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Ran this as my first marathon a few years ago. I had a great experience and I am on my way to running a marathon in every state. I would definitely recommend this marathon for anyone looking to do a marathon in NJ. | |
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Vinay Kundur from Sayreville, NJ
(5/6/2013)
"Well Organized Marathon" (about: 2013)
3 previous marathons
| 2 New Jersey Marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 A flat course along the long branch jersey shore. Well organized event. I ran the race twice, yesterday and last yr and was satisfied with the way the race was held. The spectators were awesome and were there everywhere throughout the course.Plenty of volunteers and fluid stations every two miles.I would definitely recommend running this race. | |
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T. M. from Atlanta
(5/6/2013)
"Terrible course and abysmal organization" (about: 2013)
50+ previous marathons
| 1 New Jersey Marathon
COURSE: 1 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 2 After running 140+ marathons. I have see the good and the bad. This was bad. The good: 1. very good aid stations, actually excellent. The Bad: 1. The worst is running a small side walk with no where to pass. The side walk is three feet wide and with broken pavement. There are way too may runners for being confined to a three foot side walk. The course needs to be totally on wide streets. In fair disclosure, I fell on these side walks and was nearly trampled to death. One kind runner helped me. 2. The expo is held at a house race track. I walked thru off track betting. The expo was non-existant, why have at a race track?. 3. Most volunteers could not answer any questions, such as where are the buses that return runners from the finish to the start of the race. 4. Yes I received alot of e-mails but it was the same information again and again. Not all that useful. 5.You pay five dollars for parking at this huge lot with thousands of cars. What a joke. It seemed just another way to make money off runners. 5. The goody bad was ok. Two little bars, a banana and a pretzel. Overall, I think the course is the thing that has to improve. I would not recommend running this course unless they use streets and not narrow broken up side walks and narrow paths. | |
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T. R. from Western Mass
(5/6/2013)
"Overall a great race!" (about: 2013)
6-10 previous marathons
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 The course organizers made sure that we were informed of the traffic at the beginning. I was coming from a little less than an hour away and it took exactly 2 hours to get there. We arrived around 6:45 and we were able to park without a problem in the Monmouth parking lot (less than 1/4 mile walk to the start). The women's bathrooms and porta potties were out of toilet paper due to the amount of 1/2 marathoners that started before the full. So make sure you have tissues with you! There was great communication during the start. Race officials were inside letting everyone know that they should start heading to the corrals. The race started exactly on time and the corrals started within 15-30 seconds of each other. Lots of crowd support and they played 'Born to Run' at the start of each group. The course was different from the years past because of the damage from Sandy. I realize that this is something that was unavoidable but it meant, for a short amount of time, that we were running on uneven sidewalks and sand. I did not feel safe and a runner fell due to these conditions. That is the reason I gave it 3 stars. I was running with someone who had done the course before and he told me how different it was this year. The other 90% of the course was great. We saw some beautiful 'houses' (really they were the size of 2 mansions merged as 1) and some great views of the shore. During the race: aid stations were very well organized- water cups were different from the Gatorade cups and the volunteers communicated very well. There were also a lot of bananas and choices for gu. I carry a hand-held water bottle and stopped twice to fill it up, both times the volunteers were very accommodating and helped me fill up quickly. Overall, the crowd support/volunteers were wonderful. Crowd support was a little sparse during the last 5 miles (which seems to be typical because at that point everyone wants to be at the finish). There were a couple of bands who sounded great and a few people playing music. I think that the course could have used more music especially at the end. There was way too much walking after the finish. It was hard to get to your family/friends due to the extra security. I did not really want food at the end but I still have no idea where the food tent was located. There could have been more signs at the end but I was also a little out of it so I may have missed them. My fiancee followed me during the race. She was able to leave Monmouth park almost immediately and did not have to pay the $5 when leaving. She was able to see me around mile 8 and 14. She was worried about parking at the end and getting to the finish so she left a good amount of time to get there. She has a lot of experience following me around at races and says that this one was pretty easy to get around. She used the turn-by-turn information that was at the expo. She was able to park about 1/2 mile- 3/4 mile away from the finish for free without much a problem. | |
