The 2010 running of the USAF Marathon had its largest field ever and was mostly organized with military precision. There were some notable exceptions, and some limitations of this race that go with the venue. Here, then, are the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Good:
- Ample hydration stations and porta-potties on the course.
- The heftiest medal I've ever gotten.
- Medals presented by AF top brass.
- Nice race swag, including patch and printed towel.
- Thoughtful placement of volunteers to keep arriving participants from impaling themselves on airplane parts or other hazards in pre-race darkness.
- Printed individual result sticker available immediately after running.
- Hot pizza and cold beer available post-race.
- Aircraft fly-overs during the race, including (featured) B-52, a pair of fighters, and a restored or reproduction Wright Flyer.
- Though the marathon and half-marathons had some course overlap, there was never a point where I felt impeded by half-walkers. Well done.
- Surprising amount of music on course.
- Last 1/4 mile is between (and under) two rows of vintage aircraft.

Bad:
- About 24 miles of the race are run in areas closed to civilian spectators. These were either on the base, or on closed, limited-access highways at the perimiter. Civilian spectator viewing is limited to the start/finish area near the Air Force Museum, and the 10th mile that detours into downtown Fairborn.
- Conditions this year were unusually humid and sunny - about 75F and 70% at median finish time.

Ugly:
- Very limited access to a working (secure) Air Force Base means that parking is more of a hassle than it would be almost anywhere else. Allow at least 90 minutes pre-race to sit in traffic, and a similar time to exit.
- Bag claim was not segregated by number. Resulting scramble resulted in 4 VERY LONG lines (35+ minutes to get bag)
- Charge for post-race massage - $15/15 min. This might be more tolerable except if it weren't for the time required to retrieve money.
- No water available at start.
- Half of the portable toilets at start/finish area were off-limits at start.
- Perhaps having K9 patrol with a German Shepherd lunging at runners in the start area is not the most friendly of gestures.

This was my first full marathon, and it excelled. After running several half marathon distance races, including some large ones, this was easily the most well organized event I've attended. All the previous year's issues have been resolved. Parking is now walking distance to the start/finish - there is no shuttle bus. The security gate is a non-issue; they bypass it and you drive right to the parking without even slowing down. I got to the interstate exit for the base an hour and a half early, based on prior year warnings, and was parked and ready to leave my car literally two minutes later.

Race started with military precision, the fly-bys were impressive, the aid stations were superb, and the pace teams precise.

The only negative for me was the hilly section between miles 22 and 25. I live in a hilly area and generally don't mind running them at all. However, this course is particularly difficult because you start with hills from miles 2-5, go nearly pancake flat for the next 17 miles, then get significant hills again just as your legs are really getting tired. So be prepared for that - but don't let it stop you from coming to this outstanding race.

And the medal- WOW. It looks like you placed in the Olympics. Thanks a lot, USAF marathon!

Perfect weather for this year's race. I really liked the course. It was a good mix of Air Force base, wooded areas, and a section of residential areas. I've run 40+ of these, so I really do not need crowd support. Like the announcer said before the race: how many of you have the course lined with spectators when you do a training long run?

Very good organization: an on-time start, finishing area well organized. I saw a lot of comments from prior years about the traffic congestion getting into the base. I arrived at 5:30 a.m. and had no issues. There was a nice set-up for hanging out before the run - TV's with ESPN playing, lot's of porta-johns and water, and gear check was smooth. The coolest part of the marathon was running the first 4 miles with the Bill Rodgers. Bill is very friendly, and from the comments extremely well respected by all runners. The B-52 flyover at the start was awesome.

A couple of areas that could be better: 1) separate the half runners from the full. At mile 22 I'm doing a 7:30/mile pace and run into a road congested with 12-14-minute-per-mile walker/runners. That just doesn't work for me. It cost a lot of time and energy. 2) Mile 26 was clearly mismarked long. 3) That was a long, long walk from the parking area to the starting area.

Overall, a very good marathon. I ended up with my 3rd best all time. I would do this again, but keep those half marathoners out of the way, please.

I love the show of airplanes, support on the course, and the Mile Ten fun in Fairborn.

I would love to have more areas with spectators;

The morning parking was horrible. My hotel was less than 3 miles from the parking, I was in a car line that didn't move 75 minutes before race time, and due to a shift in traffic ordered by officials, I did not make it to the race by start time. We need better traffic control.

Last four AF marthon were fantastic. This year's marathon was terrible.
Marathoners were treated as numbers to reach their goal of 10,000 runners. They really dropped the ball on what made all previous AF Marathon special. I am not the only one that feels this way. Every person I talked with had simular problems.

Below are some of benefits they had in the past, but did not have this year:
(1) No sponges
(2) Fewer bathrooms along the course (gigantic lines at starting bathrooms)
(3) After-race treat: stale pretzels
(4) Long lines for parking (many people missed starting time, even after being in car line 1.5 hours before the race)
(5) Overzealous military police (slowing parking and preventing drop-offs)
(6) Poor food at directors' breakfast (got sick)
(7) Guest speakers are now a panel instead of sharing their personal story as in the past. Some were only concerned with selling their books and programs.
(8) Terrible parking (had to walk two miles to my car after running 26.2 miles. Last year they had shuttles and let non-runner family members drive up closer three hours after the race started.
(9) No oranges for half-marathoners
(10) Long registration lines.
(11) Increased cost of spaghetti dinner
(12) Extra service charge for meal tickets

I loved the last 4 years of running this marathon, but I think the AF Marathon staff this year were worried more about achieving their record number of runners goal than continueing their excellent marathon legacy.

