As a runner from Nebraska, I was welcomed by locals at this race as soon as I got out of the car - they were thrilled I'd come all that way to Newport to run. The course was very scenic and I loved watching the great blue herons, otters, and gulls along the waterway that occupies most of the course. Plenty of aid stations, and the oyster shooters (if you're brave enough to try one) are also a plus (I had to do just one!).

Plenty of post-race snacks of good quality at the finish, and the half marathon is held on a separate date so it doesn't get overcrowded. Nice glass finisher's medal at the end, although I found the technical shirt to be a bit small (shirts are given at the end of the race when you finish).

Course is generally flat and fast, as I finished in 4:18 with a consistent run-walk ratio of 2:1. Plenty of great places to dine and visit while in town as well. I was also very impressed with the overall awards, which are large, wood carvings of great blue herons.

I like this marathon because it is low-key and the Newport area is a beautiful place to visit.

The field is small and you could probably show up to the race 15 minutes before the start and be fine. There are no walkers or slower runners from shorter races to weave your way through.

The runners, organizers, and town in general have a friendly feel.

The course has some steep but very short hills in the beginning. Then it is very flat. After two times, I've come to realize I prefer some rolling hills to work different muscles.

Mentally, it feels a bit tougher too, since so much of the course looks the same (without spectators) and you double-back on a large portion of it.

There really are no crowds for much of the marathon. I've also come to realize that crowds are a nice distraction for me during a marathon when I wouldn't really care for shorter distances.

Finally, the course doesn't provide much shade if it's a sunny day (like 2010 race). The heat can take a toll if you've been training during the winter/spring and then have a sunny day.

The medical, after-race attention probably isn't what you'd receive after a larger race either. The first time I ran (2009), I was dizzy and disoriented (and a fairly early finisher) and no one seemed to notice.

I thought the finisher's medal was awesome. I'd consider it the best I've received from any race.

So... some pros/cons depending on your racing style and preferences.

This is a great race with a small/medium-sized field (800 runners). The organization is great. Packet-pick up was quick. I did not get a chance to look at items at the expo, as I had to rush to make the pasta dinner (closes at 8 p.m.). The pasta dinner is a great deal - all-you-can eat pasta, garlic bread, salad (with or without shrimp) and dessert for only $7. The start line is within a half-mile walk of several hotels on Elizabeth Street, so you can take your time and still make the 7 a.m. start. They have a truck right next to the start line where you can drop your gear bag even 5 minutes before the start,  so there's no need to spend 30 minutes cold or throw away your warm-up clothes!

No chip, so if you seek a fast time, you have to line up close to the start line. However, given the small number of runners, this is not an issue. The course is easy - a few short rollers within the first 4 miles, and a moderate incline at mile 26. The rest of the course follows the Yaquina River and is relatively flat with some very minor inclines. I really enjoyed the course, as it is quiet, peaceful and very scenic. Those who seek constant spectator support will be disappointed, as crowd support is relatively scarce (but people who are there are supportive). There is one photo op during the race, around mile 12. The other part I liked is the turnaround after mile 15. This means that you get to see the race leaders and encourage them - and they sometimes encourage you. I found this really cool, as it is not often the case in most marathons. Volunteers were great, except one station where they messed up with water cups and I could not get mine. They serve HEED, which I did not try, as I sticked to water and to the GUs I was carrying with me. The last 0.2-mile is downhill, which helps finish faster. The finish chute is great and the area where runners recover is close to non-runners. They have fruit, bagel, drinks, and rogue beer and chowder (both of which I did not try). You can also buy the picture they took at mile 12 for $10 at the finish. The medal is made of glass and it is not my favorite, but some people like it. Finisher shirt is technical and awesome but sizes are too small - you can exchange it later. I recommend staying for the awards ceremony, as it is very convivial and they have some items that they give away to people who did not place. Overall a great small/medium-sized marathon, highly recommended if you want to escape the megathons or if you seek a fast, mostly flat course. I did not BQ but got a 7-minute PR. The high rate of BQs in the previous year was due to a short course - they lengthened the course to a full 26.2 in 2009. The weather is usually cool but that year it was slightly too warm (65°F around 10 a.m.).

A couple of very small negatives:
- The race is on a Saturday, which is not super convenient for traveling.
- The road around the Yaquina River is banked and you have to make a choice: avoid the banked areas and stay close to the central line, or run the tangents to shorten your run, but sometimes run on the banked areas. I chose the second strategy and ended up with exactly 26.2 on my Garmin, without physical problems linked to the banked road. However, I know that some people have had issues with that.
- Because the other side of the road is open to traffic, you cannot really run the tangents when you face the runners coming in the opposite direction.

But these are very minor things, and overall Newport is my favorite marathon from the 6 I have run, so I will definitely come back.

My first time in the Newport Marathon, and my sixth marathon overall. I was admittedly not well-prepared and coming off of an injury, but I still enjoyed the weekend immensely! One of the main problems I encountered was due to not carrying my own fluids (or at least my own water bottle). Dehydration was an issue for me, mainly because the aid stations from mile 19 to 24 ran out of cups. Major bonk action. This is something that could easily be fixed with more cups! Newport was a great, little town to finish the run in; I got to go grab a free pint at the Rogue and then ice my aching legs in the ocean. Not much crowd support, but I liked the small-town feel, and everyone was very welcoming. I definitely will come back and redeem myself next year with a fast time on this pancake-flat course!!

