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☰
Long Beach Marathon Runner Comments
Back to Long Beach Marathon Information & Reviews
Course 4.0 
Organization 3.6 
Spectators 3.5
Number of comments: 240 [displaying comments 11 to 21]
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P. M. from San Diego
(1/10/2013)
 "Not a must do." (about: 2012)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Long Beach Marathon
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 Not a Marathon worth doing again if it's not your local Marathon. Like many Marathon/Half combos this race and course was really geared towards the half. After breaking off from the beach path, which was way too crowded with half Marathoners, there is really nothing to be excited about. Once again with a major commercialized Marathon it was way too crowded and way too focused on the half Marathon experience. | |
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Joel White from San Diego, CA
(11/9/2012)
 "Flat and fast course" (about: 2012)
4-5 previous marathons
| 1 Long Beach Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 This event includes a marathon and half marathon, and just as expected, there are significantly more half marathoners. So it is a large event, but gets less crowded after the marathon and half marathon split. The organization was good, except for waves that were self seeded. There always seems to be slow people that decide to start with the faster runners. The course is flat, with only a few minor hills, making it a great PR course. I recommend this marathon for anyone that wants to run a big city marathon or that is looking to set a new PR. | |
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K. E. from Riverside, CA
(10/15/2012)
"Please Change The Start!" (about: 2012)
11-50 previous marathons
| 6+ Long Beach Marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 I have now run this marathon for the last 10 years and always enjoy it. The course routing has gotten better over the years, and the weather in October is usually great. My only complaint continues to be the starting line. With nearly 3,000 full marathoners, and another 15,000 half-marathoners, trying to cram everyone onto half of Shoreline Drive is ridiculous! Why can't the full-marathoners start 30 minutes or so before the half-marathoners? Other local races (Surf City) that are managed by the same company do it? Please fix this in order to have a truly great marathon. P.S. I like the fact that the finishers medal has a place on the back for me to engrave my finishing time and position, but you can eliminate the space for my name (I'm pretty sure I'm not going to forget that!). | |
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S. M. from Naperville, Illinois
(10/10/2012)
"High quality, enjoyable marathon" (about: 2012)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Long Beach Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 I enjoyed running this marathon. It is scenic and both the support staff and the spectators were friendly. It is cool to see the Queen Mary and run along the ocean for about five miles. Yes, you do run for a considerable time with half marathoners, but I did not think that it was much of a problem. There were two things that killed my time on this race. First it was hot this year, reaching above 80 degrees in the last hour or so. There is not very much tree cover, so you have the sun beating directly upon you. Also, there are some hills on the course. You run up one side of a hill around mile 11 and up the other side around mile 23. The Cal State campus has a couple of hills. Finally, there is a pretty long grade around mile 24. I plan to be back after more training in hot conditions. | |
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Patrick Polley from Cincinnati, OH
(10/19/2011)
"Pretty nice for a first Marathon" (about: 2011)
1 previous marathon
| 1 Long Beach Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 Let me start by saying this was my first marathon and being from the midwest, I have to say the senery was very nice. The course itself was flat, so that makes it nice for a first marathon. Having run half marathons and other races, I still think that improvements could be made. So here are my pros and cons: (1) Pro: Very scenic first 10 miles Con: Miles 12-17 (until you get to CSLB) and then Miles 20 - 25 can be very boring. I do understand that it is tough when you have to have a 26.2 mile course. (2) Pro: As I mentioned earlier, the course is mostly flat Con: Starting Corals need to be sectioned off by time. I have run the Chicago Half Marathon and Columbus Marathon's half and both seeded you by time, which is very nice. (3) Pro: the students at CSLB were amazing. You hear the students before you you turn the corner. Then you get to run through a big crowd that were encouraging you the whole way before the only hill. All I can say is that I ran the race for the view, but I will remember those cheering students more. They need to be commended. Con: Need to get rid of the bike ralley during the race. Have it after or way before. It added more confusion and too many people. (4) Pro: Did I mention the views for the first half? You run on boardwalk between the beach for about 5 miles. It is amazing view and fun to run Con: The finish is the worse I have ever experienced. Now I may have never run a marathon, but I am a veteran of bigger 5Ks, 10Ks, and half marathons (races over 15,000 people). First, spectators could not really cheer for you for the last .2 miles because of the fences. After the finish, the food and drinks where almost non-existent. I finished in the top 15% of marathon and all I got was a bottle of water right after finishing and bag with a banana, a cookie (that you could not open the package), and some granola. I was offered so coconut water, but honestly I would have rather had a gatorade or another water bottle. If I had known that I was not going to get plain water, then I would have grab three water bottles at the finish. Overall, the course, organization, and spectators were great. But, I would beg the organizers to please have a better finishing area. It really left a sour taste in my mouth about the race. I do not think I would do it again unless that changed. | |
