I was able to enter the Rock 'n' Roll Seattle even though it had sold out. Extra spaces were opened to runners of the Country Music Marathon, an earlier race that was cut short by bad weather. I was able to complete my first marathon here at this fabulous race. This race is so well organized that it's hard to believe that it is only two years-old. The race organizers really paid attention to every detail.

Needless to say, the weather was much better than Nashville. In fact, it was ideal running weather. A few long and relentless hills make this a tough course, but there are many scenic sections to enjoy. Running along Lake Washington was eye-poppingly beautiful. Seattle in general is so beautifully green.

Even though there were 27,000 runners, excellent organization and fantastic volunteer support made for a smooth race day experience. The race started on time, and the wave start worked efficiently. The Start Line Village was spacious and had hundreds of porta-potties.
Here's a tip: The porta-potties along Interurban Avenue had very long lines; but if you followed the line of porta-potties to the very last corral (#39), the lines were much shorter. Instead of waiting for a half-hour or more, the line at the last corral was about 10 minutes.

The Rock 'n' Roll Marathon is about the bands along the course. There were plenty of bands, and they joined in the fun. A shout-out to the two band members who were singing in the street and gave me a low-five. The numerous cheer squads added to the fun atmosphere. Course support was excellent, and the volunteers were enthusiastic. Spectators along the lake and in downtown were great.

The headliner concert was part of the Finish Line Festival at Qwest Field. It was a great way to celebrate and enjoy even more music. This was my first visit to Seattle, and I will definitely be back.

This is a fine race with a lot of positives, and room for a couple of improvements.

Course: This is neither a positve nor a negative, but I will say that this was among the hilliest of my 16 marathons, with a few long, gradual climbs and a couple of steep declines. That said, Tukwila was a nice place to start, and the run along Lake Washington and over the floating bridge is beautiful. Downtown, the tunnels, the out-and-back to the north, and the viaduct along the water were all nice. But they really need to eliminate the 3 mile out-and-back at the end. Couldn't we go to Mercer Island or through a park to make up the difference? The concrete, which is plentiful, especially toward the end, really gets to you, and the final hill is demoralizing... you head down it at 23 knowing you'll have to come back up at 25. This is, in my opinion, the biggest area for improvement.

Organization: This race is extremely well organized. The expo is huge, and filled with great deals. Packet pick-up is a breeze. And we left with so many freebies that I was afraid I'd have to check another bag on our flight home. The shuttle to the start is well orgainized, but get there early. (We arrived at 4 and got on the first bus; would not want to be there at 5:30, though.) The start area is great - tons of bagels, fruit, and Cytomax, which is nice when you arrive at the start 2.5 hours early. The aid stations go on forever and are well stocked. One suggestion: why charge for runner tracking? I have never been to a race that does this. Complementary tracking makes for happier runners and family members.

Fans: I will count the volunteers in this category - they are plentiful, enthusiastic, and well prepared. The bands are great, but my wife said they stopped playing by the time the later runners passed through. I felt as though there were lots of fans throughout, except for the viaduct at the end.

One other point: while it is great to stay downtown near the finish, there are a lot of good hotels nearer the start that will save you a ton of money. At least one in Tukwila offered a shuttle to the start. We stayed at TownePlace Suites in Renton for about half the price of downtown; it was quiet and they even opened the door to the continental breakfast early on race morning.

Seattle is a great destination with lots to do and see. You'll enjoy the experience.

This marathon course, especially being in a scenic city like Seattle, was very poorly planned. It was run mostly on concrete, and with a lot of out-and-back on the same roads and bridges. The runners around me were even commenting on how much better the asphalt felt the few times we were running on it. Seattle is a very scenic city, but the race didn't feature many of the best sites. The finish area was only adequate and organization poor, as few announcements were made and volunteers were not handy for information.

I'll admit to being a bit surprised at the number of negative comments. Sure, the second half of the course was a bit dull, but I'm sure the organizers were trying to create a moderate course without too many nasty hills. To that end, they succeeded, but at the expense of "scenery."

In terms of organization, I found no issues. Expo was large and packet pickup was relatively trouble-free. Shirt was nothing to write home about, but the green will add a touch of color to the running wardrobe. Unlike others, I had no issues with the shuttles. I walked right up, got on the bus and we were off!

