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Mad Marathon Runner Comments
Back to Mad Marathon Information & Reviews
Course 4.6 
Organization 4.8 
Spectators 3.9
Number of comments: 82 [displaying comments 31 to 41]
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S. C. from Westchester County, NY
(7/17/2014)
 "Beautiful!!!" (about: 2014)
50+ previous marathons
| 1 Mad Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 This marathon has some of the most spectacular scenery in the Northeast! And the reason is those hills take you up to some amazingly beautiful vistas!! From beginning to end this race was wonderful...not too many spectators but the volunteers were so wonderful! I am nursing very questionable knees and took it nice and easy on this race. Set my Galloway timer to 4:1's but wound up walking a lot of those major uphills. Ice baths at the finish was a wonderful gift as was the swimming hole about 1/2 mile from the finish. Don't miss this well-done marathon, and appreciate the beauty of the surrounding countryside. | |
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D. S. from Quincy, MI
(7/17/2014)
"Toughest and most beautiful road marathon I've run" (about: 2014)
50+ previous marathons
| 1 Mad Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 I chose the Mad Marathon as last in my quest to run one in all 50 states. What a GREAT choice! Yes, it was the hilliest, most challenging road marathon course I've ever run, but I was glad that my last state was on a tough course! It was also an absolutely gorgeous course the entire way! Waitsfield is a darling little town with nice inns, a great Farmers Market and awesome hiking close by. The race director was awesome at helping our group of 27 from Michigan with restaurants, accommodations, etc. and made sure I had race number 50 too! Would highly recommend this 'destination' marathon! | |
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K. P. from Oakland, CA
(7/15/2014)
 "Beautiful course but let's enjoy earlier in the AM" (about: 2014)
50+ previous marathons
| 1 Mad Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 2 I thoroughly agree with all the positive remarks I read below - my 57th marathon and by far the prettiest. I'm beyond PRs so walking the ubiquitous hills was fine with me - better opportunity to enjoy the scenery. Volunteers were amazing and enthusiastic as were the Expo attendants. I gave four stars instead of five to organization as I felt this race could easily have started at 6 am rather than 7 am. Perhaps there's a good reason I am not aware of for this. Weather is too hot and muggy in Vermont July to have runners battling a very challenging course. One hour earlier start would have made the race perfect and would avoid future heat issues. Very few cars were on the rural roads (I only noticed one cop blocking traffic for us) so it appears this would have been easy to start sooner. We were told there wasn't an early start but we later heard there was one offered? Which is it? Director should be more proactive with that option if there is one. Otherwise a great race to knock off Vermont for 50 Staters! | |
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j. s. from Michigan
(7/15/2014)
 "Awesome marathon, most scenic road marathon." (about: 2014)
50+ previous marathons
| 1 Mad Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 My favorite road marathon of the 69 I have run. Great organization and finish area. I would highly recommend this marathon; also a great area to vacation and for hiking. Zero Gravity black cat Porter is my favorite of the local beers. | |
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Sid Busch from Charleston SC
(7/8/2014)
"MOUNTAINS" (about: 2014)
50+ previous marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 This was my first time in VT.I drove from Charleston SC to run the Half. The course is breath taking,but living in THE LOW COUNTRY,the hills killed me. The support and organization of this race were fantastic. The volunteers and people of Waitsfield sure cheered us on. If you ever in this area,this is a great run,but be prepared. | |
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C. C. from Connecticut
(7/7/2014)
"Amazing, Breath taking and Impossible" (about: 2014)
11-50 previous marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 What a great race. Hardest race ever. With that said, every single moment was beyond beautiful. Every view at all 26.2 miles were post card worthy. Incredible. Had a BLAST. Volunteers, runners - SO NICE! Icy cold beer at mile 24 was a nice boost to finish a beautiful course. I will be back! | |
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David Malone from Ogden, UT
(7/7/2014)
"Beautiful, hilly course" (about: 2014)
50+ previous marathons