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M. A. from lemon grove, ca
(10/12/2011)
"Fun Marathon" (about: 2011)
2 previous marathons
| 1 Long Beach Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 3 I thought it was a great marathon, only thing I didn't like was it was so crowded for the first 10 miles until the half-marathoners veered off. Other than that it was fun. | |
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M. A. from USA
(10/12/2011)
 "Flash mobbed in the beer garden? RU kiddin me?" (about: 2011)
11-50 previous marathons
| 2 Long Beach Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 Did the race before in 2004, so I knew what to expect. I agree with the other comments that more should be done to separate the marathon runners from the half-marathoners. Couldn't get into my own pace until after the split. The biggest disappointment was the flash mob in the beer garden. Although I understand that the fundamental premise of 'the mob' was for charity, I am annoyed that it came at my own expense. I paid $108 for admission to the race and was promised a free beer by Michelob for my efforts. Unfortunately, I finished my marathon and showed up at the beer garden at the same time as the flash mob. The garden was overpacked with non-runners at the time who didn't pay a dime to be there and it was difficult to find a place to stand much less move around as you should after running 26.2 miles. Maybe Michelob should consider restricting the beer garden to paying customers only? If you are in the garden, then you should at least have to buy a beer. Just a thought. | |
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C. R. from Saskatchewan
(10/11/2011)
 "Decent course, poor organization" (about: 2011)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Long Beach Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 4 This was my first time running this marathon, and I ran it purely as a training run in preparation for a longer race in November. The course overall is quite nice, especially the bits run on the beach (paved path). The inland stuff is kind of boring, but really enthusiastic students on the UCLB campus really help. Serious shortchomings, which means that I will likely not be back: 1. paltry number of portalets. I think there were like 100-150 at the starting line, which serves 10k + runners. Out on the course, there were not enough either (why is this such a big problem at so many races? Some races nail it perfectly, but others seem happy to let runners use the bushes along the way). There were lots and lots of people using the bushes, and others in long lineups on course. Who wants to wait 10-15 minutes to use a portalet in the middle of a race? 2. The course is way too crowded in the first half. Once the half marathoners split off things are fine, but it was impossible to get into any kind of rhythm in the first 11 or so miles. Split start times are needed for the two races. 3. Finish line food was pretty much nonexistant. I don't know if they ran out or if everyone got offered the same stuff. We were given one bottle of water and offered mini boxes of Wheaties Fuel (which I couldn't eat due to allergies). That was it. I couldn't believe it. It was a warm day and I didn't appreciate having to wait until I got to my hotel to rehydrate properly. Some races have a separate area for marathoners, which helps with ensuring that there will be adequate food for slower runners. We finished in around 5 hours (training run pace for us) and at least 1200 others finished after, so there should have been more food/drink. 4. The t-shirts are nice, but they are short-sleeved and on the full and half marathoners get the same shirt. The organizers will happily sell you a finisher shirt at the expo, though. On the plus side, Long Beach is a very pleasant place to visit and the start line is easy to get to from area hotels (we walked over the bridge from the Residence Inn). We'll probably not be back, however, due to the negatives mentioned above. | |
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E. C. from Los Angeles
(10/11/2011)
"Well managed" (about: 2011)
1 previous marathon
| 1 Long Beach Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 That was the funnest thing I'll never do again! Well spaced water stations, PLENTY of porta-potties, and an early start time for the walkers!!!! THANK YOU!!! | |
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s. h. from laguna beach, ca
(10/10/2011)
"Beautiful, but course was actually 26.4 (I think)" (about: 2011)
2 previous marathons
| 1 Long Beach Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 Absolutely gorgeous, but I think the course was longer than 26.2 by approx. .2 of a mile. I noticed it on my Forerunner, but thought it must be wrong. It happened between the 10k split and the 12.5 split. When I checked my time I noticed it jumped during that section, then I checked many other runners and I noticed that all of their times jumped as well. Did anyone else notice this? Am I crazy? |
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