The first half of the course was quite scenic (and fairly flat), running next to Lake Washington. Crossing the I-90 bridge was a treat, offering great views of Bellevue and points east. Second half comprised a bunch of out-and-backs on WA 99, a state highway where they closed the Alaskan Way Viaduct downtown for us - impressive! Traffic control was top notch. Aid stations were numerous and well stocked.

If I had to complain, many of the mile markers were off by a significant degree. Also, the post-race food was somewhat lacking (bananas, some granola bars, that's about it). The medal had a nice Seattle-oriented theme (coffee and mountains). The lack of spectators for an event of this size was a bit surprising.

Overall, a quality event that I would recommend to others. A late June marathon is chancy no matter where in the Northern hemisphere it's staged, but the lack of other options at this time of year makes this race an attractive option.

Pros:
Hills are not too bad
Aids stations were plentiful and enthusiastic
Pretty medal

Cons:
Too many out-and-backs for marathoners
Not as scenic a course as it could be
Baggage drop left way too early (we were still waiting in the hour-long port-o-let line).
Port-o-lets were not available at the finish until after leaving the secure area.
Bands every mile were advertised but that was not the case.

I would not do this one again.

The transportation to the starting line was a mess. No organization at all. The course was mostly concrete and crowd support was very limited.

Great course - the hills were frequent, but manageable. Only complaint about the course is the final out-and-back, where we practically ran past the finish line for the final few miles and back. The runners' chute at the finish had fewer spectators than expected. Beautiful weather, great volunteer support (LOVE the way the water stations were set up!), well organized race, nice expo, and great running weather (no rain!). Overall, a great race!

The expo and start area were great. I was fortunate enough to gain entry to the VIP porta-potties - they're really nice.

I'm not a fan of the Rock 'n' Roll race starts. Each corral starting a few minutes after the prior corral, makes a long wait for those of us who aren't too fast. I started at least 45 minutes after the race was scheduled to begin.

The course itself was hilly, which is understandable in Seattle. The out-and-backs were miserable. By the final 5 miles or so, after running past Qwest Field, the out-and-back almost broke me. There were 3 out-and-backs for the entire race. Far too many for a marathon.

The aid stations were well stocked, the cheerleaders and bands were full of energy, and the spectators were lively and loud.

Compared to other Rock 'n' Roll races, this one was sub-par in regard to the shirt and medal.

My wife and I flew into Seattle to run as part of our 50 state quest. Expo was large and well organized - typical of these R'n'R events. We jumped on the North shuttle a little after 5 a.m. and got to the start area in about 20 minutes. No lines for toilets. I was in corral 5 and the wave start was fine.

Course was just "okay" for me. I could have done with less concrete, but views of the water were nice. Out-and-backs were okay, but it takes mental toughness to handle them. Coming from CT, I would have thought that the organizers would have found a better route to showcase Seattle better (trainyard at the end could have been skipped).
I found the course splitting the half marathoners from the full to be fine - I was worried, as there were a lot of negative comments about this last year.

As with most big marathons, post-race food was bleh.... I would think that 28,000 people paying about $100 or more would allow some more food choices than the VERY basic items they did have.

Pros:
1) Great expo with lots of booths and free samples. Also got autographs and my picture taken with Meb Keflezighi and Brian Sell!
2) Course aid stations were well stocked and the volunteers enthusiastic. Also, it was nice to have GU at miles 7 and 20.
3) Miles 6-10 around Lake Washington were beautiful.
4) Shuttle bus service to the start was well organized.
5) I actually like the emerald green Brooks technical shirts. It would have been nice to have separate shirts for the full and half-marathon.
6) Free beer at the finish and decent amount of food/drinks.

Cons:
1) Wave start was terrible. Somehow I was assigned corral 26, even though I had put an estimated finishing time of 4 hours. It took 41 minutes before my corral started the race! I've never had to wait that long to start any race (including the NYC Marathon). The wave start didn't help with congestion, as it was already congested before mile 1.
2) The course could be improved upon. The out-and-back portions on Highway 99 meant few spectators, and not much scenery. The last hill after mile 25 is cruel and unusual punishment. It would have been nice to run through more of Seattle's neighborhoods rather than on highways and through highway tunnels.

Overall, a well organized race by the R'n'R folks, but the wave start really needs to be changed. How about implementing separate starting times so that people don't have to stand around in their corrals for 40+ minutes after the official start!