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Apr 29, 2024

Cherry Blossom Festival Marathon Runner Comments

Back to Cherry Blossom Festival Marathon Information & Reviews

Course 3.6

Organization 3.5

Spectators 2.4

Number of comments: 50 [displaying comments 11 to 21]

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Don Kienz from Pennsylvania (3/25/2005) "Pretty, quiet, HILLY compared to coastals" (about: 2005) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Cherry Blossom Festival Marathon COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 2 Hills: think back country roads with significant rolling hills. Frequently. If your version of a hill is an overpass over a highway or river, you need to get out more. Hillier than Baltimore and Richmond; much more than NY, Disney, Miami, or MCM. I wish I had trained for them, for they cost me. But a good, and educational experience about range of possibilities. Pretty run, quiet and peaceful. Organizers friendly and helpful. Macon mostly unaware, which was fine, made it peaceful. Two early tables unstocked, a serious issue, but stuff happens. Everybody friendly; thanks to all for their time and sacrifice; a nice day.
D. H. from USA (3/21/2005) "Wonderful Marathon" (about: 2005) 4-5 previous marathons \| 2 Cherry Blossom Festival Marathons COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 Very enjoyable marathon. The hills are challenging, but not overwhelming. Excellent traffic control. Plenty of liquids and GU at the correct mile markers.(Having a marker at every mile was a PLUS, thanks.) Fan support was light, but enthusiastic. This marathon will remain on my 'to do' list each year that I am healthy enough to run it. 2002 - 5:00:04. 2005 - 4:16:41. I will return.
S. P. from Geogia (3/20/2005) "Challenging course, needs some organization" (about: 2005) 6-10 previous marathons \| 1 Cherry Blossom Festival Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 2 Great course! Tough hills through mile 7 make you really focus. Beautiful scenery throughout. Lockers at the start and showers at the end a MAJOR plus! Race organizers did a great job getting Weslyan College to host, as well as having city and county agencies to block traffic and cordon the course. The volunteers let down the race staff. You can tell they were planned for but the execution was embarrassing. Water points were unmanned/supplied until mile 10; when they were manned, the folks were helpful and did well. Thanks to those who showed up! Porta-potties not availible until mile 14(?). Will run this again but a few suggestions to the race directors: get boy/girl scouts, national guard, 4H, or some ORGANIZED civic organization to be the volunteer pool so you are not let down again. Love the hills being the first part of the course. It is a shame that the race goes through very nice neighborhoods, but virtually none of them came out to cheer on the racers. Almost as if they didn't know or care about the community event. Course map could be a little more clear. Several of us became disoriented several times trying to navigate the course. So much went right with the race and it is easy to point out what went wrong. Overall the race was fun, challenging, and has a lot of potential once the citizens of Macon get behind the event.
m. k. from Athens GA (3/20/2005) "Nice run, terrible organization snafus" (about: 2005) 1 previous marathon \| 1 Cherry Blossom Festival Marathon COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 2 Fun course, challenging rolling hills through pretty rural setting. Last 3 miles on a busy main road were a little unpleasant, but the pain distracts you anyway... Sadly, the organizers blew things in two key ways - there were two or three of the water tables in the first 10 miles had NO FLUIDS available, leaving only 2 aid stations through mile 10. Also, the porta-potties in the first 15 miles or so were on their side, like somebody dropped them off the truck and did not set them up. Luckily, I stashed Gatorade bottles at a couple places on the course - a must if you plan to run this race, which, I am sorry to report, I do not recommend unless the organizers commit to fixing their mistakes. I suppose if you are coming from not to far away, the pretty run is worth a drive, but not the cost of a flight. Also, don't bother with the Cherry Blossom Festival after the race - extraordinarily overpriced and an overall weak affair, also with terrible organization. As a Georgia resident, I hate to be so negative, but it is what it is.
N. C. from Georgia (3/19/2005) "A great first marathon experience" (about: 2005) 1 previous marathon \| 1 Cherry Blossom Festival Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 The Cherry Blossom was my first marathon, and it was great! Yes, the course is very hilly, but the scenery is gorgeous--lovely neighborhoods with blooming trees, and we ran by a beautiful white horse at one point (it galloped alongside from behind its fence). Nice shirt, and BIG finisher's medal--a smashing first marathon :)
