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May 4, 2024

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 61 to 71]

More Comments: [ < 1 .. 5 6 7 8 9 .. 24 > ]

D. L. from Los Angeles (10/13/2009) "Way too crowded this year" (about: 2009) 6-10 previous marathons \| 3 Long Beach Marathons COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 3 There was a record crowd this year, and it showed. It was extremely crowded for the first 10 miles. Sadly it has really come to be dominated by the half-marathon.
M. R. from United States (10/13/2009) "Get there early" (about: 2009) 11-50 previous marathons \| 4-5 Long Beach Marathons COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 The race was well organized, once you got there. The water stops and GU were great. The cheering section at the college was fantastic. Get prepaid parking. The only major drawback is that parking is horrific. Don't get off at Broadway. It took us an hour to go five miles. We had to start in the third wave. I had to run through crowds of people for six miles. I hope your race was better.
R. a. from Long Beach (10/12/2009) "narrow and crowded course" (about: 2009) 2 previous marathons \| 2 Long Beach Marathons COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 2 Expect to be bumped and forced to zig-zag a lot. The course is narrow and cannot hold the number of runners the race features. Most of the half-marathon is on a five-foot-wide sidewalk, and the start is so crowded that you have to dodge other runners (even with the staggered start). Most the spectators don't cheer for anyone - a disappointment since this is such a big event. The course is not flat, and many parts the road are choppy. At the end, they HERD you through one line with no directions and don't allow you to go back, even to take a picture by the sand castle.
C. T. from Riverside county (10/12/2009) "My first half-marathon" (about: 2009) First Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 This was the best experience in my life. It was my first half-marathon in the town I grew up in. Just to see how things have changed along my run and to see and hear the people cheer for you was very cool. I love it. I will run it again.
Patrice Porter from Anaheim, California (10/12/2009) "Fun but no finisher medal" (about: 2009) 4-5 previous marathons \| 2 Long Beach Marathons COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 This was my fifth half-marathon, including running this same one last year. Although I haven't been able to run much this year due to health issues, I was excited to attempt this beautiful course again. Unfortunately, by the time I made it to the finish line (I wasn't that late) there was no medal, and more specifically no person or flier, or explanation of any kind on when I would receive the same. Today, the site is crashed and there is no email that explains what to do next to get our finisher's medal. By Saturday, they knew how many starters they would have, so that could have anticipated being short medals and SHOULD HAVE had a flier for those of us not receiving our medals explaining what the process would be to receive our medals. The tech shirts are lovely. The parking was more organized. The goody bag was hollow (only two goodies). The weather was great - nice and cool, but not cold. Given the foregoing problem with the medals, I'll have to reconsider for next year.
J. M. from Irvine (10/12/2009) "challenging but fun" (about: 2009) 4-5 previous marathons \| 2 Long Beach Marathons COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 I think that the half-marathoners have an easier time, but for those running the full marathon here, it is quite a challenging course with plenty of hills. The few you encounter early across some bridges around the bay aren't too bad because you have the energy, but once you get to the college campus you hit some pretty steep ones around the late teens in mileage. Probably the worst, though, comes approximately at miles 22-24 - a long, steady, inclining hill. This is just plain cruelty since everyone is on their last legs here and it can get to you. The last two miles are then downhill and fine to the finish. The way they organized the aid stations was also a little confusing to me. I think they had a water only table in between the tables with PowerAde, which would have been fine if they stuck to that. But it seemed sometimes that there was no PowerAde when I thought it was coming, which made me start to wonder and guess what was coming up. Some stations also seemed to mix it pretty rich and syrupy, which made me a little nauseated. It almost makes me want to pack my own Gatorade so I don't have to worry about it. It is a challenging marathon, but as long as you're well prepared for it, it's fun.
A. P. from Pasadena, CA (10/12/2009) "Perfect First-Time Runner's Venue" (about: 2009) First Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 I ran my first half-marathon yesterday in Long Beach and enjoyed every second of the event. The course was mostly flat and the weather was perfect for running. The views through the streets of Long Beach were scenic and inspiring. I had a perfect run and recommend the Long Beach International City Marathon to anyone considering a first-time venue.
p. n. from southern cal (10/12/2009) "Beautiful marathon, perfect weather!" (about: 2009) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Long Beach Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 3 This was my 24th marathon, but first Long Beach full marathon, and I PR'ed! We were blessed with perfect running weather over a great course. I couldn't ask for more. Fans at CSULB were awesome... when I thanked them for volunteering, they thanked me for running! Otherwise, I thought spectators were slim... even at the finish line, considering the size of race. I'll admit it's not fair to compare with NYC or even LA, but I thought that Long Beach would generate more spectators. Regarding organization, they had my name misspelled and didn't have me registered with the correct or incorrect spelling. They corrected it pre-race, but at the expo it was still incorrect and had to be fixed again. The expo ran out of goody bags. They should give goody bags out with the numbers. Thankfully, they didn't run out of shirts. We got cool tech shirts, and it was nice to have women's sizes!! It would've been nice to have marathoners with different shirts from the half though. Nice job on medals! Carbo load dinner: I signed eight of us up for the L'Opera dinner. What a nice restaurant, and we couldn't pass it up for only $20, including a cute t-shirt! the salad was great, and four different pastas were listed, but we only got one piece of each, and each was only the size of a quarter!! They were more generous with the dessert biscotti (several cookies) and had an out-of-this-world dark chocolate-covered strawberry not listed. Everything was really excellent, but it wasn't much of a carbo load. They really should give an adequate serving even if they have to charge more! All in all, job well done for a logistically confusing area. Thanks for the hard work!!
L. V. from Westminster, CA (10/11/2009) "Great Course!" (about: 2009) 2 previous marathons \| 1 Long Beach Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 I had such a rush running the half-marathon today. The weather in Long Beach was PERFECT! The course is on a lovely, scenic route that goes along the ocean and through parts of downtown. The crowd was awesome, and there were water/PowerAde stations at about every mile or so. Lucky for me, they passed out food right after the finish line because I was STARVING: Banana, bagel, energy bars, and a cupcake@ :) I saw some massage tables and beer served at the post-race booths too. Fun times.
Jane krupica from Wheeling, West Virginia (10/5/2009) "Truly the most scenic ever!!!!" (about: 2008) 3 previous marathons \| 1 Long Beach Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 This was my 2nd full marathon and I must say that it was the most scenic ever! Having the beach as part of the course was perfect! The weather could not have been better. The support was awesome and the fraternities and sororities at Cal State were the BEST!!!!! I will definitely return again. This is a very flat course. There were plenty of water stations with PowerAde. The expo was nice too. Running past the Queen Mary was so wonderful, with the sun peeking up as we started this race. I loved every minute and the post-party was crowded but nice too. The town of Long Beach really welcomed all of us. The medal was huge too. I wore it home on the plane and actually sent all of the alarms blaring as I went through the metal detectors. It was great!!!!

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