Having returned from Fargo this weekend, here are my thoughts about the entire weekend experience:

Pros:

1) Great information before race day (email, website, Facebook, etc.).
2) Excellent expo (all you needed, they had).
3) Mostly flat course, as advertised. Lots of shade over the last half, which was welcome since the sun joined the humidity at that point.
4) GREAT support by spectators throughout the race course!
5) Good post-race food.
6) Wish there had been time to take advantage of the post-race massage table. Not all races provide this.
7) Good bag-drop, which allowed for post-race showers at the FargoDome.
8) Great medal, long-sleeve tech shirt with a zipper in the front, plus the super bag used for our bag drop (although I read where they eventually did run out of medals).
9) Everywhere I went, the community seemed to really be excited about the race and eager to assist the runners (late checkouts and early hotel breakfasts provided).
10) Great traffic control throughout the course.

Cons:

1) Much more heat and humidity than I planned for, but you can't blame the race folks for that!

If you want flat and "most often cool" (just not this year), then go to Fargo. You won't regret it!

This is a great marathon. The course is pancake flat and pretty. The logistics are unbelievably easy, from packet pickup to getting to the start line on race morning to the finish. They open the dome in the morning to give you a place to hang out, and what can I say about finishing in the dome? Too cool. The community really gets behind this race and were out cheering us on even though the weather was far from good. Only two critiques: One was the weather, which the director can't help. Second was the food at the finish. With the heat, I desperately needed calories quickly and wasn't feeling well, but the line was crazy long and swamped with relay runners and half marathoners, so I literally stood there swaying on my feet for 20 minutes waiting in line. This needs some help. Otherwise, fantastic work on this great race in a lovely town. Would happily recommend it.

Who would start the 10K at 7 a.m., the half marathon at 7:30, and then the full marathon at 8 a.m.??? Only those who do not care about the full marathon entrants. The course is great, with lots of potties, and lots of water... but the PowerAde died out for the slow marathoners, and as for food at the end, ho ho ho. That vanished with the finisher medals. Common sense would indicate starting the full at 7 a.m., then the half at 7:30, and the 10K at 8 a.m. It all depends on one's priorities. Fargo got its 20,000 entrants, got lots of money, and got a lot of annoyed (and seemingly irrelevant) marathoners. Also, the temperature was expected to hit 80+; would it not have make sense to start the longer race first???? The RD needs to go back to race planning 101.

Fargo puts on a great marathon! I signed up for the Go Far! Challenge, running both the Friday night 5K and the marathon on Saturday. The 5K runners received a nice Adidas bag, a t-shirt and a medal. The marathoners (and half marathoners - not sure about the 10K runners) got the same nice Adidas bag, a long-sleeve, zippered, tech shirt, and a beautiful medal. And for doing more than one event, runners got a third spinner medal.

The course support was wonderful! Aid stations were plentiful and well stocked. Volunteers managing traffic were wonderful. And the fans are the BEST! I lost count of how many bowls of Jolly Ranchers I passed, how many people with hoses for misting stations were out spraying runners, and just the fun neighborhood parties that brought people out to cheer.

The majority of the marathon course goes through shaded residential neighborhoods, and part through a cute business district, where the movie theater declared "Fargo Marathoners are Iron Men 2." :)

Thank you, Fargo, for a great weekend!

This was a totally amazing marathon. I was not expecting this marathon to be as great as it really turned out to be. It was so well organized and run. The volunteers and the spectators were just the best, and there were a lot of spectators. This is a must-do marathon in my book.

I have run the past three Fargo Marathons and I think the marathoners are treated like second class-citizens at the finish line. All of the good swag/food is gone by the time the average person finishes. I've run between 3:40 and 4:00 and, for example, last year a gal serving food said, "Oh, you just missed the chocolate milk." I've never seen the lefse they allegedly have in Fargo. There should be a separate finisher's area for marathoners so the 10K and half people don't take all the good stuff - or at least stagger setting the stuff out. I do like that the half marathoners have a different start this year.

