We are STILL running on 'high' after completing this marathon! Despite the large number of participants, we never felt crowded or distracted. On the contrary, we were motivated by the enthusiasm of runners and spectators. The transportation snag of the previous year has been solved... we were able to get right on a bus, absolutely no waiting in line. There were a great number of porta-potties (there can probably NEVER be enough of those!). We were well cared for at the end of the race. The only suggestion - the way to the EXIT/S from the finishing area be more clearly marked. It was confusing for a finisher to find the way back to the course to watch a family member finish at a later time.

...Wish I could say the same for the rest of the course.

I have to agree 100% with K. S.' (1/14/05) review (noted below).

Wouldn't recommend this one.

There just is no compelling reason to run it.

I rate marathons on 5 criteria:

1) Course
2) Course
3) Course
4) Course Support
5) Race Organization
6) Ok... I will add race amenities (value)... lol

For me everything begins and ends with the course. I read most of the detailed 2004 reviews and nothing dissuaded me about the course (I did see one comment that they should reverse the course and agreed with this, as the best part of the course is the beginning and the worst is the last 8 miles into the sun, running through industrial areas).

The course was just boring with a few exceptions: the beginning through downtown Phoenix, through Scotsdale (kudos & thanks to the vocal Scottsdale fans) and by all the excited friendly cheerleaders/gymnasts (thanks for the support). How they get to 50 bands? I have no idea. I anticipated bands frequently the last six miles to pull me in, but this was not the case. The last 3 miles were very anti-climatic... nothing special (with the exception of the last .2, which was very nice). I can recall two bands (may have been more... it was supposed to be overcast and it was hot and sunny, so I was a little out of it) the last 5 miles. I enjoyed the bands on the course and most band member smiled/waved/nodded/seemed to be enjoying themselves. There just were not that many. Reading the advertisements, I had different expectations... long periods of running with no music.

They should consider an out-and-back course; this would double the bands/energy and the best part of the course is the start (this would also eliminate the shuttle issues). Normally I would never recommend that a ?point-to-point? marathon change to an ?out-and-back? marathon; but it this case I believe it would improve the course. I would recommend running the marathon if you are local; but there are many better runs as ?destination? marathons. There are just too many other marathons to run with great courses (the current state/availability of marathons is awesome).

On the upside, I felt for a marathon this large the organizers/cities/volunteers did a great job. We did not experience the traffic problems that others complained of (15 minutes from hotel room to sitting on the shuttle bus) depends on your route to the race. We stayed in Phoenix at the Holiday Inn Express on University, took University to the parking area and parked in the lot at 6th and rural, very close to the finish and easy to get to. Quick shuttle ride to the start (I have learned to not cut it too close time-wise). I will say the lines for the porta-johns at the start were over 20 minutes long... wow (this was my first marathon with over 10,000 participants, so I do not have anything to compare to). Felt this could have been better. The corrals are nice; but corral two was way over packed (not enough room for all participants slotted). They need to make more or bigger (easy fix) corrals near the front.

The course support was great: well organized water stops and the finish area was able to accommodate the sea of runners.

Amenities are on the cheap side; a short sleeve T-shirt... come on, technical shirts are the current trend (after long-sleeve T?s, then wind shirts, finally marathons are giving out a shirt you can run in... lol). Food? What food? White bagels, bananas and oranges. I have seen better food at 5k?s (they should learn from Lake Tahoe Marathon - veggie hot dogs that were mmmmmm good). I will add the volunteer handing out the bagels made sure that I received a good one (she was exceptionally courteous & friendly after handing out bagels for 1 1/2 hours to sweaty runners). Definitely grab a water bottle right at the finish line - after that you are on your own for water. We were supposed to get two beers at the finish, but when they ran out of 12 ounce cans, they started giving one 16 ounce draft and said that was it (do the math). Medal was nice, colorful and very heavy.

If you do make the trip check out:

Arizona State Capital and the Wesley Bolin Memorial Plaza and the Desert Botanical Garden. Both are amazing and well worth the trip.

Whereas all will not agree with this review, appreciate the value of a candid opinion and weight it as you will. I ran this race with some friends and they liked the race very much. I may be spoiled from running too many excellent courses...

Good running!!

Kudos to the race director and to the thousands of GREAT volunteers - everyone I chatted with was well-trained and enthusiastic!!! A very smooth, well-organized event! This race will continue to grow and improve over the next few years. Several improvements made to the race after feedback from participants last year (awesome!). The city does need to become more involved in the race, but that will occur with time. A nice, relaxed run after the holidays in mild AZ! Mucho fun!

