Marathon Help (Read 587 times)

Is it just me or are there just far too many marathons to choose from? I want to qualify for Boston, and I want to do it at my next marathon. I need all the help I can get, so any reviews, opinions, or thought on California courses would be very welcome. I've read reviews at marathonguide.com, and even the marathons billed as flat and fast have reviews saying "......not as flat as they say". I ran the OC marathon last year, and was unpleasantly surprised to find that the elevation chart did not do justice to the 9 miles of incline half way through the race. I learned my lesson, and so here I am. My top 3 choices are: Carlsbad Marathon http://www.sdmarathon.com/site5.aspx Pacific Shoreline Marahton http://www.psmarathon.com/site3.aspx California International Marathon http://www.runcim.org/ All of the have benefits and drawbacks. But more than anything else I would love any input about the course itself. All of them have rolling hills, some more than others, and I don't know which one would be less taxing. The first 2 both have ocean views, but the CIM ends at the state capitol. CIM is billed as being a great PR course, and has a net downhill but is still pretty up and down throughout the middle portion. Pacific Shoreline was my first choice until I read reviews that said it was hard to PR because of a merge point with the half marathon at 13 miles that was hard to maneuver through. Hence my dilemma. Thanks in advance for any opinions or thoughts. I really appreciate it.

Callie, I'm planning on a BQ attempt this year, and I picked CIM to go for it. So if you do that, you'd have the added bonus of possibly getting to talk to me. I might even be willing to give an autograph if you ask nice. Kidding! OK, not really. Seriously, though, the nice thing about it for me was the date, and the course. It's a fast course, and it was late enough that I could train up for it properly, and still get in another marathon prior to it.

Well, Callie, I'd go to CIM to get the opportunity to talk to Scout! I'm kind of serious. I ran my first half at Carlsbad this year, and I enjoyed it, but I don't know how the marathon is. It didn't seem that there were many marathoners, though the HM pack was really tight. I think the middle part of the course that marathoners have to run isn't so great, then they come back and finish with the very last of the half pack. I also just peeked at the elevation map and it doesn't look fun for BQ? But, the race was very well organized and the town is great. You are SO going to qualify for Boston! So I vote CIM if i get a vote. If not, maybe I'll see you at Carlsbad in Jan?