Re: Long Beach International City Bank Marathon Reviews

guest — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 20:19:02 GMT

I was very disappointed in this marathon for the following reasons. The starting area was a disaster. Why have "waves" set up when no one can get to the wave in the first place? 6 foot chain link fences on both sides with no in/out and people clamoring over them so that they could possibly get to their wave...and then security telling those that did that to go to the back of the mass crowd. The pacers were going off of "gun time" and setting a pace that was totally unattainable if you were trying for that specific time. For example, the 3:50 pace group started so far behind the gun that the pace leader was running a 7:55 pace at mile 13...huh? How does a 7:55 pace equal a 3:50 marathon time? That's way too fast. The first 10 miles roughly of this race is run on concrete...and for anyone not used to running on concrete, it sucks. My knees and feet were done by mile 10 and I still had 16.2 to go. The finish was horrible for spectators trying to see you finish. The race had one whole side blocked from view, so you could only see runners finish from one side along with the throng of other spectators trying to view as well. The sweat check area was such a mess that there were some people waiting 2 hours to get their bag! The bags were just thrown in a pile and volunteers were digging thru them. The hotel we stayed at was on the course and there wasn't in/out of the hotel except before 5 am or after 10 am. So, once again, my spectators couldn't get anywhere to see me along the course. Those were just some of the issues that I ran into. Would I run this race again? Uh, definitely NOT. The water stations and aid stations were great though, and that's about all the good that I saw associated with this race.

Re: Avenue of the Vines 1/2 Marathon & 5K Reviews

guest — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:27:41 GMT

Nice flat course...a tad boring though with the long stretches of road that seemed to go on forever. Not enough aid stations given the heat. Once I crossed the finish line, my first thought was "I need water" and there was no one at the finish handing out water bottles...I walked around the area only to find nothing. About an hour later, I did find the water bottle tables...in front of the tasting room which is not anywhere close to the finish line. Every other race I've done, I am handed a bottle of water at the finish whether I want it or not. The fact that this race was HOT and they didn't have water given to you at the finish is really not acceptable. The food, wine, schwag bag, were all okay...nothing to brag about. I think this race would be better if run in cooler months...mid May is just too warm for the area. I was hoping the earlier start would help, and it probably did, but still way too warm. I won't be doing this race again.

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Re: Long Beach International City Bank Marathon Reviews

Re: Avenue of the Vines 1/2 Marathon & 5K Reviews