First, I'll say the course is fast and flat, which makes it very pleasant to run. There were some factors that no one could control at the time (the temperature didn't get above 40 degrees, and the Red River had flooded, so we had to do a double loop instead of continuing into Moorehead) but there was still plenty of room to run in the streets despite the large number of participants.

Organization was poorly planned. The Fargo Dome was not adequately equipped to hold the large volumes of people for the expo, packet pickup, pre-race meal, and kids' run at the same time. Just getting on and off of the floor was a chore - long, narrow aisles full of people coming and going at once made it difficult to navigate. Parking was also a challenge outside, and there were a number of different medals denoting different races (by colors), so you had to guess which table to move toward before you left. I don't remember any good post-race food being available either.

Fans in the residential areas showed great, Norwegian-style hospitality and support and volunteers along the way were wonderful.

I think the race will improve, overall, with the proposed change of moving the 5K race to the night before the others and scheduling the race two weeks later in 2010 with hopefully slightly warmer temps.

I loved the 2009 course and how well it was set up. The two loops gave runners a chance to interact with the wonderful Fargonians twice. Great atmosphere, fans, and 40-50 degree weather. Keep up the great work.

I ran the half two years ago, and this was my first time running of the full marathon at Fargo. What a great event!

Good Stuff:

1. Cost - Entry fee was $65, which is still fairly reasonable compared to other big-city marathons. Area hotels were quite reasonable as well, and I was able to stay within walking distance of the start/finish.

2. Community of Fargo - Several have mentioned this, but honestly, everywhere I went (hotel, stores, restaurants), the marathon was all anybody was talking about. It was remarkable. And I don't think Fargo gets enough credit for its beauty. We got to run through the old historic downtown, and the neighborhoods we ran through were true pieces of Americana: gorgeous tree-lined streets with well-kept, quaint homes. Fargo is a pretty, Midwestern city when you really take a deep look, and this was only enhanced by the great people who came out on a pretty chilly day to cheer on the runners.

3. Flat fast course - Even with the reroute due to the flooding, the marathon course was nice, and extremely flat and fast. Given that the marathon and half-marathon shared the same course, it felt congested at times. But it was a small sacrifice given all of the last-minute changes that the race director had to make out of necessity. The only hills I recall were on a couple of underpasses (a runner near me jokingly referred to one of them as "Mount Fargo!").

Improvement Areas:

1. Food and water lines - I was an above average finisher, and the line was long and unbelievably slow. There were a couple of volunteers who recognized this and were wandering through the lines handing out water and fruit to those waiting. But they should try to find ways to make this more efficient.

2. Half-marathon walkers - Several of these folks were walking 3 and 4 abreast and were beyond oblivious to the runners trying to get by them. I think the problem was exacerbated by the fact that the marathon was two loops of the half course, so perhaps this isn't as much of an issue in years where they run the normal course. But if this course is used again, it will be problematic.

All in all, they have a great event going here; a scenic PR kind of course, a reasonable entry fee (compared to other big city races), the hotels don't jack up the prices, a city that is easy to get around, the Fargodome makes for a great headquarters and a spectacular finish, and a community of wonderful people that absolutely embraces this event. I would recommend this race to anyone looking to do a spring marathon in the upper Midwest.

Overall, I was pleased with the Fargo Marathon. The course was flat and fast, with the exception of the first three miles. Why do walkers and people doing 10 minute/miles line up at the front?! This is a complaint in many races! The pace team we decided to go with tried to "make up" the time we lost in the first three miles by cutting off 30-seconds per mile. That doesn't really work for most people, so ask the pacers how they will deal with getting behind in time in advance! I wasn't prepared for this, and I think it ended up hurting me in the end.

The two-loop course got a bit boring when we had to see the half-marathoners splitting off to be done - ouch! But it thinned the traffic, and made things more enjoyable. It certainly made it easy to get liquids. I understand with the flooding that the course had to be changed, so that was out of their control (it also meant you passed the aid stations more frequently). The expo was pretty small, but the packet pick-up was easy. Finishing inside the dome was great because it was so cold outside! Post-race food was the usual stuff, but plenty was left for mid-pack runners, and the soup was a great touch! Overall, a good time!