What's your favorite marathon/race? (Read 872 times)

Marine Corps Marathon Way too many people, not as flat or as fast as promised but amazing crowd support and race support by the Marines who (mostly) volunteer.

Same here I had a blast

Vermont City Marathon: great city, great support, great organization, great course, great fans, (somebody stop me please), great entertainment, and great views.

I run the relay in this one! I love this race! That said, nothing beats an 800m race on the track.

The Mount Washington Road Race is fantastic. The runners there are awesome, probably because they're self-selected for being slightly extra-crazy. I've done it twice, once in horrible weather that stopped the race half way up (with ice in June), and once in freakishly beautiful weather with sunshine and 100 miles views the whole way. The Cape Cod Marathon has a great scenic course. Lots of variety, with shoreline, forest, hills, and villages. I also give thumbs up to Vermont City and Marine Corp. Both fun races. And there's a special place in my heart for the Commodore Hull Annual Thanksgiving 5k, because it's in my hometown and I've run it every year since its inception. And I always end up seeing people there I haven't seen in years.

Ummmm. Too easy. Next question?

wow, 2 hours 25 minutes. I had my money on 1:45

My favorite will always be Sydney simply because that was my first marathon. But running it a close second would be the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon in North Georgia held in early November. Only about 250-300 runners in a national park, but very well supported insofar as water, power drinks and even food stations. Course is not closed but traffic is very light. And amazingly enough not too hilly which in that part of Georgia is surprising in itself. The cost is very inexpensive and goes to support one of the local college track teams. Others I've really enjoyed would be Oklahoma City, Richmond, Niagara Falls and Myrtle Beach. The year I ran Hartford it downpoured on us so it's difficult to compare to other races. However, the course was not very hilly and the drenched volunteers were very good.

I'm a fan of holiday races. The first one I did was a Thanksgiving Turkey Trot 5k, and it was the first non competitive race I'd ever been in (I'd done track and xcountry in HS), and I couldn't believe how friendly everyone was and how much fun they were having before going home to gorge themselves. I really should do more of these. I also did a July 4th race, but that wasn't nearly as much fun as the Turkey one, though I did get much more drunk afterwards.

I have to say Big Sur International marathon. It is VERY hard, hilly and cold, but the view is amazing for 26.2 miles.