charlie gregory from Marietta, Georgia, U SA (4/16/2004) "One of the toughest for hills I have run" (about: 2004) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Cherry Blossom Festival Marathon COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 1 This was my 27th marathon and I rate it in the top 4 or 5 as far as having the worst hills. To make it worse, those of us in the back of the pack at the beginning had to endure the fumes of an ambulance for the first 5 or 6 miles that was right in the lane with the runners in spite of the fact we kept telling him the fumes were getting to us. The course was through some very nice areas and helped distract from the numerous hills. Support was good and the crowd was typical of most small races. The last 4 or 5 miles did not have the lane blocked and we had to jump off on the side of the road when a car came by. Nice shirt and medal. Thought the age group was unfare to the older runners by having the age group 65 and up rather than a separate group for the 70 and up. There were at least 3 in this age group. The last race I ran in had about 1,000 runners and there were 10 runners 70 and above.
M. P. from Cleveland, OH (3/31/2004) "Do your hill work!" (about: 2004) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Cherry Blossom Festival Marathon COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 2 Time to end the myth. This is a very hilly course, not slightly or moderately hilly as it has been described. It is no wonder that an elevation profile of the course is nowhere to be found for it would scare runners away. At the same time it was one of the most beautiful courses I've ever run. The flowering trees were in full bloom and the course ran through some of the nicest neighborhoods you will see anywhere in the country. Traffic control and aid stations were outstanding and the finish line support was first-class. The medal and t-shirt were also very nice.
P. M. from Alabama (3/31/2004) "A beautiful course/good value" (about: 2004) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Cherry Blossom Festival Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 This was marathon 21 for me and I had a good experience. More water stations and porta-potties than advertised and great traffic support. I knew that there would be hills in spots, but running the course backwards from previous years was a big improvement, if not problematic for the police. The medal was large and the t-shirt was nice. The course has beautiful scenery and passes through a quaint rural town. Great job Macon! Best marathon of its size that I have run!
M. A. from Pace, Fl (3/30/2004) "Hills were manageable and the blossoms amazing" (about: 2004) First Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 This was my first marathon: 3:40. The hills were difficult but not as bad as I had been led to believe. The course was good in parts (beautiful residential areas with tough rolling hills) and awful in others (narrow roads in poor condition with no shoulder and light to moderate taffic). The aid stations were very plentiful which was a bonus as temperatures reached the low 80's on the last half. However, the cherry Powerade was like bad cough syrup. The green was better, but I much prefer Gatorade. Its a small marathon and the fan support was pretty thin but those that did show were very enthusiastic. The worst part of the race was around mile 18 where the course turned back on itself for a mile or so and we ran down a large hill only to turn around at the bottom and run back up it. Very painful to the psyche. Also the start could have been a bit better organized as we were all milling about and someone randomly shouted 'GO'. It caught our police escorts off guard as well and they had to barrel through the starting crowd to get to the front. Nice shirt and medal, great aid stations and excellent police traffic control at intersections. Overall, a great first marathon experience.
D. U. from East Alabama (3/30/2004) "Beautiful and Challenging Course" (about: 2004) 6-10 previous marathons \| 1 Cherry Blossom Festival Marathon COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 Very interesting course - a little bit of everything. Hilly residential neighborhoods full of spring blooms, wide open fairly flat country roads, and a return on city streets with a designated lane for runners. Well organized, thank goodness for an abundance of fluid stations (got pretty hot in 2004), and enough porta-potties to prevent long lines, for a change! Lots of hills but they are manageable. Good organization at the finish line and plenty of food and drink. T-shirts, awards, and medals were well done. Used chip timing this year, and results were posted quickly and cleanly. Only problem I had was finding the starting area - not well marked from the access road that was suggested. All in all a good race, will come back again.

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