Overall this was a great race. It was my first marathon, but I have run 16 half-marathons and about 20 5ks and 10ks.
The expo was small but satisfactory. I was given a men's shirt but BRF immediately responded to my question about this and will be exchanging it for me. I had no issue with parking, and used one of the free lots provided.
Race morning we arrived about 90 mins before race start and were able to park after about a 5 minute wait in traffic. They advised that parking was full last year so we left a lot of time for that. The signs to get to the starting line were a little confusing (arrows on the ground), but staff onsite were able to direct us.
The race itself was great! Lots of spectators, and some basically at all parts of the race. Lots of hills, as advertised, and went through many parts of the city. Huge variety of snacks provided - donut holes, larabars, gels, pretzels, candy, etc. Plenty of water/gatorade stops.
The last 10ish miles I was a little irritated with how many half-marathon walkers I had to weave around (as others stated, the half-marathon started later and combined with the full marathon course).
The finish line was pretty smooth, I took 5 hours to finish the marathon and there weren't any crowds or bottlenecks. There was a line to get food, but it went quickly.
Overall I was very pleased with the experience. For such a huge event (~25,000 people for all races), I thought it went pretty smoothly. I would recommend this race, but not for a PR due to the hills.

Overall, a good marathon on a perfect day!

Organization, T-shirt/medal very good and start/finish area in spacious Camden Yards was a plus. Downsides were bag drop too far from the start, getting a ton of Half runners dumped on the course about midway through the Full was quite a mess and the post race food was mediocre at best (chips and dry bagels do not make a post race treat). Also, cutting off age groups at 70+ is NO LONGER the standard. Most marathons go to 80+ and 85+ is common.

I did not like how the expo was arranged where we had to walk up the stadium ramps to get to the expo then walk past the vendors to get the race number then walk all the back past all of the vendors a 2nd time to get the t-shirt. There were not enough volunteers at the water stops as several times I had to grab a cup off of the table and one of those times the cup was empty. Merging the slower half marathoners in with the marathoners at mile 16 was a terrible idea. It made for an extremely crowded course and I was passing slower half marathoners the last 10 miles. Going around the lake at mile 21 I was boxed in and could not pass due to the large number of runners. Extremely hilly course - more hilly than Boston. The gear bags should have been closer to the start and finish lines. Lime green t-shirts that do not even say 'marathon' on the front? The plus side - there was good crowd support and a nice finishers medal.

Overall this was a fun race. Nice course starts at Camden Yards, goes through the Zoo, down to the inner harbor, through the city (very hilly), around a lake and back through Camden Yards. One of my main complaints is that they did not have time clocks every mile. It was supposed to be every other mile, but I feel like they did not even have that. I feel if I'm going to pay for a race in a big city, I should be able to get my mile pace every mile because I don't like having to wear a watch and have to worry about losing the satellite. Second, complaint is that all the signs on the course were on the ground. You could not see them until you were right at them. In a race with a large field that cause a lot of traffic jams. Simply mounting the signs for water, toilets, gatorade, mile markers, relay exchange, etc on a pole so they can seen over the crowd would make a big difference. I missed a few mile markers because they were small and I could not find it. They changed the half marathon course which seemed to fix the problem with the merge. If you run the race, make sure you really pay attention to the maps for the expo, pre-race area, and post-race in the race packet. I figured I would just get there and there would be signs or volunteers pointing me in the right direction, but that was not the case. Everyone was really friendly, but they could use more volunteers and staff. There was line about 40 min long to get food at the end of the race. They definitely need to rework the post finish area. The race is sponsored by Under Armour so the t-shirt is a really nice long sleeve tech shirt. Baltimore has a nice inner harbor area. Most hotels in the area offer a marathon rate at a discount. A lot to do in walking distance museums, Ravens stadium, restaurants. Great kids race and post-race entertainment. Nice weekend away for families. I would recommend for people on the East Coast in driving distance. Probably will not run it again, used it to check Maryland off my 50 state list.

This was my first marathon and I had a blast. Thank you for a great experience. I will see you next year.

The expo sucked, not very many vendors! The shirt was great - Under Armour. The race was very crowded and chaotic at the finish. Poor job Baltimore.

Considering that no race is perfect, this one is very close to it. Even though it is a hilly course, people cheering on, plus the logistic support for runners, greatly compensates even to PR. Organizers listen to their 'clients' and try to resolve any problem/concern ASAP. This is my second year participating and gladly will be back for this fantastic running party.

This was my 6th BRF MARATHON.This event has maintained a high standard thru all 6 years. Support and organization is great,the course is tough,but the aid you get while out there sure helps. The Police are the BEST,not only keeping us safe,but being cheer leaders when needed. The neighborhoods I ran thru really came out to cheer us on. I found it funny that a runner complained because there were too many row houses along the course,well its BALTIMORE. Thats like complaining because there were to many Mickey Mouses at the Disney World marathon. The expo was held at the M& T Staduim,and even though it was cramped,signs were put up directing runners thru the 3 area needed to go to get their Goody Bags,bibs and shirts.The runners who followed the info put out prior to the Marathon Weekend in the RUNNERS HAND BOOK had no problems.

My husband and I started off a little concerned about how this race was going to be, our experiences with parking for the expo and the race were both terrible. The organization there needs to be seriously worked on for next year. Nevertheless, the race itself went off without a hitch and we both had a great time!

Pros:
-The course showed all the different parts of Baltimore, I really enjoyed it (even the less 'savory' areas)
-Food handed out on course (pretzels, bananas, candy, gels)
-Adequate water and gatorade at stations
-Friendly volunteers
-Beautiful weather
-Good crowd support
-Nice shirts
-Nice medals
-Good post-race area

Cons:
-PARKING for expo and race (we arrived more than an hour before the start and didn't make it to the start until 7:59)
-No signage on race morning and outside at expo (if there were signs I didn't see them...and that's exactly my point)
-Lots of hills in the race, but that wasn't a surprise


This is a good race, I'd definitely recommend it to others, but it's a challenging course and probably not one for setting a PR!

Quite hilly, but I was warned about that. Bag check and starting line were too far apart. At 16 they merged the marathon and 1/2 courses together, so I ended up with thousands of slower runners in front of me for the last 10 miles. Finish corrals took 10-15 minutes to clear, and lots of people were cramping up. Run through the zoo was cool, and the crowds at the end were wonderful.