I'll be doing my first marathon there as well.  I can walk to the starting line from my apartment in 10 minutes, so that'll be a good plus.  It's a very flat course with only a couple hills.  There is a hill right at the end which I would imagine is tough at that point, but I don't find it to be a problem during normal training runs.  Hopefully it'll be a nice day because it can get quite windy along the river (which a lot of the 2nd half of the course is).  It's definitely a good tour of the city.  I ran the first part of the course (through center city) once and I run on parts of the 2nd half of the course almost every day.

Not sure where everyone is coming from, but the weather has sucked here lately.  We've had a lot of rain.  It's seemed every one of my long runs has been during rain.

I ran Philly last year the day after running Rehoboth Beach.  Both races were sub freezing, actually they were colder than the '09 Antarctica Marathon.  The Rehoboth Beach marathon is flat.  Philly is not a flat course by any stretch of the imagination.  There are a few flat spots but there are certainly hills.

I agree with what you said Paul.  I guess I could see where someone would consider it hilly as in there are a couple hills.  If compared to a beachtown pancake flat course like Rehoboth Beach would be, it certainly is hilly.  If you train anywhere that resembles the Philly Suburbs or most of the northeast for that matter, I'd consider it flat.  I came from the Allentown area originally and that is hilly.  Compared to it, Philly is easy.  I think the hill at the end is very easy, but I've never run it after over 25 miles, so we'll see.  Lemon Hill is a little challenging, but still not super long or steep IMO.  None of the course is steep like the nearby Manayunk Wall.

As for the wind, it is hit or miss because the route is along the river.  Sometimes, it's brutal and the next day it's no issue at all.  That said, it still won't be as bad as it gets in Jan or Feb.