Working Harder wrote:
I've been eyeing spring marathons to find something as well.
Grandmas - hear really good things about this one and I will run it one of these days. It can be hot though as it's a little late in the spring. For that reason alone I'm skipping it.
Flying Pig - don't know much about it other than it's Cincinnati and for that reason alone I'm out.
Two I'm considering:
Eugene - bit easier logistically since I'm in AZ. Typically great weather, good course, flat, fast.
Bayshore (Traverse City) - Flat, fast, seems like good weather, one of my favorite cities/areas. Little more challenging to get to Northern Michigan.
Well this is kooky. I've run 3 marathons: Flying Pig, Bayshore, and Grandma's.
Pig - Very well organized, cool to run over the river to Kentucky and back, good crowd support for city size...city definitely shows up. Definitely a whole different elevation profile than the other two. Major climb into Eden Park. Finish at same elevation as start, but it's hilly throughout, more uphill in the first half, then you run back down to the river, so if you don't train on hills it'll hurt. I loved this marathon, but I went to college in Cincinnati and graduated the same year I ran it, and it was my first marathon, so I'll concede there may be a sentimental nature to my feelings towards the Flying Pig that you may not experience, but Cincy is getting cooler all the time and has some really legit places now (see: Rhinegeist for delicious beer in a cool space).
Bayshore - Beautiful on the bay, smaller race, not as much crows support obviously but still fun. Part of my memory of the out-and-back course was that the road was a little slanted towards the bay rather than level and the outside of my left foot felt bruised for weeks, but I also ran it 5 months into running after being on the couch for the vast majority of 5 years and a 40mile peak weak, so maybe I was just really weak in my stabilizers and it wasn't that bad. Claimed to be good weather but I think it's been warm at least the last 2 years since it's memorial day weekend. I ran 2016 and it was warm and humid. Pretty flat, very flat compared to Pig. Expo nearly non existent, if you care about that sort of thing. Small town marathon but would run again even though I was out of shape. Would still run again even though reading back through my thoughts they seem the most negative.
Grandma's - Felt a little bit like Bayshore but on steroids. More runners, maybe even more scenic since there are some stream crossings and the view is out over the great lake rather than an inlet of the lake, (but Bayshore was pretty too). Really great support, can be warm since it's June but also further north than Bayshore and not much crowds before you get to Duluth. Big enough race that I was always surrounded by other runners in the 3:00-3:10 range It was warm this year but no worse than Bayshore last year, and the day before and after the race it was actually decent if I recall, so I would rate the weather as "unpredictable", but they do a great job with the aid stations...water, poweraid, wet sponges AND ice at every stations, so if it's a warm year there are some things to help. My PR race, but I also put in a whole different level of work (avg >50mpw in buildup when I had never run more than 40 miles in a week before this year), so I really would have had to screw that up on race day. I think it's ~100ft downhill point to point, so I guess that helps? Seemed mostly flat to me.
Let me know if you have specific questions.