The course and workers did a great job. The number of people trying to get on limited buses was disappointing. Many missed the start time.

With over 30K runners, we overran the freeway system. I live about 10 minutes away from the starting line and was concerned that allowing 50 minutes wasn't enough. In the end, all worked out okay, but from word of mouth, some people seem to have missed the official start.

I'm very surprised there aren't any comments here yet. Given the transition from small to huge marathon, I knew there would be some hiccups. However, between the long wait picking up my number, the long wait trying to get to the start, the lack of toilet paper in any of the 5 porta-johns I opened, excessive walking to and from the event, poorly planned water stops, the lack of bands and the terrible disorganization at the finish line, I have very little nice to say about this event. What went well? The weather was ideal! But then again, the Rock n Roll Marathon folks didn't have a hand in that, now did they?

This marathon left me with mixed feelings. On balance, San Antonio under-delivered. The bright spots were well done but overshadowed by some bad choices and poor delivery.

On the good, the bus shuttle to the starting line was well-organized and the wave start went very well. Liquids were plenteous and the volunteers were tremendous. Thanks, volunteers! The first half of the marathon was wonderfully picturesque, as we wove our way through some beautiful sections of downtown. These areas were fairly well-populated by spectators.

On the bad, my biggest disappointment was the lack of bands on the course. The marathon literature proclaimed 70 bands and non-stop entertainment. This could not be further from reality. I MAY have seen 15-20 bands. This certainly doesn't qualify as non-stop. Although I genuinely appreciate the ones that turned out, the spectators after mile 10 were very sparse. This was one of the pre-race knocks on the San Antonio community that turned out to be true. The second half of the course was desolate and unenjoyable. There were significantly better options for the last half of the course than the one chosen. The pick-up for the shuttle back to parking was entirely too far from the finish line, where all of the exhausted runners were and we were forced to walk down then back up long series of stairs then half a mile away to board while empty buses sat 6 feet away from us most of the walk. The wonderful air conditioned tour buses that took us to the start were replaced by yellow school buses without air. This was bad form.

While I understand that a marathon isn't supposed to be painless, we all (well almost all) wear comfortable shoes and clothing and seek out visually stimulating training courses. The attraction to this particular marathon, the entertainment, was a bust. If it is indicative of how other RNR Marathons deliver, I may not bother. If it is just San Antonio, I certainly will not bother going there again.

Given the size of the crowd the organization was ok. I was pleasantly surprised that they had any food left for the marathoners given the huge number of halfathoners. I finished just before 4 hours. The full and half courses merged at mile 24. I have never, ever seen anything like the huge mob of walkers in the half marathon. It is hard to describe. I think of Moses walking in the desert with the Hebrews. There were thousands and they didn't look happy. For some reason a few these people thought it was a good idea to wander over to the marathon side. I guess they wanted to mix it up with the runners. They did manage to get in the way. Generally, running beside that slow mob seemed to slow my pace. It was surreal. The weather was practically perfect. But on a typical warm and humid San Antonio November day, many of those under-trained folks would have ended up in the med tent.

The pre-race area was a fiasco. I have never seen a race with such bad traffic conditions prior to the start. Attended the expo on Friday night. It wasn't crowded, but it seemed like they didn't have enough space for the crowds. The booths weren't much better than when San Antonio Marathon was a small race with maybe a thousand marathoners.

The course is basically flat and moderately scenic. It had a lot of turns. It isn't very shaded. The crowds were good, especially in downtown, but they were very sparse out by the missions. The volunteers and cheerleaders were terrific. The aid stations were well stocked. Cytomax has a funky, flowery taste and fortunately it was not watered down.

It seemed like most of the bands were always taking breaks or calling it a day whenever I passed them. The bands that I heard playing were great.

Overall, not bad for Elite Racing's first time in San Antonio.

The finisher shirt was for sale. I didn't buy one because it was a basic $2 white cotton T-shirt that cost $22.

It was hilarious at the start when Governor Perry said, "Welcome to Austin." He corrected himself so I don't think many people caught it.

I've done several inaugural Elite events - VA Beach, Country Music, Arizona. I've always enjoyed them but this was a disappointment. VERY over-crowded from start to finish. There was over an hour wait to AND from the race for the shuttle buses to the parking area. They even routed the wait line up and down some stairs (after people had just finished running 26.2 miles!) when it was possible to route them around another way without stairs! INEXCUSABLE!

This race would have been enjoyable and manageable if they'd capped it under 20,000 runners, but 30,000 registered runners was just a mob scene. I was in a corral toward the back, but we started 57 minutes after the actual start - no idea why it took so long. I never saw porta-potties along the route that would have had less than a 10-minute wait the lines were so long. Not anywhere near as many bands or cheerleaders as typical at other RnR events.

I hope they get Seattle right; I'm hesitating now about registering.

The logistics need to be worked out before next year. There was limited parking at the expo, the expo was really crowded, the P.A. announcer kept talking over the speakers, etc. On race day, we left our hotel at 5:45 to go to the AT&T Center to take the recommended shuttles to the starting line. We still missed the 7:30 start time. Traffic getting to the AT&T Center was awful, the line for the shuttle was thousands deep, and there were people still parking as our shuttle pulled away.

The course was fine for the first 10 miles, but then turned quiet and boring until mile 22.

The race did have plenty of water, Cytomax, etc. But the shuttles after the race were horrible again. Had to stand in line for an hour... not what you want after running 26. Could be a good race if they get these things worked out. Weather was great!

As an SA native, I knew I wanted to be a part of this race as soon as it was announced that it would be part of the RnR series. I was very pleased with the largely flat course. Crowd support was a pleasant surprise, and considering SA has never held a race like this before, I expect this will get even better. The weather was beyond perfect. The organization was fantastic. As a 6-hour marathoner, it was wonderful seeing people and resources the whole way through. There seemed to be some unhappiness with the madhouse at the start but I did not have to use the shuttles so I can't comment on that.

A thing that could be improved was the start time. With an official start of 7:30, an actual start of 7:44, and 32 corrals, some runners had to wait over an hour to start. Starting it 30 minutes earlier would be great, since the time change will already have happened.

The bands were awesome, and if anything I would have liked more. I appreciated the fact that I was allowed to supplement the live music with my own Mp3 player.

I will be back to participate next year. Great job, San Antonio.

They did a great job putting this together given the size. The only big issue was parking. You had to take shuttles to/from your car and after the race it took over an hour to get back to your car. The course was great and they had plenty of water/Cyotmax along the route. The food at the end was well laid out and they had plenty to go around. As you finished you ran by a big crowd, and the support during most of the race was great.

The course was nice, even though miles 13 through 22 did not have much to look at since the course was mostly on small rural roads. The corral starting system was great and should be done at all marathons. The organization was poor at best. The expo was so crowded that there was a huge line just to get into the event and once inside it was so crowded that it was very difficult to do any shopping or looking around. The finish area of the marathon was extremely crowded. There were 25 UPS gear check trucks for 30,000 runners. It took forever getting your gear and was more than just chaotic. Again, there was one beer line for 30,000 people. The line was so long that I am sure most people opted not to have a beer. The line for the shuttles to the AT&T center was so long that I do not think I could stood in that line without going insane. Overall, this could be a really good marathon but needs better organization to accommodate the huge number of runners. I will probably be back next year but really hope that the organizers fix some of the organizational matters.