What is your favorite marathon?

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

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

Favorite - Vermont City. Ran it 3x

Worst or Least favorite - Disney. Ran it 3x

Blue Ridge Marathon on the Parkway...I ran it last year and signed up for it this year. Just got reminded of it recently from looking at the Letsrun homepage and remembered how cool that marathon really was. Since then i've been excited to go to run it even though it's 4 months from now. It was extreamly well organized last year and the scenery was breathtaking.

One thing though is it has a lot of elevation change(over 3,000 feet of up and down and it literally drops 1,000 feet per mile for 3-4 miles). Probably why I loved it so much because I am amazingly good at downhill running and it doesn't affect my quads at all. I came within about 3 minutes of my pr on this course so it's obvious i'm probably a little biased on this one because courses like those I am really good at. Still though, if you ask anyone that ran it, they will probably all say the same thing. That it has amnazing scenery and is very challenging and the organization was great.

It's obviously not a very fast course for most people and not the best if your looking for a fast time but if your a good sub-elite runner(2:35-2:40 marathon time) it's a good race to get some pretty good rewards( watch valued at $5,000 but worth $1,500-$2,000 and a trip to Tucson for Mt.Lem Marathon). But in my opinion it's a good race and if your not looking for a fast time or don't care about the course and just want a pretty awesome marathon this is the one for you.

I also liked St.Jude Marathon, Disney Marathon(really cool one), Lake Tahoe Marathon and Triple, Boston Marathon(obviously the most prestigous and definately a must do marathon for any person who can get in), Exetur(Gansett), Rocket City, and Berlin are all really cool marathons.

The other three majors London, Chicago, and New York are really cool too. Houston is a nice marathon also. St.George is definately an amazing race just behind Boston in my books and really is a great great race and also a nearly completely downhill except some early hills and the course is very fast and enjoyable. Bay State is probably the best marathon in the world for a boston hopeful who is good at flat marathons. Tucson is fast and has a lot of downhill too but has been declining in quality recently. Twisted Ankle and Pikes Peak Marathons probably the best for the toughest marathons in the world. Followed most likely by some trail marathons and Mount Lemnom and maybe if your not a good downhill/ hill runner Blue Ridge.

Never do a Rock N' Roll Marathon in your life unless you are an elite who does sub-1:05-1:08 half or sub 2:20-2:25 full. You'll get big bucks if your an elite but they are horrible races for anyone who runs slower than those times. Mardi Gras Marathon is the only Rock N' Roll out of the ones i've done that even remotely is any good and really isn't all that great of a race..

I hope I gave you some options if you want to do a Spring or Fall Marathon or hoping for a variety of races or something like that, or are just curious. I have a ton of time on my hands so this at least helped take a slight bit of time. As you can see, I have a lot of races i've run and like, so I guess it depends on the person. But yeah, I would really suggest Blue Ridge. It's an awesome race so yeah.. Good luck if your going to do a marathon soon.

Adding on that Disney is a horribly annoying race to get to the start line and my least favorite of any marathon i've ever done(trying to just get to the start of the race not the race its self) and they have horrible traffic problems. I only managed to get to the A corral with 2 minutes to spare despite leaving at 4 A.M. in the morning and had to weave my way around a ton of people as I started at the back of the A corral and probably lost a good 2 minutes or so. If you do that race keep on the highway do not follow the signs saying Epcot because we were sitting there for a hour going no where in the traffic and you have to walk 20 minutes to start the race which I was all out sprinting to.

Was doing the Goofy race and a Half Challenge though so when I didn't follow the signs saying going to epcot on marathon day(they have a half the day before and a marathon the next day and I wanted to get my Goofy medal) I was much better off and got to go to my freakishly overpriced tent. Disney in traffic issues/ getting there/ cost> or equal to that of a badly organized Rock N' Roll race. The race its self= A nice, large marathon with a lot of support and running through unique, nice places that you can't do any where else.

So yeah hope that cleared up some things. Just had to my opinion on it since I don't have anything better to do and the race is something that recently happened.

two favs are vermont city marathon and greem mtn marathon.

check out the green mountain marathon. only costs about $20 and has about 250 runners. it's a certified course and a beautiful course and not hilly (except for a hill at mile 25, yikes!)

