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May 5, 2024

Nike 26.2 = Nike Women's Marathon Runner Comments

Back to Nike 26.2 = Nike Women's Marathon Information & Reviews

Course 4.1

Organization 3.5

Spectators 3.7

Number of comments: 347 [displaying comments 41 to 51]

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H. B. from San Francisco, CA (10/17/2011) "Worth doing once" (about: 2011) 6-10 previous marathons \| 1 Nike 26.2 = Nike Women's Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 I ran this race yesterday and it is indeed a very hilly course. Organization was great, the last 7 miles could be better, lake Merced is quite boring and running alongside traffic and no spectators is not a good place for the last miles of a marathon. It is a marathon you should do once, for the necklace and the whole women's experience but I would not do it again. The last third of the race ruins it for me.
C. Y. from San Francisco, CA (10/17/2011) "Great start, fizzles out." (about: 2011) 4-5 previous marathons \| 2 Nike 26.2 = Nike Women's Marathons COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 Expotique was amazing with lots of free food and goodies and samples. But a 22,000+ crowd means a packed course and late start. Beginning in 10-11:30 corral, I passed the starting line 25 minutes after the gun. Being a primarily TNT race, lots of walkers blocking the way (I think they get an early start), making for frustrating obstacle, but the course itself was beautiful, weather was cloudy gray and cool. Every water stop seemed like I was bumping into someone. As hills came up, it was impossible to run them even if you wanted to because of the walkers blocking the way. Water/gatorage/first aid stops were appropriately spaced out, some had gatorage G series fit prime 1 bites, they handed out oranges about mile 8, bananas mile 17, chocolate mile 22. No gels! Finisher's tent was a bit disappointing with only plain bagels and more water/gatorade. Great dri-fit shirt, nice necklace. 2007 course was better with towel and sock handouts midcourse. Course was same with fun beginning and slow painful ending around Lake Merced and great highway. Prob won't do this full again, maybe 1/2.
M. C. from Santa Cruz, Ca (9/26/2011) "First 16 miles are the best part" (about: 2010) 1 previous marathon \| 1 Nike 26.2 = Nike Women's Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 This was my first marathon and I had a great experience overall. I ran with a pacing group and our pacer was amazing!! She kept everyone strong and motivated over those grueling hills and got us all to the finish line. Even with those hills, the first 16 miles melted away. The first half has lots of spectators and the scenery is spectacular. Most of the second half sucks b/c your running on the great highway and around that stupid lake. Would I ever do the full again? No, I doubt it. I'm glad I ran it but one time is enough. The last 10 miles were boring and I don't need to see that lake ever again! For those of you wondering, the elevation according to my garmin watch is 1,451 ft. Most of which is within the first 16 miles. This is probably not a course where you are going to PR but you never know. It was my first marathon and with the help of the pacer it was a BQ for me. It was hard but well worth it and I love love love my necklace!
T. L. from Canyon Country, CA (11/16/2010) "Good run, slickly commercial" (about: 2010) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Nike 26.2 = Nike Women's Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 3 I entered this race more or less by accident, having joined a friend's group to up her chances of getting into the half. Then I realized that I had been charged for the full... guess I'm running it. Website is disjointed and extremely difficult to navigate. I wanted to know when and where the expo is, what the course is, and what time the race starts. That was difficult to find! Expo was well organized; the long line moved quickly. Start is terrible. No attempt to sort participants, and even if you knew where you were supposed to be you couldn't get there because of all the nonparticipants on the course. And the number of people who pushed to the front and then walked 5-6 abreast was discouraging. Course was good. Weather can't be helped. It was less hilly than I anticipated. Aid stations great, spectators mostly enthusiastic. The Lake Merced loop was a bit worrisome with us running with traffic and separated from cars only by a few cones. Finish line was not so hot. They were out of full marathon finisher's shirts by 5 hours. Not a big deal for me, since this was my 46th marathon, but depressing for someone who was finishing her (or his - about 10% of the field was male) first marathon. And if you know rain is forecast, please have lots of Mylar blankets on hand. They were out of them. Necklaces were also a disappointment since they ran out of the 2010 necklaces. They know how many people have entered - it's a lottery race - so there's no excuse for not having shirts, medals, and blankets for all finishers. Rather than pushing the expensive race buses, why not mention public transport as an option back to the start line? It was OK, but not the fantabulous event that some people seem to think this race is. Definitely room for improvement.
M. D. from Las Vegas, NV. (11/3/2010) "Great!" (about: 2010) 6-10 previous marathons \| 3 Nike 26.2 = Nike Women's Marathons COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 5 Third time at Nike - great time. However, the site does not list my personal results!
E. M. from Vermont, USA (10/25/2010) "Some issues to work on" (about: 2010) 1 previous marathon \| 1 Nike 26.2 = Nike Women's Marathon COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 3 So I have mixed feelings on this race. I will say that, ultimately, I had a good experience thanks to some awesome volunteers and women I met along the way. However, felt letdown by the overall organization of the race. 1) The website sucks. Really hard to navigate and frustrating. 2) The expo was sub-par. I had to wait 45 minutes to pick up my packet and then discovered that they ran out of pace bands for my time and wanted to give me a band for a much slower pace than anticipated. It didn't end up being an issue because they didn't enforce pace bands at the starting line-up, but I was still frustrated, especially since I felt like I was getting screwed for getting to the expo on the last day (and I flew across the country to be there!). 3) The start: a little chaotic and super crowded. My top recommendation? Have a separate start for the full marathoners before the half marathoners! It just makes sense because there are not that many people that do the full (probably 1/4 of total participants), so this would alleviate some of the stress with the starting line crowd. 4) The 1st half of the course is very nice (albeit very hilly), but the second half of the marathon is dullsville and had few spectators. 5) The finish was chaotic as well and transportation back to the start was difficult. 6) Seems like a half marathon with the full marathon tacked on as an afterthought. The pluses of this race? Well-run and well-placed water stops, cheery volunteers, and amazing participants who really supported each other. Liked the necklace (more practical than a medal). At the end of the day, I am thankful for the experience I had, but I will not run this again. If you are thinking of doing the NWM, run the half and don't worry about your time - just have fun! Pick another marathon if you are seeking a full-marathon PR.
