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May 20, 2024

Rochester Marathon Runner Comments

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Course 4.3

Organization 4.2

Spectators 3.9

Number of comments: 164 [displaying comments 151 to 161]

More Comments: [ < 1 .. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 > ]

E. S. from Chicago area (9/22/2005) "Organizers did good job on inaugural marathon." (about: 2005) 4-5 previous marathons \| 1 Rochester Marathon COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 * Nicely run for inaugural event. * Course was a little rough due to street constuction. I assume this will be better next year. * Course was not boring and had enough variety to keep race interesting. Race included a number of miles along the Erie Canal and a tour of historic houses in Rochester. * Course was not flat and last 6 miles had a net uphill climb - never too steep but definitely enough grade to slow down many runners (myself included!). * Despite a 'chip timing system', results were not posted quickly so people had to hang around a long time to see place (or leave and miss awards ceremony). * Bottom line: I recommend this race.
K. C. from Pittsburgh, PA (9/22/2005) "I'm so glad i ran my first marathon here!" (about: 2005) 1 previous marathon \| 1 Rochester Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 I can't think of a better place to have run my first marathon! Everything was so organized. All the volunteers and spectators were so helpful and supportive.
B. A. from Rochester, NY (9/22/2005) "Great Potential" (about: 2005) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Rochester Marathon COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 First year back for this marathon and it showed. This has so much potential, I hope the organizers, runners, and supporters stick with it. The good: 1. The Course. Fantastic potential. East and Park Aves are beautiful. The canal path is a wonderful running surface, flat, and peaceful. Frontier Field provides an uplifting finish line. 2. Convenience. Great start/finish area. Plenty of free, easy parking. 3. Plenty of energy gel. Thanks. 4. Nice crowd support at places along the canal, in Fairport village, and along East Ave near the finish. 5. Police support. Excellent traffic control to protect runners at a lot of busy intersections. The bad: 1. The Start Area. The Start banner ought to go up sooner than 12 minutes before start time. Lose the wimpy megaphone and get a sound system people can here. Blast out some feel-good music. Have Pacing signs up and tell people what they're for. 2. Where was the Gatorade for the first few aid stations? 3. Timing Chips. Good lord, if you're going to make us stand in a winding line for 20 minutes prior to the race to pick them up, use them. Get some mats out. Use a mat at the start at least and publish both clock and adjusted times. A half-marathon mat would be nice too. Otherwise, can the chips. 4. Mile Markers. Whew, I don't think I was that spaced out but I sure don't remember seeing many. Was the half-way point marked? 5. Add a course map into the pre-race packet. The D&C had a great map published. Ask them to print up a couple thousand extra as advertising and throw it in. And the ugly: 1. The Course. Doubling back of the half marathoners into the face of the rest of the pack was nasty. Road construction might have been the reason everyone was squeezed into a lane that was, at best, 4 people wide- 2 people ea way- in places. All things considered, a nice job for the inaugural. With a few specific improvements, this one could be in the big leagues soon.
R. B. from Rochester, NY (9/22/2005) "Great event all the way around. Will be back!!" (about: 2005) 1 previous marathon \| 1 Rochester Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Kudos to race director. Event was well organized, fans were great. This is a race Rochester should be incredibly proud of, it will surely grow in profile in the years ahead!! Congrats to Eric Garsin (2nd male finisher) - only his second ever marathon, could become a dominating runner at that distance.
R. F. from Rochester, NY (9/21/2005) "No gatorade / powerade on most of the course" (about: 2005) 2 previous marathons COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 5 I am shocked with an org that miscalculates water / powerade for a marathon. Stops at 2 miles apart. At mile 4, no water, no gatorade 40 minutes into the race. Only water at all stops after mile 10. It was lucky that it was 70 degrees. No food at the end of the race except bread and fruit covered by flys. On the other side, volunteers, police, spectators were amazing and made the race.
C. S. from Rochester, NY (9/21/2005) "first half-marathon" (about: 2005) First Marathon COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 3 I've seen better-organized races than this one. They ran out of water at mile 4, so I had to run another 2 1/2 miles until I got my first drink of water/Gatorade. There weren't many spectators there, but that might have been because not a lot of people knew about it. As it becomes an annual event, I think more people will come out to cheer.