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A. R. from NJ
(5/5/2013)
"Great race, if you can get into it on time!" (about: 2013)
11-50 previous marathons
| 2 New Jersey Marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 Hats off to the folks for setting up post-Boston safety; however, CAN WE PLEASE figure out a way to get some officers to run the traffic lights so they're a bit longer than 4 car lengths at a time... Jeez! Leaving a hotel 10 miles away 1.5 hrs before the start of the race and making it w/ 10 minutes to spare is unacceptable. (oh, and I overheard the RD's tv interview about 'people need to leave earlier' when I dropped off my gear bag... Ugh!) | |
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T. L. from NYC
(11/30/2012)
"Not as good as I had hoped...." (about: 2012)
11-50 previous marathons
| 2 New Jersey Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 2 Parking was extremely poor and not well organized. The worst part was the SEA of walkers that I came upon around mile 8ish. So many people walking 3 and 4 abreast that it totally made the next 4 miles miserable. Why they start the full marathon later than the half is beyond me. I'd never run it again unless they changed the times around!!!! | |
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S. I. from New Jersey, USA
(5/29/2012)
"Most engaged organizers ever!" (about: 2012)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 New Jersey Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 Race was very well organized, course was good (though tantalizingly close to the ocean but hiding it for most of the run). Medals were nice, T's were good (course map on T back was interesting!). The biggest differentiator for this race was the way organizers engaged the runners from months before - a very interactive Facebook presence, organized group training runs, free clinics etc. Made a lot of new running friends thanks to this. Could improve - expo logistics... Had to drive 100+ miles on two consecutive days just to pick up bib. Expo was smallish. Race start of 8 am for marathon did not matter, had to get there before 6 am to avoid road closures, meant leaving home at an unearthly 4:45 am and still got stuck in traffic. | |
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J. P. from U.S.A.
(5/19/2012)
"Great organization and AWESOME pace groups" (about: 2012)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 New Jersey Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 The organization of this race is great; you can tell the organizers put a lot of thought in trying to make this event as seamless as possible for the runners. 1. Water and gatorade handout organized: Gatorade first and then water soon after, and they were provided in different cups, so you knew what to look for. 2. Volunteers supportive and really friendly; one volunteer, at Asbury Park, gave the females their standing. Pace group leader was AWESOME and spot on with his pace. 3. Course (with its crazy turns) was well marked and pretty fast with some baby bumps on the latter half of the course. 4. Finish line area was fun with a live band and right next to the beach. As for the start area, having an hour at the start with just the marathon runners was really nice: no lines for the porta-potties, bag drop-off, and space to chill and get my head into the game. The corral system was fluid and pretty spacious; didn't trip over anyone and seemed like we were all pretty much where we were supposed to be 5. For me, bag drop-off and pick up was seamless and quick. The volunteers gave you a numbered sticker versus going by bib number, but I didn't have problems with this 6. Shuttle back to the parking lot/race track was convenient and easy. I didn't have to wait in line and was able to board right away 7. I picked up my bib on Friday afternoon and had no problems - parking super easy and no lines. The expo wasn't too shabby (not tiny but not huge like at the larger marathons and for families, organizers had a balloon dude handing out balloons to little kids- a nice little touch) 8. The West Long Branch area has a ton of malls and restaurants (franchises) so getting some last minute things/food is pretty easy 9. We lucked out with the weather: 50s, cloudy at the start with the sun peaking out at the last two miles, and a cool crosswind. Ehhh... 1. Ran into a little congestion with some of the half marathoners, but it wasn't too bad and cleared out after mile 12 2. Not a lot of spectators but always a group of runners around you. My BF was able to videotape me running and you can hear just the patter of feet and birds in the background. Pretty cool. 3. Lots of traffic getting to the race start, but we used our GPS and were able to navigate around most of it. However, because of the earlier start of the half-marathon and the course being right next to the parking lot, the entrance was closed. We ended up parking by the back gate in a neighborhood, so it wasn't too bad. Wishlist: 1. Less turns could've made this course even faster 2. More entrances into the parking lot at the race start (but this might be something they can't control b.c of infrastructure) 3. Chocolate milk at the end would be awesome Overall, a nice experience! If you're looking for a spring race to PR or qualify for Boston, this is a great event to do it at. |
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