This was a decent marathon. The course was fun except for the long stretch of highway out in the sun. I liked the expo and the participant shirt was nice. The train system was great. I got to the race early and had time to get myself ready and pumped. Luckily, I didn't need to use the bathroom. Tons of people were outside to cheer us on. The police did an excellent job with the traffic and were cheering for us too. There was better music at this race than the Rock and Roll marathons. The drumlines were perfect!
There are some things that were a problem though. There were no announcements made or signs up directing runners to where the start of the race from the train station. The medal was nice but would it have been too much to ask for a date to be put on it? It looks like devine wants to use the leftover medals next year so they don't have to get a brand new batch. The finish area needs to be closed off without non-runners walking through. I finished the marathon and was trying to find where to drop my chip and I had a ton of people walking in front of me, including women pushing a bunch of strollers. They had no concept of what the runners had just done and didn't appear to care. The whole finish area needs to be closer to the actual finish. The finish through the crowd was nice but then I wanted to sit and rest and all there was to sit on was dirty black asphalt. I would have preferred a grassy area or a park where people can take their time stretching before they go home. The food at the finish in no way was sufficient. Where was the Gatorade? The juices were nice but not what I needed. After the heat, I needed more then a shot of pomegrante juice. If you are going to have oranges, at least have them cut open. I couldn't get them open and it took my fiancee about 10 minutes to open them for me.
Overall it was a nice race but not one I would feel the need to do again.

Was this race put on solely for the elite runners? The clocks were started when they left and remained that way the entire race! So now everbody has a photo of them crossing the finish line with the wrong time!!!!! Thanks a lot.

The spectators were awesome! Overall the scenery was beautiful. I loved the medal given out to the finishers much more than I anticipated. I had so much fun with the race, spectators, and the nice finish area that I vowed to run this race every year 'til the legs give out.

I do think that the Van Winkle stretch is a bit dull... maybe a course change there?

Kudos to the volunteers and sponsors! Great race!

Everything from the start to finish was a great experience. All the aid station where great. The sponges were great at the half way point. Running through the Gateway felt great. I don't know where I got the energy I did when running at the end. The massage was great, after that I went home to ice my legs. All in all I would recommend anyone to run Salt Lake. I thought the hill would be hard, but I was surprised how easy they were. The first 20 miles were easy. The last 6 I had to work hard to maintain my pace, but I went about a minute and ½ under my goal. I was pretty happy, and proud to finish how I finished the race.

This was my first marathon. I am glad they moved the run from April to June. The training months are just to cold. It was hot on race day but just happened to be 12 degrees above normal. The race was extemely well run. Plenty of water breaks and bathrooms. The fans were great. From the 18th to 22nd miles people used home hoses to mist down runners. That was awesome. My only suggestion is to start the race earlier in the day but keep it in June! The course was great. Often the course was covered by shade trees. The worst part was downtown, no shade. I would run this marathon again. I hope the other marathons I run in are as well planned and executed as this one. The medal given out to finishers was really cool.

In my experience, adequacy of starting line porta-potties is a good test for how well a marathon is organized. In Salt Lake, it was just the beginning. From not enough porta-potties at the starting line to misplaced or missing mile markers to inadequate aid stations, this race was poorly run. (The mile markers that did exist had clocks displaying incorrect elapsed times.)

Devine Productions is obviously in this to maximize profit, regardless of what it means for the runners. The presence of a bike tour(?!) meant that the marathon could not start until 6:45 - way too late for a June day with projected high temp of 90 degrees. Poor treatment of runners actually started well before race-day. I sent two emails with questions in the weeks leading up to the race - both went unanswered. I will definitely avoid Devine Productions and recommend others to do the same.

I do want to say, however, that the volunteers were terrific.

Pros:

The marathon had a 40-minute early start for walkers and slower joggers, which was nice.

The host hotel (Hilton) was well located, had ample buses to the start, allowed a 2 p.m. late check-out and was reasonably priced.

The expo was well organized and only a block away from the hotel.

The fans on the race course were friendly and tried to help with the heat. Many turned on their garden hoses for runners to go through. A nice man gave me some ice from his cooler around mile 13 and some ladies around mile 18 were giving out watermelon slices.

The aid stations were well stocked even for the back-of-the-pack runners. The wet sponges were a nice touch in the hot weather.

Cons:

90 degrees is just too hot to run a marathon in (just ask the man I saw convulsing around mile 15).

The section of the race that the locals referred to as the Vanwinkle was boring; it had few spectators and no shade.

When I finished the only food I could find was a bag of snacks from Whole Foods. After completing 26.2 miles I would have preferred pizza, bratwurst or a sandwich - not just crackers, granola and juice.

SLC was my fourth marathon and one I was really looking forward to. I'd never been to Utah, but I knew it was a gorgeous state.

The race was extremely well organized with a breathtakingly beautiful course. Course organization and support was outstanding.

The spectators, however, really made the marathon for me. They were out in droves! Every runner felt like a celebrity with all of the cheering, the kind people hosing us down as we ran by, and the encouragement.

Water stations were well manned and plentiful. This was very important considering the heat of the day.

The finish line area was a little overcrowded with my MAJOR pet peeve, parents feeding their kids off the food offerings. I saw a family walk up to a table with milk and take the last of it with probably a few hundred runners left to come in. Nice! KEEP FAMILIES OUT OF THE FOOD AREA!

Other than that, I would highly recommend this marathon to anyone. If I were planning on repeating a marathon, this would definitely be on the list.

The expo was still excellent. The coordination of TRAX was better this year too.

During the race however, it seemed like the drink tables were understaffed and smaller than before. On one occasion, I tasted gatorade that had a strong odor of mildew. The gel station was there somewhere, but all I saw were spent gels all along the ground- nobody handing out or advertising gels when I went through miles 13-18. At least I could get water though- a friend of mine didn't see water tables from the table near mile 4, then near mile 8 on the half course. She had a terrible time for the rest of the race.

Other than that, the fans were still great, and again, there was mostly adequate fluids available. Giant sponges were also given out just before the long hot 500E stretch, which helped a TON!

The finish area was partially under construction, so things were confusing. All sorts of non-racers were slipping into the finish line area where the foods were being handed out though...I got a bag with some chips, fruit roll up samples and other little candy type things, a couple oranges, chocolate milk, water, and some pomegranite juice sample. No bagles, bread, bananas =(

This was still a fun race, but it has definitely slipped in overall quality from its first two.

The expo was still excellent. The coordination of TRAX was better this year too.

During the race however, it seemed like the drink tables were understaffed and smaller than before. On one occasion, I tasted Gatorade that had a strong odor of mildew. The gel station was there somewhere, but all I saw were spent gels all along the ground - nobody handing out or advertising gels when I went through miles 13-18. At least I could get water though - a friend of mine didn't see water tables from the table near mile 4, then near mile 8 on the half course. She had a terrible time for the rest of the race.

Other than that, the fans were still great, and again, there was mostly adequate fluids available. Giant sponges were also given out just before the long hot 500E stretch, which helped a TON!

The finish area was partially under construction, so things were confusing. All sorts of non-racers were slipping into the finish line area where the foods were being handed out though.... I got a bag with some chips, fruit roll-up samples and other little candy-type things, a couple oranges, chocolate milk, water, and some pomegranate juice sample. No bagels, bread, bananas. =(

This was still a fun race, but it has definitely slipped in overall quality from its first two.