help me pick a spring marathon

Ummm...ever heard of the Pine Line Marathon?

http://www.medfordwis.com/pine_line_marathon.htm

Eugene...Same day as Flying Pig..much faster course.

Eugene is a fairly quick course if you don't mind a bunch of concrete bikepath. Weather is usually favorable.

At 2:40 pace, you should have plenty of company. Plenty of microbrew options.

Grandma's marathon had 42 runners under 2:40 last year and is a beautiful point-to-point in northern Minnesota.

Ottawa. Great atmosphere and scenery, fast up front, and they're changing the course next year to get rid of the hills in the first third. Last weekend in May.

Mid-April. Small time race. Qualifiers only. There is potential for a nice group in the 2:40s. Last year was the inaugural year (it was Exeter Marathon), and out of 54 finishers there were 6 under 2:50. What other race has over 10% of it's finishers under 2:50?

As of this moment there are 6 people with qualifying times between 2:40 and 2:50, and more are expected to come.

http://www.gansettmarathon.com/

Some suggestions:

Cleveland - I ran this in 2010 and was content with it.

Pittsburgh - This one has made a big comeback. I expect it will be even more competitive this year.

Country Music Marathon

Shamrock is a little early for your time frame but is a good race. Maybe not a lot of competition at your pace, not sure.

Avoid Charlottesville. Unless you just want to run a tourist marathon for fun. Very hilly and some bad organization.

The Delaware marathon you could damn near win with a 2:40.

Eugene and Ottawa are the best in terms of depth. Green Bay has a pretty solid field for a smaller race. The course is relatively flat and fast. The only problem is that it is on the lake and there could be wind.

Thanks for all of the good suggestions guys. Ottawa sounds appealing for a variety of reasons, but I would have to start the process of getting a passport pretty quickly. I'm actually from Charlottesville originally so I know better than to run that marathon, and I haven't heard many good things about the Country Music Marathon which bums me out because it is very close to where I currently live. I'm still not sure where I'll end up racing this spring, but these posts have opened my eyes to some new options that I hadn't considered. Any additional suggestions are more than welcome. Thanks again.