This truly is a great race! And they do a lot for the runners. However, there's a long walk to the start line, so you want to make sure that you get there with more than enough time before the start of the race.

I don't think the city of Fairborn was ready to be flooded with 12,000 runners....

The traffic jams started when we arrived at the Nutter Center to pick up the race packet. It took about 10-15 minutes to get into the parking lot. We traveled a good 8 hours to this race and the last thing we were expecting was sit in traffic and be circled ALL the way around the Coliseum to pick up the race number. The streets around town were clogged with traffic and all of the restaurants were jam packed.

On race morning we left the hotel at 5:30 a.m. for the 7:15 a.m. start, thinking this would be plenty of time. HAHA!! We sat in a NON-MOVING line of traffic to enter the air force base for OVER an hour!! The parking lot we finally got into was a giant field and had to walk almost a mile to the start line. The port-o-potties had lines at least 10-deep. I finally made it to the start, a nervous wreck, at 7:13 a.m., missing the flyover and national anthem.

The course itself was great: Varying between flat runways, going through the downtown and some back roads around town. Spectators, bands, and cheerleaders made the race very enjoyable. I ran a PR by over 8 minutes!

My right leg locked up after finishing the race and the medics rushed over to tend to me. So thankful!

The food was so-so. Thought there would be more, considering how expensive this race was!!

So, all in all, good race, but probably wouldn't run it again due to the logistical nightmares.

This use to be a small marathon, and when the decision to grow was made, obviously little consideration was given to the logistics involved. The parking was bad on a proportion that can't be described. You unfortunately just had to live through the nightmare to understand. I appreciate that budget cuts have depleted police force budgets... but the two cops not directing traffic off-base (at the same street corner) did nothing to speed things up. In effect, you had 10K people (plus spectators) trying to get into the two open gates and the only thing allowing traffic to move were stoplights... good luck with that. My advice, since the field certainly won't be smaller next year and logistics won't be fixed (see 2009 reviews for more complaints like this) is to try to get to the race two or more hours in advance. If you do, you might make it on time. The race organizers kept saying that their biggest complaint was that there weren't a lot of spectators... but I fail to believe that that's the *biggest* complaint of this race. It's just the biggest complaint that they can easily ignore.

Overall it's a flat and fast course. I set a PR with water stops every mile (great kudos to the volunteers, who were very energetic and appreciated) and I might do the race again (I'll probably show up ridiculously early though).

This was my 3rd USAF, and I must say, I like the couse, and the spectators are great, but what happend to all of the planes? Three years ago the fly-overs were constant, especially at the finish line. This year we saw the B-52 twice at the start and barely saw a jet while running (and the bi-plane was just annoying). At the finish line I never saw a single plane. (I was there from the 3:20 finishers through the 4:30's.) I have recommended this race to everyone who would listen in the past, but after the lack of planes, it's just another marathon to me. :(

Bring back the fighter jets; nothing energizes a start like a jet.

Overall grade: A+. How can you go wrong running with our armed forces personnel, B-52 and F-16 flyovers? The volunteers at this event rock! I write very few reviews, but, I just had to give these guys the credit they deserve. That being said, here is a review of individual pieces.

Course: A. Relatively flat and a few rolling hills. Nothing to get stressed about on the hills and the inclines provide a way to stretch the legs.

Volunteers: A+. Super enthusiastic and very well organized.

Crowds: A. Not huge in any given area, but lots of them. There are parts where fans are not appropriate (e.g., around the air field) but these are very few  and the Volunteers make up for it. In town, the crowds were full and really embraced the race. Lots of high 5's for the kids who enthusiastically put their hands up along the way. Add to that the bands, the stores feeding the crowds, and people in lawn chairs, and you have a lot of positive energy flowing.

Hydration Stations: A++. Virtually every mile and well organized. If you were dehydrated in this race, stop running! :) Seriously, they have water and aid at every station, lots of GU handouts, fruit, good staffing. What else could you ask for?!

Finish: A. Drinks, pizza and beer - how can you go wrong?! Add free massages to the package, and you got an A finish.

Expo: B. It was a bit odd that the expo is on the way to packet pickup instead of after. You had to walk back around to go through just the expo. But once there, very typical expo.

Parking: D. The lines were long and slow-moving, both coming and going. With two interstates connecting to the base, there has to be a better way. (Note this still does not take away from the overall race grade. That shows how great the race is!)

Weather: A. Not that a race can control it, but it started in the mid 55s and peaked in the low 70s. Even then, most the running at that point was in the shade.

Overall, I would describe this marathon as a can't miss in your list of marathons. These folks work very hard at the marathon and it shows. Every event sold out this year and you can see why.