I signed up for this marathon in its first year and I surely can empathize with 'You've got to be kidding. Not only did I pay for a hotel room, a USAir flight and, obviously, the marathon, but when I arrived Saturday morning (the race was Sunday) they decided to cancel the marathon because a snow storm 'might' be coming to the area the next day!!! Not only did I have to struggle to get home all day but had to STRUGGLE to get my albeit minimal race fee returned to me. I can't think of a worse organizer/race director/event and I have run 31 states so far. I'd advise everyone to wait and see what happens with this race in the coming years and not put your money where your feet are.

Well...Raleigh is becoming legendary for their screw-ups and mishaps. What a joke...To cut off 1.2 miles of a course is absolutely unheard of to me. The organization of the race doesn't even deserve one star. I pay 45 dollars to run 13.1 (I actually ran the half marathon) and I only get 11.9 miles out of it. What kind of feeling would you have if this was your first marathon..you finish...then you realize that you didn't even run a marathon. Stay away from this marathon in the future, because I guarantee you; it is a disappointing experience...here are my top 3 reasons it is horrible:
1. The organization was absolutely horrible
2. The fans in Raleigh don't appreciate the difficulty of a marathon and thus give weak support
3. The 2nd half of the course is so boring that it can essentially put you asleep while you are running

This was my first marathon and I enjoyed my experience. The course was a lot hillier than I expected or trained for. I really enjoyed the first half of the race and it showcased some neat neighborhoods in Raleigh. The second half was mostly four lane highways especially the last four miles. The spectators were great but there were stretches when there was nobody around.

This being my eighth marathon this year, all in different states, I have to rate this as hilly but not as hilly as Baltimore or Nashvlle. The second half was not very scenic but the support of volunteers and police on the course was a fine example of southern hospitality. Temperature was great considering that the Hops Marathon in Tampa again had temps in the 8os. The fact that the lead runners were taken off course by the lead police vehicle was a shame but not that uncommon. I have had it happen at other marathons. I would definitely recommend this marathon.

After traveling to Raleigh for the marathon last year and being sorely disappointed by the (non)snow cancellation and swearing never, never again . . . I understand now that the fiasco in 2000 was due to the lack of police support, and it seems that once again, a few of ?Raleigh?s Finest? managed to mess up the race for the top competitors in 2001, sadly!

It turned out to be a pretty nice race this year, for us mortals who weren?t among the speedsters in the front! I can?t imagine running 20-some miles at top speed wondering what the hell happened to the course in the first few miles, but I digress. . . .

I ran the first 10 miles of the course in a 3-woman relay team. The course started downtown at the Convention Center, and the weather turned out to be near-perfect ? sunny, little wind, and slightly warm for runners, slightly cool for spectators. I was a bit surprised by the large size of the crowd of runners at the start.

The first few miles looped twice through downtown, which was interesting the first time around and a little tiresome the second, past some attractive buildings and homes including the lovely Governor?s Mansion decked out in holiday greenery. The course then looped out away from downtown where I finished my leg at the 10-mile mark, then the course continued back into downtown for the half marathon finish, then looped back out again in another direction for another 13.1 to finish downtown. Course support was good, with water and sports drink every 2 miles and gel at 15 and 20 miles. A few of the mile markers were either nonexistent or difficult to spot. Most of the turns were marked with paint on the road. Fans along the course were pretty scarce, but the police that I saw were doing a good job of stopping traffic for runners but still letting cars through in available gaps. Rolling hills seemed ever-present! No huge ones, but I felt as though I was constantly on a slight grade, up or down.

The course did as well as it could with what it has to work with, but there?s just not too many attractive neighborhoods close to downtown Raleigh. The town is clean and well-kept, but the gentrification and development of the NC Triangle area seems to have largely skipped inner Raleigh.

As I was waiting to pick up my team-mate at the 2nd relay transfer point I heard some unhappy grumbling from locals about the race officials blocking people from accessing their churches and local flea markets. I?m not sure that the word was fully out to the community to encourage them to ?buy into? the event and support it.

It was clear that the RD was doing his best this year to try to make the runners happy, however. The shirts were interesting, with a splashy ?RM? graphic and fortunately free of the dopey running-acorn design from last year and the website. There were piles and piles and piles and piles of attractive plaques for all members of all relays (3-person, 4-person, and 5-person) 3 places deep ? the RD was making sure that all the happy participants went home with hardware, including slowpoke me and my 2 teammates, with no competitors in our division!

A clever touch was the snowflakes on the marathon finisher?s medal, commemorating the first disastrous year of the event.

I wish this event well and hope it survives its birth pangs and develops into a noteworthy event which brings together the people of Raleigh.

I'd rate this adventure below average for my fourth marathon. It was relatively small and the 1/2 marathon pack included many novice 'runners' who took their first walkbreaks less than a mile from the start...4 abreast(!). The first half of the course was fairly scenic with adequate spectator support.
The second loop was dreadfully dull, out into the 'suburbs' (aka 'no where'), with very sparse crowds. An unusual positioning of the water stops was also less than ideal and soapy powerade is not my first beverage of choice...not withstanding is the issue of the 'alternate route' of the lead pack of runners (?how many). I may run the half again, but wouldn't recommend the marathon.

The race web site bills this course as 'flat for the Raleigh area'. This is true, but it doesn't change the fact that this is a very hilly marathon. Every time you looked up there was yet another hill to climb. It was very hard to get a decent steady pace going. Also, it is unacceptable to be taken off course in a marathon. Sometimes you may only get one shot at this kind of race. This is not a 5k where you can find another one next weekend. The race should have to refund some sort of money or pay a penalty if they are TAC certified. ALL volunteers and race vehicles should be better prepared than that.

Much better than last year!! Two thumbs up for the change. I am unaware of the 1.2 miles shorter course. I run a marathon every week and this appeared to be 26.2 miles to me. Every marathon has anomolies and hills (Baltimore). I feel the staff of volunteers and the city put forth their best effort. The weather could not be beat. I will run the Raleigh marathon again next year (for the third time) and highly recommend it to everyone. This course would be better if it had more spectators/crowd support.

I ran the half-marathon, not the full, but the same problems occurred for both groups. Last year they screwed up the course, and they did it again this year. The first 200 marathoners and half-marathoners were forced by police to run the wrong route, shortening the course by 1.2 miles!! They said the lead runner went through the 10K mark in 26:47 ... nice world record split. The course was much hillier than the brochure listed, and the course map on the brochure was even wrong. I give this race only 1 star, but 5 P's -- proper planning prevents poor performance.

Poorly handled the bad weather. I know the weather may have been a bit odd for the region, but it helps to have some plan in place, just in case. Spectators were not very enthused, and the weather was chilly. I am sure it can (and will) only get better.