It was an okay race. The course was nice, reasonably flat and enough turns to keep it from getting boring without having too many. I thought the expo was well organized. I always like to get to the start way early to relax before the race and I had my own transportation to get there, so I experienced no problems in this respect. I applaud the organizers for the amount of portapotties available at the start.

I was a bit disappointed by the lack of crowd support along the way. There were only a couple places along the course that had many spectators cheering us on. The bands were sparse and about half of them weren't playing as I passed. The cheerleaders were great though.

My main complaint along the course was the irregular placement of the water/Gatorade stops. I never knew when the next one would be coming up. Sometimes there were two in mile and other times they were two miles apart. Some had just water and others had both water and sports drinks. It would have been nice if they were consistently placed every mile or every odd mile or every even mile or some such consistent placement, located shortly after the mile markers so we would have known when to expect them.

I had no problems at the finish; I thought the volunteers there were great, extremely polite and helpful. Even though I finished early, in the top 200, I thought the food at the end, and especially the drinks at the end, were very sparse. I was given a bottle of water shortly after I crossed the finish line and then there was just one place to get sports drinks far away from the food.

The volunteers were really great but I thought the finish area wasn't really well thought out. I am glad I ran it this year but I probably won't run this one again.

This was my first attempt at a marathon and I trained as part of the American Stroke Association's 'Train to End Stroke Program.'

I found the whole experience to be positive and I would like to run this one again, but I will look for other events that will cost less and will not require fundraising.

I'll be 51 in a couple of weeks and I'm already planning a run at the end of May.

Absolutely fantastic in every way. Nicely priced hotels, enthusiastic expo, and wonderful race-day organization. Like the San Diego RNR, this race is just put together so well. The only drawback to the race is that certain parts are completely devoid of anybody on the sidelines at all. It becomes strangely quiet at points (odd, since there are music bands stationed every couple miles). The course (for 2005 anyway - I believe they had a course change this year) is flat as a pancake mostly (a few inclines here and there). The Phoenix people are wonderful and the RNR folks put on a smashing race. I'll definitely be back for this one some day.

Too many other fabulous races to waste your long, hard training on this one. Costs too much for what you receive in return. Poorly organized, from the shuttles, to the inept traffic management prior to the race. Parking at the finish was horrendous. My wife had to park about 6 blocks away from the finish area and then had to pay 10 bucks on top of that. Then I had to walk back with her to the car!

Dull, uninspiring course with many fewer, and relatively quiet, spectators than I envisioned. Bands on the course added nothing but loud obnoxious noise. I heard one good band playing Jamaican music. Very disappointing post-race refreshments. Hardly any food and once you left the runner area, you could not get anything else to drink! I can only carry so many bottles of water. I guess I need to practice balancing one on my head.

On the positive side, beautiful weather, nice volunteers and very enthusiastic cheerleading groups. Well organized water/Powerade stations and enjoyed the company of the other runners. Great idea to have separate courses for full and half-marathoners. Need to start them at the same time so the finish area is not so crowded.

This was my 5th marathon and I finished in 3:23 and never knew that they were offering popsicles and did not miss them. Organization was great, crowd support was excellent, water stops were organized well. Overall the course was as flat or flatter than Chicago. Some of the nice things to remember were the spectators trying to get rid of the bumper crop of backyard oranges and lemons along the course. Citrus season. Nothing like fresh fruit while running. I wanted to give another thank you to the medical team at the end of race for taking care of my blister that I ran on for over 16 miles. Most of these people volunteer their time and did a fantastic job. I would recommend this race to anyone who is looking for a mid-winter race. I will definitely put this on my calendar for 2006.

If you like mega-marathons, this is a good one to get the year started. Personally, I prefer the smaller races, but that personal preference doesn't detract from my review of this one. Professionally organized, easy, flat course, nice weather and lots of fun. What more can one want?

Can't believe the pettiness of complaints from some of the other runners. Who NEEDS popsicles at the end of a marathon and would even complain about this in their feedback? That's the most absurd thing that I've seen yet on any of these reviews. The problem with people like this is not the fault of the organizers but the unreasonable expectations of people who want to be pampered and just expect too much.

This race gets an A+ all the way around.

This event was my 24th marathon, and 9th in my quest to run all 50 states and DC. This marathon was one of the best. Excellent expo. No problems at all with the race shuttles (stayed at a hotel providing race shuttle service). Nice touch having hot coffee at the start. The course was good for a city course. The water stop volunteers were the best I've experienced. And three cheers for all the groups of young cheerleaders along the course! The bands were good, too. Like some others have said, the post-race foodstuffs could've been better, but the 2 free Michelob Ultra's sure hit the spot. To sum it up, a very good time!