Check out Disney World Marathon in Jan.  It was my first and I had a blast.  There was so much entertainment, I gave up my time goal midway through and enjoyed the scenery, taking pics along the way with characters, ect.  The course was relativley flat, with a stretch of boring road at about mile 10+.  I plan to do the Disney Princess half next year.  Disney knows how to entertain!

I don't know where you're from but the Shamrock marathon is great. It's a nice flat course in Virginia Beach and there are lots of great things to do afterwards.

If you find yourself ready by this fall, there is the Indianapolis Marathon on Oct 17, which is a saturday. It is mostly flat with "...one challenging hill in the state park". It is relatively low-key, with a cap at 6,000 runners. It'll be my first.

                                                                                Paul

I agree! I just ran in the ING Hartford Marathon  this past October 2008 - well, I actually ran the 1/2 marathon, b/c I really AM just a beginner! haha!  It was a gorgeous day and a totally fun run for me. Mostly flat... you go by the river, through a park, lots of bands playing every so often...fun!

I know, maybe Hartford doesn't seem like the happening spot, but here are some pros:

1. Not too many elite runners - so you feel like this is really "Your race"

2. New England is just GORGEOUS that time of year.

3. after you run, you are in a city with SO much history and many Hartford attractions - Hartford Stage, Bushnell Theater, Mark Twain house, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum... New Haven/Yale only 1.25 hours away (IKEA? )

4. You could make it a long weekend with the Columbus Day holiday and visit a lot of local places, and even Boston & NYC are just 2 hours away (in opp. directions).

I also need only Saturday runs for religious reasons - so if you would plan to stay over into Sunday and also need recommendations for good churches or whatever in the area - replay back and I'll give you a few listings!

Good Luck!!! Here are some photos of the start and of the 10th mile...

A good starter marathon is any marathon in Utah... April hosts the Salt Lake City marathon, and Ogden has the Zions Bank marathon. I ran both of those last year, as did many of my fellow LDS-ers. So look at Utah and some of the marathons in Arizona for a Saturday run. Good luck!

This is in response to "Patriciabettis" who said to run the NYC marathon because it is relatively flat. What ???????? I've run it once and my wife has run it twice and it is anything but flat . My wife informs me that those "little " bridges and hills amount to about 6 miles of the marathon. She has run six marathons and her favorite "flat" marathon was Chicago. We both ran the Gasparilla Marathon in Tampa and it is pancake flat, but the weather is unpredictable ( it went up to 84 deg. when we ran it)

Good Luck

I didn't see this thread until today so it's probably too late, but I have a good suggestion for you.  The Bayshore marathon is on Saturday May 23, 2009 in Traverse City, Michigan.  It's as flat as can be, the minimum elevation is 582 feet and the maximum is 627 feet.  There are no bridges.  It's relatively small (max 1,700 runners) but very well organized, with aid stations every two miles.  It's also gorgeous, running along a beautiful bay off of Lake Michigan the whole way.  Also, it runs along the eastern shore of a 15 mile peninsula that juts into the bay north to south, so there is virtually no wind (any wind is blocked by the hills on the runner's west).  I had run six marathons before the Bayshore and my times were all in the 3:50-3:55 range.  I did the Bayshore in 3:40 and qualified for Boston.