Pittsburgh Marathon was my second marathon, and it outperformed my first by a long shot. The weather threatened, but as is Pittsburgh weather, the early morning rain dissipated to simply overcast cool conditions. The one time Pittsburgh's lack of sun is what you want.

The weather may have deterred some spectators from coming out, and Oakland was a bit weak because of the week-later race date, but all-in-all the race had tons of support. The Officials, the neighborhoods, the spectators, the music, etc. was amazing, and it was really a good motivation to keep pace.

Pittsburgh may be considered 'hilly', but honestly it is a totally fair course. I went under 3:30 (just barely), which was 45 minutes under my PR from Richmond. Pittsburgh allows for a smart runner to perform well, but if you charge the hills, or make mistakes, the course takes from you. It's totally fair, in my opinion, which may be worth nothing.

In comparison to Richmond 'the friendliest marathon', which I believe was very friendly, Pittsburgh may be able to claim that away with their great fan support, and lack of 'dead' spots. Locations that I thought would be empty of fans were popping, and it made the miles go right by.

I do have two complaints. The lack of water bottles at the finish. The OVER security of the pre-race location.

Love ya Pittsburgh. Next year it's me and my friends pushing through.

Running this race, I'd never have guessed that the PIttsburgh Marathon had gone on hiatus just a few years back. Clearly, the city wants this race to work- I've never seen as much support, almost consistently spread through the neighborhoods along the course. Some of the pros: a generous number of water/Gatorade stations, plus four GU stations. I judge fan support by who comes out on a rainy, Sunday morning - and quite a few did: lots of cheers, more than a few oranges, lots of music. Even in some of the economically depressed areas, residents were out cheering us on. That said, Pittsburgh is a city of hills - there's a good variety of up and down here, but only a few grinders (the Birmingham Bridge followed by the Forbes Ave. climb into Oakland at mile 11 stands out). Not a PR, but a very enjoyable run on a cloudy, misty day. Though downtown hotels had sold out, we found easy accommodations out by the airport - a quick drive into the city. I'd recommend this race,

I wanted to make Pittsburgh my 1st marathon because it's (A) the area I'm from and (B) it is a challenging course with an excellent reputation all around. I had to train in the worst conditions possible - 5 hours North of Detroit, in snow country USA and all alone. Most of my runs were in the snow and below 20 degrees. With that said, I plan on doing the training every year until I can no longer run. The pain and frustration is worth it. The Pitt Marathon is an unbelievable experience. I have absolutely no gripes about this race. There are always some things that can go better or be tweaked, but really, this is as close to perfection as you can get.

Crowd Support - A+
Course - A+
Water Stations - A
Website and Facebook - A++
Weather - It is what it is.
Parking - A (Lots of options)
Medals - A+
Expo - B
Organization - A+++
Goodie Bag & Shirt - A+

I have nothing bad to say about this race, and would invite anyone who may have a question to email me. If your looking for a race to remember, look no further.

This is the first time I've run the full marathon. I've run the half the past two years since the race started back up after its little vacation.

The starting line and finish line: changes made the whole experience SO much better. I do agree with another reviewer regarding the corrals. There were definitely people in faster corrals that probably shouldn't have been there, but I'm not sure how you could really handle this since the racer puts down their expected time.

All in all, it was a great event as it has been in past years. Crowds thinned out at certain areas, but that was not surprising, seeing the rain we had. Volunteers at the aid stations were awesome and very eager to hand off drinks, gels, and oranges.

If you want to run a marathon with spectacular views and get a tour of the entire city, run the Pittsburgh Marathon on May 6, 2012.

Pittsburgh, I am now a believer. The course was relatively hilly, with one real challenging climb. The city came out to support this great race, and the volunteers were everywhere! I have run in Nashville several times but the music here was more frequent and just as good. I would travel to Pittsburgh again for this race without even thinking twice.

This is nearly a perfect race. The course is interesting and challenging but fair. The on-course support (both official and unofficial) was first-rate. The nicest medal I've ever received and a great shirt. The earlier complaints about the start and finish were accounted for beautifully. Coming over the Clemente Bridge to Gen. Robinson for the finish was a stroke of genius. My only complaint is that all of the first-leg relay runners apparently were placed in the first corral, which created some unnecessary congestion. Hats off to the RD for the best version of the Pittsburgh Marathon yet.

The course:
This is a great, challenging course with a limited amount of extended flat mileage and plenty of incline (mostly gradual and extended). Unlike Boston, the more challenging climbs come in the first half of the race, but the last 4 miles are very similar to Boston (an extended downhill followed by a few flat miles to finish). While often a difficult strategy to employ, you can really make up some time on the last 4 miles if you conserve energy on the uphills early on.
Pros:
(1) More than adequate water stations and good volunteer support
(2) Best finisher medal I've seen (19th marathon)
(3) Live music throughout the course
(4) Decent crowd support
(5) Race bibs with your name on it
(6) Relatively inexpensive to stay in Pittsburgh (can you believe I paid $5 for O/N parking??)
Cons:
(1) Sub-par post-race food/water setup. There was water in cups right at the finish, but as you moved along towards the end where the carbs were, there was no more water to be found. Poor planning there. Also, a warm fruit cup is not appealing.
(2) Congested finish. At around the 3 hour point, the finish was clogged with relatively slow moving walkers and half marathoners. The thrill of finishing a marathon is dampened somewhat having to work thru a crowd of walkers. This could easily be remedied by creating a marathoners-only finishing lane.
To summarize, while not the best place to be looking for a PR, this is an interesting course with alot of character. I ran this race in 2009 and I think the crowd support has grown some since then. If Pittsburghers come to embrace this race the way they do in Boston, this will become a special event you definitely won't want to miss. There were a few, fairly easily remedied organizational issues, but as a whole the race was well run. Thumbs up and thanks, Pittsburgh!

They do a great job hosting this race - the pre-race setup is good, there are more than adequate fluid/fuel/portajohns on the course, and spectators come out. Pittsburgh is a hilly city, so while they do everything possible to stay to a flat course, you can expect to do a lot of climbing, often in slow and steady rises, especially from miles 11 through 20.

My one complaint is that they had a lot of walkers on the course, and they were finishing the half-marathon at the same time the marathoners were coming in. That led to a very crowded final-mile finish, with a lot of walkers in the middle of the course and walking three and four-abreast. Not ideal.

But other than that, a good, enjoyable run in a great city.

This was my second marathon in Pittsburgh and I forgot how hilly it was... but the race is fun, organization was great (18,000 runners at the start in all) and the crowds have gotten bigger since I last ran it. It would be nice to finish INSIDE Heinz Field, which I did in 2003, but overall this is a great race... I loved every minute of it. :-)

This was a really great race! The course was on very wide roads, so there was minimal runner congestion. There were plenty of fluid stations and 4 places for GU. The hills were tough, but the views, especially crossing the West End Bridge, were amazing!

In case the race directors are reading, a few minor suggestions: The steel drummers that were at mile 25 were fantastic! I wish they were at the base of the hill at mile 11, too. Also, water at the start would have been nice.