what is the best road race in the world

...but I doubt that enough people have even heard of mitchelville (or Iowa, for that matter) to give you much agreement

My vote: Boston Marathon, perhaps Carlsbad 5000, Cherry Blossom 10k, Falmouth, something like that.

But it all depends on what you mean by "best", I guess

Boilermaker, great race, tons of specatators, finishes at a brewery for free beer

Brian

mitchelville is up to two thousand and growing

my sleeper pick is the james joyce ramble 10k up in massachusetts every spring. its a pretty solid race, some decent kenyans usually show up, and, I dont know if this has changed, but they give away free harpoon afterwards. Also, they have James Joyce trivia and give away prizes. 7 pints in the tank and I still came away with a free runner's world bag and Portable Joyce reader.

Rumor has it they have people dressed funny every mile marker reading various excerpts from Joyce's work; however, I suspect if you're actually racing the bloody thing you'd be too focused and/or incoherent to appreciate it, as was the case with me.

Hey, I ran that this year!

You're right it is a great race (though we had a terrible day for it) with a fast course. Only thing about the race organization that bothered me was that they got the 2 mile split sooo wrong. They must have used the split from the old course or something because it was ridiculously off.

Still a great race with fast runners

Olympic marathon. Period.

The goodie bag sucks, there are no bands along the course, and they have an attitude towards Gallow-walkers. Elitist schmucks.

My vote goes to the "Run to Climax" in Climax, Michigan. I've run it the past three years and it has been all it's title claims and more. The best part is that it is dubbed the "Fastest 7k in Michigan"....who the hell runs a 7k race???? It is very po dunk. I think you get like a 3 gallon drum of cheese balls if you break the course record.

Berlin Marathon, without a doubt.

EXTREMELY fast course, cool weather and zillions of screaming Germans. The best part of the course is actually the last 12.2km where you have 10-deep people on each side of the roadway, slightly downhill. You cannot help but speed up.

Jason

1. baa ( come on, is super bowl better than gmac bowl?)

2. boilermaker 15k ( the city goes all out for race. great fan support, tough course )

3. Boston Milk Run circa 1985 ( 15-8 days before BAA ) Come in 31 minutes and still fail to break top 100.

4. Fresh Pond. One day you run against Peter Brook. Next week it could be Steve Jones. Can't beat entry fee.

5. Anything at VCP

Did you mean the Cherry Blossom 10 miler? It's got my vote.

Pony Express Days 10K in Eagle Mountain, Utah. Very sexy race director.

1. Boston Marathon

2. Falmouth

3. Fresh Pond....any week, every week

4. Patriots Day 5 miler, Lexington MA (ok, maybe it's 4.8 or 4.9)...oldest 5 miler in America, I think

5. Wacky Snacky 5K in Chicago (good post-race hot fries)

Has to either be the Peachtree or the Atlanta Marathon. Nuff said.

Bolder Boulder 10k. Can't beat it. Sunny Memorial Day morning, 45,000 runners and thousands of people lining the streets all the way to the finish at Folsom Field stadium. Nothing like it. The stadium is packet with people. Quite a celebration of running.

Have to call BS on "Come in 31 minutes and still fail to break the top 100." A former training partner Eugene Tung came in top 50s in 30:52 in 1986 I believe, a little ahead of Ingrid K. It's a good and very deep race, sure. Kind of like Santa Cruz's Wharf to Wharf 6-miler.

I really like the Peachtree road race.

BLOOMSDAY, in Spokane Washington first sunday in May

I'll second Bloomsday as the best. It's the worlds largest timed road race. What can be better than some 70,000 people running/walking a 12k.