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☰
Clearwater Marathon Runner Comments
Back to Clearwater Marathon Information & Reviews
Course 4.1 
Organization 3.8 
Spectators 3.1
Number of comments: 170 [displaying comments 71 to 81]
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N. F. from Florida
(2/24/2004)
"Great Course, Comedy of Errors!" (about: 2004)
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 1 The course was great; I enjoyed the variety of different settings and to get out of traffic on the back half. The overall impression of the race seemed like a comedy of errors. I'd like to give it a second try if I knew that a serious commitment was made to all runners first through last. Lack of food, announcers, lack of concern and more seriously, lack of water and Gatorade for slower runners made it trying at best. Five miles in the heat is too far when you are counting on that station to be there. For a city of this size sponsorship here was seriously lacking. Perhaps the most impressive sight throughout the race was the network of police officers and crossing guards. This race has the chance for great potential but you have to leave an impression that keeps runners coming back and brings new ones into the fold, regardless of the finish time. After all, new personal records are set in every race and some of the greatest gains are made in the 4-hour plus group! When you commit, commit to everyone. | |
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Ron Benfield from Mount Dora, FL
(2/24/2004)
"A good marathon overall, but some deficiencies" (about: 2004)
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 2 This was my first time running this 'thon. The course is nice for the most part, spectators friendly but sparse. Traffic control was excellent, with many friendly, helpful police. The part on the Pinellas Trail (mile 15 to the end) was fairly unexciting, but at that point in a marathon it's hard to get excited by scenery... My biggest disappointment was that several stations in a row ran out of Gatorade (mile 15 to mile 20), just at a time I felt I most needed it. And I was near the middle of the pack. Chris runs a good race overall, and I recommend this one except for the possibility of heat at this time of the year... which certainly is out of RD's control. | |
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L. G. from Tampa
(2/24/2004)
"First-timer... would not do this one again" (about: 2004)
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 2 As this was my first marathon, I was pretty excited to give this one a go, especially since it was touted as walker-friendly (just in case), as well as fast and flat. I didn't think it was very walker friendly since they were picking things up right behind you, even if you did keep up with a less than 15-minute mile. I didn't get a drink of water or Gatorade until about mile 4, since they ran out. The porta-potties were very limited (I may have seen 2 or 3 along the way). All in all, not a very good experience for a first-timer. | |
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N. R. from Orlando, Florida
(2/24/2004)
"Scenic race, but not organized enough " (about: 2004)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 1 It was a very scenic race but not organized enough. They ran out of Gatorade and only had water and oranges. It was extremely hot and they should have had ice and sponges. They promised numbers to people and didn?t give them. The host Hotel was HORRIBLE!!!!! The Belleview Biltmore was not prepared for runners at all; no breakfast, no coffee makers in the rooms, our room didn?t even have hot water and had to have a technician come and fix it keeping us up until 11pm - and then they forgot to give us our wake up call, though fortunately we set our alarm. I would run this again, but I would stay at a different hotel, carry my own Gatorade, and won?t expect too much as far as crowd support. | |
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R. R. from Tampa,FL
(2/24/2004)
"Positives and Negatives" (about: 2004)
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 3 Positive: * Enthusiastic spectators, if only a few of them. * Traffic control was very well done... I ALWAYS felt safe on this course. Big thanks to the local police and school crossing guards! * Small race = easy to find parking & no pushing and shoving at the start. * The volunteers were outstanding. Thanks to all of you for doing such a great job. We can't do these races without you! * Informative website and emails, with one very, very minor glitch (see below). * HUGE mile-marker signs made them easy to see from far away... very helpful when struggling to make it to the next mile! Negatives: * Insufficient toilets at the start line... glad I arrived early. * Ridiculously poor quality and quantity of food at the finish. I've done 5K's with more and better food than this. * Inconsistent water stop spacing (some variation is inevitable, but there were some mid-race stops that over 2.5 miles apart). * I know this is a bit petty, but the email updates said that Orange-Vanilla Carbboom would be given out. Since that one has caffeine, I packed my own gels (didn't want caffeine). But on the course volunteers had all flavors, so I didn't have to pack that many after all. * No race-day packet pick-up. It was ridiculous to make me drive 2 hours on Saturday afternoon to pick up a packet. What a waste of time. If this was a 10,000 participant event, then maybe that makes sense, but there were less than 1,000 finishers!! Let's be realistic next time and plan on race-day packet pick-up. I know the race director was forced to allow race day pick-up because so many people didn't come on Saturday to pick it up. Maybe I should have done that, too. The biggest negative is that the race director didn't appear to read the comments from LAST year... these are the SAME complaints over and over again. If you want to grow this race, you've got to improve on it year to year! Despite these negatives, I would still recommend this race to my friends, but with the above caveats. | |
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L. H. from Oldsmar, Florida
(2/24/2004)
