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St. George Marathon Runner Comments
Back to St. George Marathon Information & Reviews
Course 4.8 
Organization 4.8 
Spectators 4.3
Number of comments: 216 [displaying comments 191 to 201]
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C. M. from Toronto, Canada
(1/7/2003)
"Fantastic hilly race." (about: 2002)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 I loved St. George. This is the first race of done in a few years that wasn't one of the big city marathons (Boston, NY, Chicago), and it was really nice to have a completely different experience. I would recommend this race highly, as it is in exceptionally beautiful country, the people are great, and the course is more of a challenge than I expected. While there is a big net drop in elevation, I didn't think it was much easier than Chicago (dead flat), since there are enough tough uphill portions to offset the downhill portions. Accomodations are tight, but I went with a group and we stayed just outside of Zion National Park, which is about a half hour from St. George, and well worth the drive. It's a great place to rest for a couple of days prior to the race, and to get used to the elevation if you can afford the time. For people who live at sea level, it is a very good idea to try to get up in elevation for a couple of days (at least)if you want to score at St. George. Heading to Las Vegas afterward (only a couple of hours to the south) is a great way to combine the sacred and profane in one vacation. I'll definitely be back. | |
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A Runner from Colorado
(11/5/2002)
"A race that couldn't be better" (about: 2002)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 The weather is great, the course is real pleasant but there seem to be more hills than what the map insinuates, and the number of enthusiastic spectators is surprising early on in the course when still out in the desert. The organization is impeccable from the pre-race expo to the post-race set-up at the park. This is a marathon that I plan to do every year if I can get in. Make sure to bring your sunscreen (I forgot mine and got fried). I have to disagree with some of the comments about the difficulty of clothing dropoffs- I dropped a bunch of stuff at the two mile marker and they had it all ready for me after the race. I definitely recommend doing this marathon! | |
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A Runner from La Mirada, CA
(11/4/2002)
"You can't beat the scenery or the people." (about: 2002)
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 I ran St George for the first time and enjoyed it tremendously. From the Expo to the post race help everything was first rate, much more than I expected from a small town. The expo was a little small but well managed, the first-timers clinic was funny and very helpful. The pasta dinner was simple but good, and inexpensive. The race itself was a thrill, lots of hills, about 35 degrees at the start. If you toss your clothes within the first 6 miles in the provided bag they'll be a the finish before you are. The downhills will take a lot out of your quads if not prepared, I started wishing for an uphill after a while. The crowds in town were very enthusiastic, the ones at Veyo and Snow Canyon were downright LOUD (very surprising). Post race was excellent, the food, drink and first aid, all top notch. Only disappointment; no post race pictures after you get your medal. | |
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Denvergirl from Denver, Colorado
(11/4/2002)
"Great race...Ditto on the clothing thing though." (about: 2002)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 A Great race. We booked our room eight months out and had limited options but I think you could find something later in the year when the lottery application results are out. Weather couldn't have been any better this year. If anything there was a light tail wind and it never got very hot. That's the only thing I've really heard about the weather, is that it can get pretty warm. Great organization in every way except for the clothing thing that others have mentioned. And discarding at an early mile marker doesn't work or it didn't for my sister and me. She dropped this year's race shirt at mile two and I a bright colored jacket. Both were well marked with our names and numbers. We showed up at the tennis courts to find the stuff was being loaded into a truck. We waited for 45 minutes before the man in charge would let us start looking and everyone involved with this mess said that things were no longer properly devided. The man in charge was not customer friendly and though we searched for thirty minutes through a few of the many huge boxes of clothing, my sister and I left empty handed. We looked through every box marked with a mileage with five miles of the our two mile drop point. There were many others there that seemed to be having the same experience to include on couple that was clearly not happy with the way things were being handled or how they were being treated. Don't let this turn you away from the race. It's an overall great experience. Just don't believe that you'll get you discarded clothing back easily, marked well or otherwise. I had a nice PR and had no problems with the hills but I trained for them. I gave the race five stars for spectators because though there are places they are thin (first half), they really make up for it everywhere they can. Train for some hills. It's not all downhill either. | |
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A Runner from Jackson, TN
(10/28/2002)
"A new PR" (about: 2002)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 This marathon is great for setting a new pr. The weather was perfect. It does have a few uphill segments mainly in the first half of the marathon. Overall I highly recommend this marathon. I ran a 3:14 and qualified for Boston. My previous pr was 3:36 five weeks before in Tupelo, MS. | |
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A Runner from New Orleans
(10/23/2002)