Liz Clark from Sinking Spring, PA (10/24/2010) "Nike tried their best to screw up this race" (about: 2010) 1 previous marathon \| 1 Nike 26.2 = Nike Women's Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 5 If you read through all of the previous comments for this race, they are spot on. Pros - Amazing course - very scenic. The hills are legit though, but they offer amazing scenery. - Great aid stations - they were well stocked and the volunteers were great. They cheered for everyone and filled camelbaks and fuel belts as needed. They also did a great job of clearing the stations of trash. - Spectator support - good support all over the course (even in the rain). I ran with TNT, so I of course had lots of TNT support, but I heard people cheering for everyone. Cons - They ran out of necklaces I got a 2008 one and received an email saying I will receive my new one in 10 to 12 weeks. - They ran out of space blankets. After running a good 13 miles in the rain, I was freezing when I finished. - They were out of certain finisher shirt sizes - luckily they still had my size, but many others were not as lucky. - The massage tent was only open until the finish line closed and actually kicked people out. Personally the massage tent needs to be open at least an hour after the finish line closes. Kaiser was very unprofessional and actually yelled at people to leave. Pick another massage group in the future, Nike. - Expotique is as advertised, but useless unless you love Nike. They should use the area expo center instead of a tent. - Lack of a separate marathon start - the number of slow half marathon walkers is insane and there is a lot of traffic until you split off. I even started in a quicker corral than I should have and still had to navigate through walkers. TNT offers an early start and maybe the race should consider opening this up to everyone. Better yet, start the marathon at 7:00 and the half at 8:00 - The race website is useless and it is almost impossible to find standard information - No race-day tracking and results that are NOT user-friendly If you are looking for a scenic course and are not worried about your overall time, this is a great race. If you are trying for a PR and you hate navigating traffic, pick another race. If I was ever to do this race again, I would do the half. You get all of the same stuff, but you won't spend half of your day on the course in the rain only to finish and have nothing left because all of the half marathoners and illegal runners took them.
E. D. from Seattle, WA (10/24/2010) "Don't run the full - do the 1/2" (about: 2010) 6-10 previous marathons \| 2 Nike 26.2 = Nike Women's Marathons COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 I've run this full twice - in '09 and '10. While there are many positives to this race, I feel that the negatives outway the positives. The first 16 miles of the full are GORGEOUS, with spectacular views of the Bay - Alcatraz through Crissy Fields as you then climb towards the Golden Gate Bridge and the ocean. Lots of spectators and cheering. Hills are to be respected, with some quad-killing descents. Then you exit the Golden Gate park and you enter a painful, boring section of the course with hardly any other runners if you're towards the front of the pack. Course entertainment was virtually non-existent for the last 10 miles. As you round the lake you have traffic bordering the lake. Very few water stops (I was dying for some water at this point) and the rare TNT spectators (who only seemed to be cheering for those wearing purple). It was just depressing to be one of only a seemingly handful of runners participating in the full (4K full, 16K+ running the 1/2). The worst part of the race though has to be the throngs of 1st-time runners and packs of TNT runners/walkers who lack any sort of race etiquette: walkers starting in the faster pace groups (lots of walkers in the 7:30 to 8:30 pace group), walking 4 to 6 abreast; I was swimming upstream for miles. Runners were stopping right in front of others to then cross to get water, etc. Very dangerous and rude when there are so many on the course. Those that are trying to make a certain goal time are certainly in for a major challenge weaving through all of the slower runners and walkers at the front of the pack. The starting corrals have to be fixed. TNT really needs to educate their team members on race-day etiquette, as it's apparently missing. The spectators on course are fantastic - and the volunteers were amazing and incredibly helpful at the end of the race. I love my Tiffany finisher's necklaces, and I wear them with pride (so much better than a medal!). I won't be doing this full again. But it is a fantastic race for 1st-time 1/2 marathon runners. Just don't expect a PR with the major elevation gains.
K. W. from London, England (10/21/2010) "Just Do It!" (about: 2010) 4-5 previous marathons COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 Perfect combination of challenging, exciting and rewarding. CHALLENGING: The hills are tough - and there are a few of them, but they are all doable (and what goes up must come down; for every hill there are some long down hills). EXCITING: The atmosphere was great, thanks to 20,000 women running, frequent spectators, and "power songs" at every 2 or 3 miles. REWARDING: It's amazing how motivating a Tiffany's necklace can be! Overall, Nike did a GREAT job organizing the entire thing, including spanning the 3 days prior (in the city center, with food samples and live demonstrations to build up the event). I will do this again and highly recommend it.
S. L. from Colleyville,TX (10/21/2010) "NICE SURPRISE!!" (about: 2010) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Nike 26.2 = Nike Women's Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 I was so looking forward to this run and so happy I got in on the 1st try, I didn't even bother to read any reviews... until the Thursday before the race. Then I was freaking out - there are so many bad things that were written about this race and course. It was absolutely beautiful! Of course there were hills; it IS San Francisco. The shortage of necklaces at the end was strange to me - it's not like they didn't have plenty of advance notice. I liked the expo - but I prefer a bit more diversity of product vendors. I didn't expect there to be many though because it was a specific retailer that sponsored the run. I would run this race again in a heartbeat. The support was incredible and the views were PRICELESS!!

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