The race course is interesting and the aid stations were plentiful and well stocked. HOWEVER, half-marathon age group awards were 'not availabe' for pick up after the race and 'would be mailed!' FOUR monthes later, two phone calls and two emails - still no age group awards 'in the mail,' or anywhere else. Tacky!!The course does NOT finish on a long downhill - a flat to slight UP-hill is more accurate!

Expo: Very well done
Course: Challenging hills, but very pretty
Organization: Very well done. I especially appreciate the fact that the expo, the start line, and the finish line were all at the same hotel. That made it easy for us out-of-towners.
Weather: Perfect cool temps
Lagniappe: The 'Smartpacing' teams were phenomenal. Despite the hills, they helped me get a PR

Ran the half in 2010, and the full in 2011. Organization was great and the water stations were always prepared. I found the best part was the pacers. This was my first 26.2, and the pacer took us out slow for the first few miles, went slow up the hills, but made up time on the downhills.

If you are trying for a BQ, but think you might struggle to make it, this is NOT the marathon for you! But if you want a good, honest challenge, this marathon will give it to you. Organisation is excellent. I believe the congestion early in the race is excessive, and could possibly be alleviated by not running the section approaching, hairpin-turning, and then away from the Liberty Memorial. The hills are great - any complaints are coming from wimps.

This was my very first marathon but I've run a couple of halfs and many other large short distance races and the KC Marathon was truely an amazing experience. It is a challenging but fair course with lots of pleasant scenery. The pacers were lots of fun and when I fell of pace the plentiful spectators and awesome volunteers were there every step of the way to keep my spirits up. The aid stations were great, however, they stopped offering vaseline early in the race, so if you think you might need it get it early on the course or use easy glide before you start. The finish approach was a little narrow but still ok. Nice finisher shirt and medal, plenty of traditional runner food at the end. My only complaint for this race was the start. It was really difficult to get in place where I needed to be with my pace group and I didn't hear any kind of instruction from the staging area at Crown Center. This is getting to be a pretty large event and I think assigning corrals or having a staggered start would help alleviate the congestion. October mornings in KC are perfect for distance running. This is a great marathon choice for beginners and elite runners alike.

Course: for both the marathon and half marathon, the course is beyond amazing! Hills are a challenge, but they don't kill you, nothing is out and back, and you get do see KC's best features. Varied in hills, flat, residential, city streets, et cetera. Perfect route.

Organization: I have never had an issue with organization, the chute, finish line, bag check, expo, et al. The most stress-free run; I keep going back.

Spectators: Having run both the half and the full for KC, the full has better crowd support, but it's good either run. Anticipate ample hi-fives, children, passer-byes, families to cheer you on through either route and along the whole course!

If I could only run one city, I'd run KC.

I just have a few comments about this years race, the support from the fans was tremendous with some very funny uplifting signs. However this was the first marathon I ran without an Elvis impersonator present. We were told the course was going to be hilly...it was! Host hotel was great and a very inviting community.

Moved to suburban KC, KS a year ago so decided to run the biggest 'local' race. It was nice to run by so many landmarks but not sure that would mean much to people unfamiliar with the area. The course is hilly. Start is chaotic; need to stagger half and full marathoners (at least 5K'ers were culled from the pool, starting 15 minutes later). Timing was by Ultramax and they did their usual outstanding job. Have never received results faster. Post-race food extremely disappointing: yogurt, fruit, tiny bags of pretzels or peanuts, and dry/plain bread rolls. I realize a lot of runners ARE nutrition Nazis but some of us run TO eat. Had run the Wichita marathon 6 days earlier and much better chow there. Thankfully, there was a Panera adjacent to the race staging area here that we (and a lot of other runners) hit. Orange scones never tasted so good. If you don't stay on site, carry a $5 bill in your race belt.

Expo is ok. Some vendors gave stuff away (lip balm, pens, stress balls) which helped make up for the absolute lack of swag in the 'virtual' goodie bag. Seriously, they email you some coupons beforehand and that's your swag. At check in, you get a white cotton, forgettable T-shirt, bib number, and timing chip. That's it. Ok, safety pins are available, too. The 'pasta dinner' is excellent but do NOT pre-order! They charge $20 through the race organizers but if you just show up at the restaurant, it's less than $10, drink included. And the children's price is even less. It's a buffet at a Crown Center restaurant (5-10 minute walk by skyway from Expo). You can get your Hyatt parking garage ticket validated for eating there, which almost pays for the meal. The organizers claim the dinner is 530-730 but the restaurant keeps it open as long as people show up (we ate at 830). No program, no speakers, you're completely integrated with regular customers... which was fine.

My 10 year old signed up to do the 5K at 720 and the Kids' 'Marathon' (1.2 mile after having done 25 in the preceding weeks at home) at 1100. They make it sound like your kid has to sign up well in advance and submit a log for 'verification' but we signed up at the Expo, filled the log out there, and they printed his Certificate on the spot. The post-race food for the kids was even *more* politically correct. Bags of sweet potato chips. Really? The most 'decadent' offering was a mini-box of plain Cheerios.

We actually stayed at the Hyatt rather than drive in 25 minutes from home so my son could go back to the room between his 2 races. They had a good rate and it was still available at the last minute (2 days before the race). Hot tub was available til 10 PM and reopened at 530 AM, which was a nice way to relax before and after the race.

This is my third year running in this marathon. Every year there is something wrong organization-wise. This year I ran the half marathon and I finished without a medal. In itself, the fact that they ran out of medals was frustrating. But it doesn't stop there. They don't even have an organized way to deal with this problem. They had some guy gather everyone around a tent and started shouting out directions (without a microphone). He told us to write an email address down on a piece of paper and to email them. As if we all carried pen and paper on us while we ran. After being told many differing stories about why they didn't have medals for everyone on race day, I still have no medal two months later. The course is beautiful and the bands were amazing, but there needs to be some serious revamping of the organization of this race.

This was my first half marathon, and given that I finished (albeit slowly), I had always had a picture in my head of someone hanging a medal around my neck at the end. This didn't happen, and it really sucked. Otherwise, the crowd support was good, and the pacers were fabulous for the hilly course. The post-race food was a little disorganized, but they did have Boulevard beer, which is excellent.