Bump- I might run Vermont City soon. I have heard great things about that race. It's a little close to Little Rock/ Los Angeles Marathon though. I am doing about 15-18 marathons/halves(decided to increase quantity rather than quality this year and see how far I can push myself ans ee how many races I can run and will focus on quality more next year) a year so 3 marathons in 5 weeks is pushing it a little bit.

By the way, forgot to add this race on to my top list (has the best medal in my opinion of any race in the world)

Texas marathon in Kingswood, Tx

Website:http://www.50statesmarathonclub.com/texas.html

Pictures of 2010 Texas marathon medal-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31215162@N07/4340985329/in/set-72157623256980227/

and-

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31215162@N07/4341728324/in/set-72157623256980227/

also(full set of 2010+some slight 2011 pictures)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31215162@N07/sets/72157623256980227/

Medal in 2010 was weighed in at 2.2 pounds and is currently the heaviest marathon medal in the world for an annual marathon(and one of the largest). As of that wasn't enough..

http://myjourneytoguinness.blogspot.com/2011/01/texas-marathon-january-1-2011.html

You can look up more pictures on google if you want.

Medal was measured in at 3.3 pounds and nearly as big as the big number. Wish I could do that one but unfortunately rl situations conflicted with it...

But yeah. Really cool stuff.

One more link

http://roadbunner.blogspot.com/2011/01/texas-marathon.html

That texas marathon sounds like the worst possible course design that one could imagine.

By the way, forgot to add this race on to my top list (has the best medal in my opinion of any race in the world)

Texas marathon in Kingswood, Tx

Medals suck

Seriously, how could someone read this and think: "Oh that sounds like fun?"

"The Texas Marathon is a small race.... 4 loops of a 6.55 mile course of an out-and-back variety....It is run on a concrete bike path/recreational trail...the path is about 3-4 shoulder-to-shoulder people wide. A large portion of the course has runners going in both directions. This means there is a shared middle "passing" lane, and room for only single file runners in each direction.... the course is also open to the public (dog walkers, bikers, children in tiny motorized cars -- I kid you not)."

Seriously, how could someone read this and think: "Oh that sounds like fun?"

______________________________________________________

It's more fun than it sounds. It's a small race though, and I agree, it's not the best out there but mostly I just posted it because of the medal which is the heaviest in the world and is really big and personally I like the design.

The Bizz Johnson Marathon

http://www.coastaltrailruns.com/bizz_johnson.html#course_description

Yes, it takes an effort to get to this race, but it is worth it.

Ke3 wrote: Um...ever heard of the Pine Line Marathon?

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

[/quote]

Uh...ever heard of the Catalina Marathon?

http://www.pacificsportsllc.com/catalina-marathon-event-info/

What about the Big Five Marathon and Safaricom Marathon? Both are amazing Marathons that are definately some of the best.

West Wyoming Marathon is great.

I don't know if I would fly to Africa to run a marathon

Answer wrote:

What about the Big Five Marathon and Safaricom Marathon? Both are amazing Marathons that are definately some of the best.

WWM wrote:

West Wyoming Marathon is great.

HA!

Just ran Disney this past weekend. It's not as bad as everyone says if you do it right. I stayed in the Grand Floridian Resort, so I took the monorail over to Epcot and there was not a single issue with crowding to get there. As for walking to the race start, it is a ridiculous walk from the warm up area. I was in Corral A and I liked that next to it, there was an open street to do strides, stretch, warm up, etc. I just pushed myself up the side of the crowd in the Corral until I was at the front where I needed to be.

The course itself is pretty awesome. Running here is unique, and the only place you can experience something like it. There are plenty of water/powerade tables, cliff bars/ gel, and bananas. The course is relatively flat and the wheather was absolutely perfect in my opinion (about 45-50 degrees). Also, the finish is really awesome, finishing through epcot, coming out and turning the corner and having what seems to be out of No where, a huge crowd with music and the finish line!

I have a soft spot for Disney because I have many great memories there from family vacations throughout my childhood, but I think they do a good job overall.