Overall: I would not run this race again.

I was expecting a lot from this race, but it did not deliver. Here are my pros/cons (note, this is not my first marathon, so I am comparing it to others I have run).

Pros:
1. Large expo
2. Race medals great
3. Cold towels at the finish were a nice touch!
4. Cold bottles of water at the finish (not cups, but an actual bottle... you listening, Honolulu Marathon?)
5. Good aid stations, although could use more in the 2nd half
6. Start area was easy to get around and the wave start worked just fine
7. Cold sponges handed out along the course were handy
8. Lots of Team in Training folks; good to see how much they raised

Cons:
1. Expensive to park at any hotel
2. Expo, while large, was way too cramped - aisles need to be larger
3. Awful course. Very little of the course was beautiful. Too much running on or next to the freeway. Road surface was not ideal at times.
4. Finish area. Oh my. Having runners end in a giant parking lot with ZERO seating is not great. People were sitting on hot, filthy pavement. There was nothing magical about the finish. And because of this, I never did see the concert because the finish area makes you want to get the heck out of dodge!
5. Finish line transportation. Asking runners to stand in the sun, on pavement, for over 90 minutes while they wait for a shuttle is terrible. It was worse than Disney Land. We ended up taking a taxi.
6. Photographers were almost non-existent on the course - I think I saw 2 pictures and then finish line photos from way far away.
7. The course stayed crowded the entire time. They should separate the half-marathoners from the marathoners, or teach etiquette to runners
8. Spectators were sparse along much of the course due to the freeway and Fiesta Island area.

Suggestion for race organizers: Have us end in Balboa Park. That was the best part.

This year's course was awful! First of all, I'm a big fan of Mission Beach, but not when making thousands of people run on a single sidewalk for 3 miles. And Fiesta Island was just about as bad as it gets. No spectators (besides at the water stations); and it had a dry desert feel and went on for years! The last 5-6 miles are usually the toughest, and this finish pretty much made it impossible to do (or WANT to do). What about Old Town? The Gaslamp? Harbor Island? San Diego has SO MUCH to offer and this course was a poor showing of it. I will not run this race again until they make some changes.

I wish the beauty, the crowd and the organization of the first half had carried through the second half, to the end. The last half was on sidewalks, on a desolate island with no bands, with no spectators, and the finishing areas on the blacktop were downright inhumane for racers and spectators alike. This race convinced me never to do an R'n'R or big marathon again.

First the good: the volunteers were top notch, the course was beautiful and the on course support was great. Now the bad: there weren't nearly enough port-a-potties at the start. I missed my corral and I wasn't the only one. Also, it took us 3 hours after the race to finally get back to our hotel. After finishing the race, we stood in line for a port-a-potty, walked about half of a mile to the buses, stood in a long winding lineup for buses for over an hour (this while I was feeling very sick), got stuck in traffic on our bus, lined up for the train, walked to the train station, waited for the train for almost 30 minutes, sat on the train for another 20 minutes and then walked the half-mile back to our hotel. And there was no other option! It's unacceptable to ask marathoners who have just run a hot humid marathon to have to stand in lineups for hours after the race just to get back to our hotel. Cabs should be an option. We were from out of town and didn't have a car. Our hotel also didn't have a shuttle to the start, which was 2.4 miles away. So we went to another hotel which did have a shuttle. The organizers need to make it easier for runners to get to and from the race. Until then, I would not do this race again.

I was very excited to be running in such a beautiful city, but upon finishing I could not have been more disappointed. I will not go on and on, but the 2 things that have got to be addressed are: 1. you never want to have a half marathon and full marathon using parts of the same course, much less running together for way too many miles; 2. at the end of a marathon you do not have the runners go through 4 miles of agony on a deserted, uninspiring island - very poor planning.

Cali is checked off of the list. I will not be back to do another, and I would not recommend it to anyone

If you have ever run a Rock 'n' Roll event, you've experienced great entertainment, aid stations, volunteers and spectators. San Diego was no different. A pleasant surprise was ice at many of the aid stations, and cold, wet hand towels at the finish.

The HUGE disappointment was the course itself. It really did not showcase San Diego like I had expected it to. I was also extremely disappointed to find that, at mile 9, the half marathoners had rejoined us, causing severe congestion (just like we had at the start). At this point of the race, marathoners are in their groove; making them weave and push through walkers who are shoulder-to-shoulder just interferes with their race.

