Great experience! I was humbled to see the RD and volunteers work so hard and smart to serve the runners. Every volunteer was enthusiastic. All worked as one team, demonstrating huge dedication. Worth the very reasonable registration fee, and more. Basically flat and beautiful course: two loops around LSU lake and campus. Much water fowl to view during the race. Nice colorful medal, great tech shirt specifying "marathon," perfect organization, and exotic food provided. Abundant water and food stations. Sufficient porta-potties. While in town, use side roads/traffic. I recommend this race for any first-timer.

This was a great event. The course was great. It was a little chilly in the morning, at the start. The shuttle service from the hotel and back was well run. I had to be in New Orleans right after the race, and they shuttled me right back to hotel. They had a nice, scenic course around LSU and lake.

Thanks to Mr. Watson for answering all of my questions, and thanks also to all volunteers. If I ever get back this way, I will for sure enter this race again.

- Glenn B., from New Brunswick, Canada

I ran the half marathon and let me tell you: I have not see Baton Rouge look finer than Saturday morning, December 5, 2009. It had snowed the night before, but the race morning was cold and clear. I loved the way the course looped around the LSU campus and surrounding neighborhoods. Good food, nice shirts. I lived in Baton Rouge 25 years ago and felt that this race was a wonderful welcome back. I recommend it and would do it again.

Amazing course - especially the second half of the loop along the lake. Great food after the race!! No doubt this one does not get the attention or number of entrants that it deserves. Perhaps that is what made it so great. PR on the course and great race swag, from tech shirt to socks!!

Definitely will be back! Minutes from the airport and plenty of affordable accommodations. Race Director Craig is hands on to answer any question and organize this hidden gem among marathons. The 16th year was fantastic!

Unseasonable cold and snow the previous evening kept the numbers of runners and spectators lower than expected. That didn't cool the enthusiasm of the host Running Chicken Track Club. Highlights included free food at package pickup, a keepsake timing chip, technical t-shirt, socks and gloves, accurate timing, a festive finish, colorful medal, and plenty of exotic and ordinary food and beverages.

Baton Rouge RV facilities are limited. We were pleased to park our RV at Farr Equestrian and RV Park, about 4 miles from the start.

This was a great race. It was well organized & the people were great. The only slightly negative thing that I have to say is that the start was not very good. My partner and I never heard the start, but just noticed people running. Other than that, it was a great race. There were not a lot of spectators, but the few out there generally stayed well into the marathoner. Traffic was well controlled, with volunteers and police at every intersection.

I was really pleased with this race since I was able to cut an hour off of my old PR!!! Great course!!!!

I absolutely loved the Baton Rouge Beach Marathon! This race has it all - great organization, friendly volunteers and a lovely course. Excellent transportation to and from the race from the host hotel, with some of the best post-race food ever - including jambalaya and alligator (now where else can you get that?). Also, the results were posted immediately so that you didn't have to stand around all day to see if you placed or not. The awards ceremony was conducted in a timely manner with plenty of time for those of us from out-of-town to get back to the hotel long prior to checkout time. Also, the medal is great and very colorful. WELL DONE to the race director and all of the volunteers. This is a small race based on the number of participants, but it is huge in every other category. If you are a 50-stater and need a good race for Louisiana, then look no further. You've found it here with the BRBM - you won't be disappointed!

From start to finish, the race was done well. Packet pick up was efficient and the goodies very generous: shirt, gloves and the coolest socks, which I have worn several times since race day! Food was generous (although I was early so don't know about the later-arriving runners). Shuttle buses on-time. Intersections were well manned. (Although you better keep your wits about you running through LSU - cars were everywhere. For a few minutes you actually don't feel like you are in a race at all.)

The only negative comment I would make would be this: when starting the second loop for the full marathon, the first two fluid stations had been "abandoned." There were plenty of filled cups, but the feeling I got was that the race catered more to half marathoners. My feeling was short-lived, however; the remaining stations did have volunteers.

Overall, a great event, and one I would do again.

I ran the half-marathon, so maybe some of the comments won't apply to the full. In general, this was a nice race with very friendly organizers and volunteers. I didn't expect to get a full dinner the night before the race, but I was lucky to get there early because they ran out of food. On the morning of the race, the organizers put out hot cocoa, coffee, and some cookies for the runners. That was a very nice touch. After the race, we enjoyed great food and drinks again, including beer, alligator stew, gumbo, and jambalaya... yummy!

The course is fast, so you'll have a real good chance of getting a PR in this race. I did, and was thrilled.
Now, there are a couple of things that could be improved:

1. Traffic was plain scary. Some drivers were oblivious to the runners and unfortunately there were not enough officers directing traffic in some intersections.
2. When I finished the race, I tried in vain to find the medical tent or any type of first aid. I asked the organizers for an ice pack, which I needed to apply to my ankle, and they told me to get some from the ice cooler because EMS was still on the course (but they would come to the finish soon). Eventually, the race organizer was resourceful and provided me with a plastic grocery bag so that I could get the ice. I have run many races and have never seen a marathon where there was not first aid at the finish 2:30 hours into the race.

I really feel that this is a nice race overall and I would recommend it to others. Hopefully, the organizers will try to fix these issues for next year.

I was looking for a smaller race than Mardi Gras for picking up Louisiana in my quest for 50 marathons in 50 states. This was an excellent choice! And from reading the information on the website, I knew the race director or his public information officer had to be somewhat of a character.

First off, I had to drive through a mess of Baton Rouge area traffic to get to the host hotel - traffic on and off the interstate was heavy. But don't let that discourage you. It is worth it. The check in was at the Marriott, and was an accomplishment to be done in 3 hours. There were lines, but still, it was well organized and flowed well. At the Marriott the race committee provided southern cooking for the runners, including shrimp pasta, jambalaya, and of course pizza - which wasn't especially southern. It was still quite a spread.

The race started about 1 mile west of the hotel, at a beach/park area, but was not a sandy beach as you might imagine. There was limited parking there (we camped there, which might have been illegal, but no one ran us off). The marathoners and half-marathoners were divided for the start, and then joined about a block away. The weather was favorable too, starting in the mid 40's and probably reaching the mid 60's with sunshine later in the morning.

The course was a double loop. Near the start, it entered the LSU campus, and looped around and through the campus; then there was a small hill exiting toward the east. Eventually, we passed under the freeway (I-10, I think), and entered a residential area. The course stayed mostly residential after that and also followed along the shores of what appeared to be different lakes, before returning to the starting area for the second loop. The scenery was quite beautiful, with the lakes, duckweed, water hyacinths, and an occasional crane bird.

There were not a lot of spectators for this race, but it was a small marathon in a smaller town. And as one other person commented on, you might well have been running alone for the second loop. Since there were a lot of turns, it was easy to get off the "beaten path." The course was paint-marked on the road, but it would still be easy to miss a turn (and some did). I did not see any cones marking critical points or turns. And later in the second loop some aid station volunteers and crosswalk personnel left their posts. We were on our own for the later part of the race, and we cleared our own traffic by waiting for the cars to pass.

The post-race food included alligator tail, gumbo, and fruit, with plenty of stuff to drink too. If you are looking for a smaller size event (total number of runners was limited to 750) this marathon is well worth it. And the southern food set before the runners is food others would have paid extra money to have.