J. R. from rochester, New York (9/21/2005) "very well done, world class , my 9th marathon " (about: 2005) 6-10 previous marathons \| 1 Rochester Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 This was my 9th marathon and my first in my home town. Everyone who attended the pasta dinner was entertained by the Penguin and it was awesome and the dinner was great. The day of the race the course was a joy, no cars or problems. Lynn the organizer was reachable for any questions and made us very special at both the start and finish line.
J. S. from Rochester, NY (9/20/2005) "Great marathon - Beautiful course!" (about: 2005) 2 previous marathons \| 1 Rochester Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 What a great way to start off the this marathon. Top Notch! I finished this years marathon (my second marathon so far) and I had a great time! The course was interesting and had extensive marshals, water stops and traffic control. The villages of Pittsford and Fairport really came out to cheer us on and by mile 14 we really needed it. Park Ave has some work to do for next year, I think most were still asleep from the East End Fest The only suggestion I would make is regarding the finish. Frontier Field is a great venue for the finish line, but having to climb those stairs after 4+ hours of running was almost impossible. I really think the finish shoot and post race nourishment should have been down on the field and not 2 flights of stairs up on the stadium concourse. Also it was a bit cool that day, those shiny plastic wraps/blankets would have helped keep runners warm while they get their snacks. Overall I was very impressed. Compared to the Nissan Buffalo Marathon, I will absolutley stay home for this race again. Cheers, Jamey
T. C. from Ithaca, NY (9/19/2005) "Excellent potential but must work out the kinks" (about: 2005) 2 previous marathons \| 1 Rochester Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 3 I ran this marathon as one member of a team relay. I loved it and I would love to see this marathon succeed year after year. It is a small race (almost 800 full marathon finishers) with sparse crowds, but it has the potential to become larger. The course was interesting and reasonably flat, with an awesome start and finish at Frontier Field in downtown Rochester. The volunteers, as always, were great, and the weather cooperated very nicely. All that said, there were some first-year kinks to work out, especially with regards to the relay organization. The relay points need to be marked better out on the course. It was difficult at the first point to know where the 'handoff' was supposed to be and there was a lot of confusion and worry that maybe 2nd leg runners weren't at the right spot. Secondly, shuttle bus schedules and course map handouts with directions to drive to each relay point seemed to be totally nonexistent. Many relay teams were very confused. If two of our team members weren't Rochester natives, we would have had a very difficult time knowing what to do. And lastly, but most importantly - race results were not posted after the marathon! My team was in contention to win our category and we had to wait three hours, until the award ceremony(!!), which started half an hour late, to find out if we had won. Nobody seemed particularly interested or willing to help regarding the lack of posted race results. The person in charge later said runners had been stealing the result pages after they were taped to the wall. That seems a little odd, since we were checking the posting area very frequently, and never saw anything to suggest this was true. Besides, have you ever known runners to steal the posted results pages? Despite these gripes, my experience was very positive. By next year I think they'll have worked out these problems. This could easily be one of New York's best marathons year after year, and I would encourage everyone to give it a shot.
Sergey Korjenevski from Rochester, NY (9/19/2005) "dream comes true" (about: 2005) 4-5 previous marathons \| 1 Rochester Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Ontario shore was rather annoying, too boring and in the middle of no where. I was constantly praying to have in back to Rochester and finally it happened. For first time marathon it went pretty smooth. It needs a few polishing touches it promises to be perfect. The course is spectacular however is not exactly fast, - there are some hills including constant incline on the last miles, the 26th however is downhill. Stadium finish is truly nice. I was counting on fans support and was not disappointed. Big thank you to all who came out the Saturday morning to give support and cheer us up. Looking forward to run it next year. Thank you, very nice race!

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