I can't express enough how disappointed I was by the finish. R'n'R made it sound so exciting to have a finish at Sea World, but the reality was that it was a dirty, tar-filled parking lot that ruined my shoes and offered no place to sit. San Diego has so many beautiful places that could have been chosen; why they picked a hot, smelly, asphalt-covered one I'll never understand.

Between the half marathoner barricades and the tar-filled finish, I'll never run this race again or recommend it to anyone - unless major changes are made.

Overall, this was a nice race to run once, but nothing special enough to warrant a repeat.

Postives:
- The expo and start were both well organized.
- The spectators were great.
- Great volunteers, rock bands, and cheer squads along the course.

Negatives:
- With participation this significant, it would have been helpful to have race-organized shuttles to local hotels after the race. Trying to find the hotel-provided shuttles back to the hotels or taking the race-provided shuttle to the trolley and then the trolley to the hotels was a time-consuming nightmare.
- Merging the half-marathoners and marathoners from about miles 6-11 was a really BAD idea because, by this time, the half-marathoners were mostly walkers, while the marathoners were still running strong, resulting in the marathoners having to slow down and/or weave around walkers.
- The course ran on a graded highway that tilts for miles, really hurting the knees.

Pros
- Spectators were extremely supportive!
- Great bands!
- Amazing volunteers! (I wish they were all wearing gloves; I ended up with unexplained food poisoning)

Cons
- VERY slanted roads
- 6 miles of concrete sidewalks in exposed sun (no shade)
- Too many curves and sudden U-turns
- Long restroom lines at the start. (MANY people, including myself, still waiting when the race started. I waited for 40 minutes total.)
- Team in Training coaches hop onto the course, run abreast with their runners, blocking the course for the rest of us, and then stop suddenly to get off of the course. TNT coaches stopped suddenly in front of me many times. I will NEVER do an event with heavy TNT participation again. There are plenty of other great charities to support.
- The finish at Sea World was ridiculous! Lack of signage. They route you through lots of vendors before standing in line for a shuttle. It took hours to get back to our hotel near the start. Participants had to wait in long lines in the dirty Sea World parking lot for a couple of hours to get on a bus that took us to public transportation. Who feels like that after a marathon?
- Messed up my registration info
- My XS shirt is huge and not an appropriate shape for women
- Course too crowded in the beginning and one of the early water stops was a huge constriction. I had to weave around a lot of runners for miles. The course got better when the halfers and full marathoners split. The half marathoners re-merged with the marathoners at their 5-mile mark and our 10-mile mark. Combining faster marathoners with slower half-ers meant we now had to do a lot of weaving again! Dumb idea.

Not all Rock 'n' Roll races are the same. I LOVED the Phoenix RNR; it was amazingly well organized. I do not recommend this one. DO NOT RUN THIS RACE! THERE ARE LOTS OF GREAT MARATHONS OUT THERE! This is the most poorly organized race I've ever done, despite how expensive it is. The organizers clearly cared more about profit than the health of the runners. However, I love marathons, so I still really enjoyed the experience.

This was my first "real" marathon, so I have nothing to compare it to. I really only have 2 improvements: 1. The freeway section with half and full runners on each side could use work; some slower-paced halfers were on the wrong side, clogging things up. 2. The finish line, and the process of getting out were both a bit unorganized. Other than that, I had a great time.

1. The S.D. Marathon got VERY GREEDY. This used to be a race for the glory of the marathon. This year they had a 10K, 13K, half, and full. we merged twice with them. I was running a 7:15 pace only to meet the 9:15 pace halfers. That was another nightmare.
2. The logistics of the finish line pick-up were HORRENDOUS. I ended up paying $30 for a taxi ride out. Waiting over one hour to get out was a nightmare. I will not do this race again until they change it.
3. Family pick-up at Qualcomm? What the heck is that about? That's where they wanted us to be picked up.
4. Expo was good. Lots of goodies. I did meet Ryan Hall. That was cool.
5. The last 4 miles around "Fiesta" Island? Sorry, but it felt like a deserted island with few to NO spectators.
6. I was disappointed overall with the fact that they had to change the finish line to accommodate the size of the race. They changed the route with A LOT of quick short turns. Seems like they did whatever they could just to cover 26 miles.
7. I don't have knee problems, but my knees were hurting after this race due to the horrible slants in the road that ran for about 3, maybe more, miles. I know more people felt like this.

I love SD. That's why i've done it 8 times. But I had to vent and say that this was the worst one.