I say "most" because I love virtually everything about this marathon: The generally flat and scenic course. Great volunteers. More aid stations and mile markers this year. Fantastic weather, in a small-town race where you can actually find a place to park if you want to right near the finish line. The unique, handmade, glass medal is a nice touch also, something really different.

BUT, it seems that when the course was changed after 2008, they added too much. I've now run the updated course twice (in 2009 and 2010). Both times my GPS Garmin measures it at 26.35. I run the tangents, taking as straight a line as possible. Upon comparing my Garmin with other runners GPS watches, it appears that the course is approximately 0.10 - 0.15 of a mile too long. For some runners this will not matter one bit. For others it could mean the difference between a PR/Boston qualifying time or not. I understand that GPS is not 100% accurate, but multiple watches recording the same distance would seem to give some validity to this distance issue. If there's anyone reading this that has some knowledge on this subject, I'd be curious to have it explained.

This was my second marathon. The packet pickup went smoothly and the gear for the race was priced really well. The start was quite unorganized. There wasn't really a chute and the gun sort of just went off with no real flair. Also, not having a timing chip made wanting to start up front really hard to ignore. But, I don't belong there. The miles were marked very well. After the 15-mile mark, the later aid stations were out of water and some of the porta-potties were gone. I finished in a little under 5 and there were still half of the participants out there. There really wasn't any post-race food except for chowder. The medal was awesome and the race was gorgeous. There were really no spectators.

Newport is simply a beautiful, flat, fast course. There are really only four hills (one in town, one in the park, and two on the out-and-back), none of which are any big deal. Final hill before the finish is gradual and not at all difficult; after that, it's a quick downhill to the finish chute. Miles were all clearly marked.

Pre-race pasta feed was inexpensive, good, and plentiful. The race organization was fantastic, schwag bag was good, post-race food and drink (free beer! and more free beer if you stopped by Rogue!) were good, the T-shirt had a great design, and we had great support on the course. Volunteers were very friendly and enthusiastic as well. Weather this year was sunny and warm (10 degrees warmer than usual, I understand) but I'll take that over the rain any day. I PR'd by 10 minutes, and will be back as soon as I can, hopefully next year, to get my BQ.

My only complaint (and not at all the fault of the race director) is that the people at the finish line hardly managed to cheer for any of the finishers! So I did as much cheering as I could as I waited for my peeps to cross.

Oh, and Newport itself is a great place to visit, with lots of good food, drink, and things to do. I'll be back.

Overall, I enjoyed this race. Everything was well-organized (packet pick-up was efficient, bus transportation to start as advertised, started on time, very nice finisher's shirts, etc.). I didn't notice any absence of water stations (as mentioned in past comments), and the oysters at mile 20 were fun (shouldn't there be an official photographer there?). I stayed at The Landing right by the finish line and would highly recommend it! And Newport is a really fun little coastal town to visit.

On the negative side, those LONG miles out and back along the river were endless, and the sun was unrelenting (with only a few stretches of shade). I wish some of that "partly cloudy" weather had materialized! Also, I'm not impressed by the finisher's medal, although we got some background explaining it was locally crafted. You simply can't make out the design at all. It was nice seeing all of the maniac yellow, though, and the first few miles of the course were awesome (Nye's Beach, the harbor, etc.).

So this is a nice, "low key" race with limited spectators, but an overall enjoyable way to see coastal Oregon and check off another marathon.

This was my first marathon, and I loved it. It was mostly flat, other than some small hills for the first 3 miles, and the hill at mile 4 that reappears at the end. It was great to follow the bay. I live in Texas, but grew up in the Northwest, and it was so great to run my first marathon where there was perfect weather, you could see the water the entire way, and where I had great memories (I went on my honeymoon to the Oregon coast). I ran it with my twin sister, which made it perfect.

I do agree with other comments made - namely that it would have been nice to have mile markers the first 5 miles, so that I could have known my pace better, and that the HEED was a bit watered down. There's a very long break from mile 20-25 with no water, but my husband met us at mile 22 with Gatorade, which was perfect. We also brought our own GU ge; -at the race they had some at about mile 13 and mile 15, but it's Hammer Gel, which I'm not a fan of.

I thought it was a very well organized race, and the volunteers were very helpful. We thought that the spaghetti dinner the night before was very good, as was the clam chowder at the end of the race. The weather was probably in the high 40's at the beginning of the race. It warmed up, and the sun was out for most of it, and then towards the end a fog came in off the coast, dropping the temperature quite a bit.
I cried at the end - it was in the top-5 best experiences of my life, with the first three being my husband and 2 kids!

This was my third marathon, but my first in Newport. The course had more hills than I expected, though they weren't bad. They're mostly early on, although there is a gradual ascent from mile 25 to 26. There were more spectators than I was expecting, which was very nice. People running were very nice too. My only complaints are (1): there were no mile markers for the first five miles; with the hills and lots of turns in those miles, it was very difficult to judge pace, and I started out too fast without the mile markers. (2) the spacing of the water tables was a little far, especially in the last 6 miles (I think they were around mile 21 and mile 24?). But great tech t-shirt and Rogue beer at the finish!