"Planning lacking for the non-front runners" (about: 2004)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 2 As a volunteer who has participated in multiple marathons in the past, it was embarassing to man a water station where from about 9 AM on, we had nothing left but oranges to offer the participants. First we ran out of Gatorade... then WATER! When we called for more, we were told none was available and that the race director said we were NOT PERMITTED to look for alternate sources. When one runner with a sprain asked for assistance to the start or an aid station, communications was told she had to wait until the end of the race. We never saw a monitoring vehicle once the race started. You will never build up participation if you only service the runners who average 8-minute miles. Not everyone can win an Olympic medal, but anyone can dream of finishing a marathon! You have to support those at the back as well! I loved feeling like as a volunteer, I was returning some of the encouragement I have received at other marathons (Disney, San Diego, Alaska), but I was mortified when I had nothing to offer tired, hot participants who looked to us for help! It will take a lot of convincing for me to volunteer for this one again, and I can't imagine participating! I am always at the back of the pack! | |
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WARM MARATHON from florida
(2/24/2004)
"Warm Weather Course" (about: 2004)
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 3 If you want to run a marathon in FL, skip this run and do Hops instead. This Gulf Beaches is a hometown race for me and I've done them all. History has shown the weather tends to be warm at this race. This was my 50th marathon and 3 of my 4 worst times have been at Gulf Beaches. The only race I?ve done worse at was Virginia Beach Shamrock Marathon a few years ago, where it had crept into the 80's after the 9am start. Given that weather tends to be warm, the course would benefit from 2 more water stops. Say at 14 and 16. I've read some other comments about the Gatorade running out and that?s inexcusable. I was under 4:20 and they did have Gatorade and water at every stop, but I?m sure it got bad for the back-of-the-packers--it was a warm and sunny day and the sunburn I got probably feels worse than the sore legs. Definitely not enough porta-potties. They had long lines last year so guess what they did his year--they reduced the number of porta-potties--I guess they did that because entries were down. The Race Director had advertised that they were going to have beans and rice from the Columbia restaurant after the race. Last year the rice/beans were gone before a lot of the runners finished. I don't think there was even any rice or beans this year. Post-race food was donuts, bagels and fruit. Gatorade was not adequately stocked at the finish. One Gatorade container was all ice---the other was extremely diluted probably from the ice melting. I heard one of the volunteers say they needed to mix some more Gatorade at the finish, but not sure if they did get around to doing that. The race could benefit from an earlier start such as 6am like at Hops in Tampa. Hops is a much more scenic interesting course and a flatter course too. If you are looking for a view of the water, there is more water to view at Hops. There are only about 3 parts of the course where you will see the inter-coastal waterway--actually 4 if you count the finish--but the finish is downhill and fast so you might not even notice the bay. The expo at Hops rivals the Houston Marathon. The expo at Gulf Beaches was very small with a handful of vendors. Also Hops had a lot more food for the same $65 entry fee I paid, plenty of porta-potties and more Gatorade stations at Hops. They do not run out of Gatorade at Hops. This is not the first year that Gatorade has run out at Gulf Beaches. The management of this race seems to lack the financial resources/endorsements to increase the size of this race. The race only in its 5 year has already hit is peak two years ago and the race entries in future years will probably continue to decline. The 10k had a dismal number of participants and should probably be discontinued. An inaugural race in nearby St. Pete Beach two weeks earlier that was a 10k/5k had superb participation for a 1st time event with about 1,200 people. The people at St. Pete Beach Classic who are some of the same people that put on the St. Anthony?s Triathlons really know how to put on an event. The management of Gulf Beaches Marathon should consider the possibility of merging their efforts with the St. Pete Beach Classic people to take advantage of organizational and endorsement opportunities. | |
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D. M. from Lubbock, TX
(2/23/2004)
"Very nice race - GREAT medal" (about: 2004)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 Small expo, not much in the way of post-race activities, but in every other respect a terrific event. Course is very flat and well controlled by police, crossing guards, park officials, etc. Water stations were plentiful, although at some water was on one side, Gatorade was on the other. Best part of the course was the Pinellas Trail, which constituted about 11 miles of the event. Very nice run - I highly recommend it. | |
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L. S. from Florida
(2/23/2004)
"Very disappointed in amenities, water, gatorade," (about: 2004)
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 1 Very disappointed in the lack of food at the halfway mark for the relay teams. Also, there was no water at the very first water stop and several others, no Gatorade at almost all of the stops on a very hot day. Although the race director wanted more particpants, the amenities were not there for the ones who did participate. Also, by the time I got to the finish line, there was barely anything available for the late finishers (over 5 hours). Since this was the 5th running, it should have been better organized. | |
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g. r. from tampa, Fla
(2/23/2004)
"Nice Course, Low Key, Limited Portolets!" (about: 2004)
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 The 2004 race was a lot of fun. The marathon is very low-key, nice calm start, no pushing and shoving, and not too many runners (about 1,000-1,200) I'd estimate. Pretty warm and humid, sweating heavily by the second mile, but the breeze felt good. Spectators in the first half of the race (condo row) were limited mostly to retirees out to get their Sunday paper and suddenly surprised by a troop of runners! On the back side (mainland) lots of families with kids out cheering their runners, so they're a lot of fun. Cops were really nice on the course, too. If I have a complaint, it's only that at the start there were, no lie, about 9 portolets for all the runners. This created a monster line with 35 minutes to go -- fortunately that's when I got in line -- as folks started to line up for the start, there were still many in line... I'm sure many didn't get to 'go'. A great run, more assurance of a sunshine-filled weekend for northern visitors with families than in earlier (Ocala/Hops/Disney) races in January. Great finish line setup, announcing every finisher on the loud speaker... a really fun event. |
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