I thought it was a very well organized event and I loved the shirt. I was disappointed that the medal didn't distinguish full from half, but at least I know I did it. I live just outside of Manchester and never realized how many hills there are! The second half was a little sparse spectator-wise, when you could use it the most (especially after watching the half marathons turn left to the finish). I thought the traffic control at the intersections was great and the aid stations were very well staffed. I didn't have any prior experience with a timing chip but it sure seemed awkward and was tough to find a comfortable spot. Overall, though, great job!

This was my first marathon and probably not the best one to start on because of the surprisingly large number of hills. The crowd was very supportive. The event was well organized. It was really a pretty good marathon but one I won't do again until I am more experienced.

For a first-year race, I was impressed with the organization and number of volunteers. The spectators were some of the best. I kept thinking they must have paid all of the spectators to stay out so long.

The police and emergency/traffic control folks did a great job on a tough course. They had to cover many intersections and I never had a problem at any intersection or cross road. Congratulations to the race organizers for a fantastic first year.

The City of Manchester has experience putting on races for big crowds - namely, the Cigna 5K Corporate. Using the same start and finish locations made the transition from putting on a 5K to hosting a marathon a snap for them.

A hilly course with all the sections of the city covered. A little windy in some locations, but at least we didn't get poured on. The crowd was fantastic for a first year - I was surprised. Great job. Definite must-do.

If you want to run fast, do not run this marathon. I have never experienced such a tough course in all my years competing! But the event itself was great. The organizers did a wonderful job pulling it off. The chip was odd (never before seen 'chip' was as big as a dinner plate strapped to my shoe!) and should have had a mat at the start to record gun time. Other than that, I have no complaints. The crowds were wonderful and seemed to be very knowledgeable of the event taking place (in other words they weren't just out there yelling GO RUNNERS, they were actually cheering useful information like place in the race and how much longer until the uphill ends). Kudos the people of Manchester in putting on a great event and good luck in the future as it perhaps attracts more publicity.

Hills, hills and more hills. This was the toughest of the 9 marathons I've run so far...one hill after another after another.

Not too bad for an inaugural race. Some room for improvement:
-Definitely need better traffic control. Many times throughout the course the runners ran with traffic sucking in exhaust fumes and dodging fenders
-Not much support after the 13.1 mile mark. Definitely need to drum up some support for the remainder of the race.

Unexpected pros:
-Aid stations were all sufficiently stocked
-Tech fabric participant shirts

Well organized event over a tough but fair course for the marathon runner. Great spectators for the first half marathon which is on the east side of the river but limited crowds during the second half until the final 3 miles. That said the St. Anselms cross-country teams were a welcome and enthusiastic group at mile 19. Only organizational complaint was that Porta-John lines were full right up to start time. Excellent job with water/gator-aid stands and super support from staff and police in traffic control. Soup competition with hot food after the race was a nice touch. Course looks harder on paper than it really is. The tough hills come early and are not too steep, at least for us New England runners. I ran 3:41 at Steamtown 4 weeks earlier and managed a 3:28 here at Manchester although the cooler temps had a lot to do with that. Long grind into a 15mph wind from miles 15-18 was toughest stretch but that would be absent on a less blustery day. Overall a good test and the city really poured out the support. Oh - and as a bonus I got to watch Joan Benoint Samuelson start the race then jump in and come zipping by a mile into the race on her way to winning the womens half-marathon.

For an inaugural marathon, there was a surprisingly high level of community awareness and involvement. Organization was OK from start to finish, lots of volunteer support to keep runners on course. This is noted because this was not an easy course with relentless ups and downs all over town and runners were stretched out far and thin. Since for the most part this was an open course with cars whizzing by you as you ran along the gutters, intersection traffic control and direction control was vital.
Some ideas for improvement would be to improve the chip timing system (DAG system?...a big 2' ring in a clear plastic square to strap to your shoe...what was that?) and have starting mats instead of gun time. This would not have been such a big deal if there had been some sort of pace marking at the start instead of a massive gaggle. I was a little disappointed that the half-marathon and full-marathon shared all the frills to include the same medal.