All in all, I'm happy to have RnR running the Denver Marathon. The expo was very nice, the organization and communication were great. The start area was well organized, it was easy to get into the proper corral, and the race went off without a hitch. The aid stations were well-spaced and filled with GREAT volunteers, and the bands, cheer squads and other fans were enthusiastic and supportive.

However, the marking error during mile 24 was a huge mistake and left me disappointed overall. I was on pacing duty and trying to hit even splits to help my friends make PRs and break 3:30. We had a 90-second lead on our time goal at mile 23, and the turnaround cones on the horrible and ill-conceived 8th Avenue viaduct were placed in the wrong location, adding 0.15 miles to what was already a brutal mile. When something like that happens in mile 5, you can adjust. In mile 24, it's a disaster. We missed our time goal by about 7 seconds (but my friends made PRs). The course really is beautiful and fun - at least for the first 20 miles - but the frequent sharp turns, corners, out-and-backs and other quirks make it difficult to get in a rhythm and/or run quickly. I'd love to see them figure something out to make the last 6 miles more fun/scenic, but there are only so many ways to get from Wash Park to downtown. I never liked the Santa Fe route, but I liked this year's route even less.

Let's start with the expo. I had to pay $15 to park to just pick up my packet. Being unfamiliar with the Denver area, I don't even know if there was a free place to park. As much as you pay to enter the marathon, you shouldn't have to pay to pick the packet up.

Race morning was chaos. Gear check was next to impossible to find, and this area was so darn congested it was ridiculous. They MUST fix this. Plenty of port-a-potties though.

Course: needs improvement. There were a lot of turns and the 3 180-degree turns should be avoided - especially between miles 23.5 and 24. Seriously - over a bridge, turn around at a cone and back up over the bridge. The course through the parks was very pretty.

Medals were nice. Lots of food at the finish.

The course was nice and the fan support was great, but the organization at the beginning was horrible. It was mass chaos and no signs for anything like gear check, bathrooms, corrals, etc. They need to work on this for next year.

I'm glad I did it. It was overall a nice experience. Perfect weather, good organization, good crowd support. Two main gripes:

1) The course seems to have been nearly 300 meters long, thanks to some misplaced cones at roughly 23 1/2 miles.

2) There were many, many turns on the course, including at least two 180-degree turns. I think all of the turns made the course a bit slow.

Rock and Roll put on a good, fun run. Lots of energy... and lots of not-so-subtle for-profit commercialism. Cost (at the highest rate) is just under $5/mile/runner (for what? good traffic management by local police is important, but wonderful volunteers do most of the work, and sponsors clearly pay a fortune to get their mention, logo, products showcased, merchandise hawked... ok, a nice, custom, color medal). This one is a fun, well-run rip off, so to speak. I prefer the for-a-cause runs and local ones where it's clear they aren't just making maximum money for out-of-town interests. Still, I can remember when there wasn't a Denver marathon (or worse, a scheduled marathon that was canceled the day before).

The good:

The first half of the course: we snaked through downtown for about four miles and then ran through some trendy little areas east of downtown.

Plenty of water, GU, Cytomax.


The bad:

The second half of the course - very bland and boring. Way too much time in Washington Park. The long out-and-back on the bridge towards the end was terrible.

There were three or four areas with a TON of spectators, but other than that, it was a pretty lonely run.

The finishing area was confusing.

Rock and Roll Marathons only provide one tech shirt. For the price they charge, we should get a cotton shirt as well.

Wow! That was fun. My 5th marathon and it rates in the top 2. Loved finishing down the long chute with all the fans.

Excellent organization overall, perfect weather, interesting course, super spectators, cheerleaders and aid stations, numerous rockin' bands, big expo. I liked just about everything. Only small negative: not much food at end (or the halfers ate it all).

I really liked the timing chip sending text messages to friends and family, tracking my progress.

Congrats, Denver. You made us feel welcome and I had a great time.

This is my 5th marathon, my 3rd Rock 'n' Roll, and though Denver is a cool destination, the marathon was kind of "meh." First of all, though you do run through 3 or 4 parks, only the first (City Park) is memorable. The Canadian geese were cool! After that, because the course loops back on itself so many times, it gets boring. Also, watch out for that insult at mile 23/24: a mile-long bridge in an industrial part of town that's half a mile out and half a mile back. By then it was hot, too. Add to that few spectators after about the halfway point, few port-a-potties, only 2 GU stations, and inconsistency at the fluid stations (sometimes water; no Cytomax), and you've got a recipe for a so-so marathon. Also, this is not a flat course! But I was glad to find out that that thing about the altitude was largely a myth. (This was my first race with altitude.) I only developed a slight headache towards the end and that could have been from dehydration as much as anything else. I would not recommend this marathon unless they made some major changes to the course.

if you're going to have a beer tent and make people wear a bracelet, at least have enough beer to go around. An otherwise fine event with great course and spectators. Miller certainly didn't win any loyalty points from me by closing the tent just after 12 noon.

I signed up for RnR Denver inaugural marathon expecting it to be like the Arizona and Nashville races I ran in this franchise in the past. This one fell far short of those expectations. One of the highlights of the experience was the ticket to the evening headliner concert. This race had the headliner play at 10:30 a.m. Only the half-marathoners and Boston qualifiers would be able to see it. The course was horrible, with so many out-and-backs that I lost count. As I heard many times, it seems like the R'n'R franchise has just turned into a big money grab.

On the pro-side, the support was great and spectators really came out in force. Thanks, City of Denver. No thanks, Competitor racing.
I wish I would have waited to sign up for R'n'R St. Louis. I might have decided otherwise.