"What an Exceptional Race" (about: 2002)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 What an exceptional marathon. Warm fires greeted the runners at the start and a warm reception from the town at the finish. It does mean something when the community gets involved and it makes the race that much more special. You couldn?t go anywhere in St. George without talking about the marathon. The course is fast. You will lose about a half mile in elevation from the start to the finish. Mostly downhill but there is this ugly uphill from mile 7 to 9; enough to take the wind out of anyone?s sails. And I remember still running uphill far past mile 9. I think it was around mile 11 before we started the descent again. I don?t recall seeing that on the elevation chart. Although the crowds are few and far between the natural beauty of Utah?s high desert is second only to the Big Sur Marathon. Dress accordingly because the start can be quite cold and finish could be in the 70?s. Traffic was non-existent on most of the course and there was plenty of room to run. The course got a little tight running into town and some of course appeared to be newly paved which was a little rough on the footing. High quality long sleeve shirt and unique finishers medal were a plus. Overall organization was good but communication could be a little better. I brought my own ChampionChip and I had to ask three people to find out how to get it registered. Also, the instructions said that the discarded clothing could be picked up at the tennis courts until 8PM that night. We got there around 6PM and all the clothes were packed in a truck behind a building across the street. Luckily we weren?t the only ones on the scavenger hunt. And yes you have to dig to find your stuff. They do a great job in collecting everything that gets dropped and put them in boxes marked with the mile marker they were located at but it?s a free-for-all trying to get it back. Some advice: Discard your warm clothes in the first few miles before anyone has broken a sweat yet. Going through the box marked Mile 9 was pretty gamy! Also people were more successful when they had their race number visible on their clothes. More advice. St. George is a small community with a limited number of hotel rooms geared towards the weekend traveler. Book early! I booked in early April and most of the hotels were already sold out. Mesquite, NV is a 30 minute drive and you could probably get a better deal since the town has a few casinos. But Mesquite is in a different time zone and its a white knuckle drive through the canyon in daylight I can?t imagine doing it in the predawn hours. If you?re flying in, St. George has a small airport (on top of a mesa) but you?ll probably find it cheaper to fly into Vegas. We went a day earlier and found some great deals on hotel rooms in Las Vegas. From Vegas it?s about a two hour drive to St. George. | |
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A Runner from San Jose, CA
(10/9/2002)
"Thanks St. George" (about: 2002)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 What a fantastic race. The course was beautiful, but definitely challenging. There are just as many ups as downs, the only flat is the last 3/4 of a mile. The people of St. George really make this a fun experience....we especially loved all the great signs for runners and loved ones along the course (especially the one just past mile 25.5 that said '4821 feet to go, you people are nuts!). The expo and post race events were good, the organization of all race activities was awesome, very unique and appropriate medals, and who could not love the bon-fires to keep warm at the start. I've run 6 marathons (both large and small) and this one competes with them all. Thanks for a great day in St. George! | |
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A Runner from Utah
(10/8/2002)
"St. George is a great race if you can handle hills" (about: 2002)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 I ran it in 2002 and the weather was perfect. Organization was great except that you had better only discard clothing you don't want to get back or spend hours looking for. The large guy running the clothing pick-up was callous and more concerned about making things easy on him than helping people find their clothes. Thousands of items were in several huge boxes that were four ft. deep and he didn't want people pulling items out and complained openly if you did. He also made comments such as 'you shouldn't have discarded anything that you wanted to keep'. It's pretty darn cold at the top when the race starts in the dark and this guy doesn't know the first thing about what it's like to be up there running. Some people looking for their stuff were visibly upset at the arrangement and treatment. I never found my jacket either. If things were placed on the ground by mile drop then it would have been so easy. I think all of this was due to one bad apple in the volunteer pool. Everything else about the race was world class! The town really comes out to cheer runners on and if you train properly for hills you can PR here. You really need to train for the descents though. I've known of several people that have had leg and foot trouble in the last half of this race. | |
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A Runner from New York
(10/8/2002)
"As Advertised/Described" (General Comments)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 Ran on 10/5/02 as first time SGM runner with goal of Boston bound 3:20. Ran 3:17 on a perfect course and perfect morning. The course is as advertised-a moderate climb at 9-11 and a fast finish with downhill miles at 15 and 16 and 20-25. The race is well organized and the volunteers are terrific. The townsfolk really turnout in the last 3-4 miles with spectator support minimal (although spunky) prior to that point. The scenery as you drop into/next to Snow Canyon (on downhill miles) is worth the wait. Highly recommend this race as a qualifier or PR attempt. | |
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A Runner from Dallas, Texas
(10/8/2002)
"HILLS! HILLS! HILLS!" (about: 2002)
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 This is my 8th marathon and first ST. GEORGE. Only place where I have seen the whole town get involved. The organization is great, t-shirts are very nice == cool-mesh fabric, unique medal, but the course!!! YIPES! No flat parts. Just hills, hills, and more hills. So be prepared. Weather was perfect in 2002, not really any crowd support til you get back to town, aid stations are terrific and the First Aid Tent did a good job. They were packed. |
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