| 1 Mad Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 I was lucky - I was undertrained and the hills worked in my favor. I walked up and ran down them. I ended up with a time that was better than if the course were flat. If you're running for time, it's a tough one - hardly a flat spot on the entire course. It is beautiful, though. And the organization was exceptional. Plenty of aid stations, enthusiastic volunteers, watermelon on the course (GREAT) and beer at mile 23.5. :) A very good choice for Vermont if you are a 50-stater. I stayed at the Sugarbush Resort - excellent choice. | |
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A. T. from Chicago
(7/7/2014)
"Hot, HILLY, and BEAUTIFUL!!" (about: 2014)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Mad Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 1 LOVED this race! Loved the organization, the pre/post race, the wonderful! volunteers, so many aid stations, the wading pools of cold water at the end! And yes, there are HILLS!!! But the scenery makes up for it! And I gave '1' for spectators, because there weren't many (and I don't need them), but the ones that were there were GREAT, including the farm that had some COWS by the road so we could stop and take pictures! I stayed at White Horse Inn, about 5 minutes out in the country loved that place! Almost all guests were runners; so great early breakfast for us, lovely fireplace room and front porch, 24/7 treats and coffee/tea bar. | |
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Suzanne Bansley from Brattleboro, Vermont, USA
(12/13/2013)
 "Super Beautiful Course" (about: 2013)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Mad Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 Super beautiful course and worth every single hill climb, but be warned, there are several hills! About 2000 runners in total, more than 3/4 were half-marathoners so runners were spread out well in the second half. Volunteers and spectators were enthusiastic and sometimes entertaining. Plenty of water stations, though some runners felt they were far apart, I thought it was fine. The packet pickup just before the race was an added benefit so I didn't have to get a hotel. Tee-shirt is good, nice design and love that it's a tech shirt. Great finishers medal too and the finish line was awesome with all these international flags that lined the entry and exit points of the finish line. Race organization was excellent, so well run. Parking couldn't be better; I got a spot right near the start and finish. Only disappointment was that the course didn't parallel with the Mad River at all, I was hopeful for some river views. Overall, this was a super race. Train on hills, lots of hills, and youll do fine and enjoy! Read my detailed take on the race on my blog: http://empoweredbyrunning.com/?p=104 | |
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Ed Robins from Philadelphia, PA
(7/16/2013)
"Super scenic and super challenging" (about: 2013)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Mad Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 2 If you read more than 2 comments you get the idea about this race. Small, very scenic, very challenging and very well run. Packet pick-up is very easy. There is a booth or two but runners shouldn't expect to be able to buy last minute supplies. I walked across the street and took in the Arts festival after I got my packet. I really enjoyed that. Waitsfield is a lovely small town. But they don't have much by way of accommodations. I signed up late for this race and had to stay in Barre. That was only 35 minutes away and it was cheaper than the local B and B's. But if you want to be minutes from the race start book early. I agree with the comment that this race should start earlier. As a July race anything that could help mitigate the heat really should be tried. This year it was very humid but luckily we had overcast skies which helped with the heat. The race as perhaps you've heard is very hilly. I live in a hilly area so I'm usually prepared for a hilly race but I wasn't prepared for these hills. I ran very modestly or I would've completly blown up. Luckily most of the hills are in the first 17 miles so if you're Ok there you can make it to the finish line. The race is as scenic as advertised. Runners are treated with farmlands and beautiful views of the green mountains. We also get to run through two covered bridges (each twice). I'm not sure if pretty scenery takes away any of the pain away from steep hills but it certainly can't hurt. :) The race is small (300 plus in full and 400 plus in half) so pre-race arrival is easy. There was plentiful, near by parking with folks helping direct cars to the lots. There could have been a few more port-a-johns pre-race as the line got very long as 7:00 neared. After the first mile or so the roads are open but this is never an issue. Traffic is super scarce and every driver I saw was very accomidating to the runners. There were plenty of aid stops the first 20 miles but I felt as though I could've used one or two more down the stretch. The volunteers at these stops were great and water was always in plain cups and gatorade in cups marked that way. That is so helpful! Also the water and gatorade was always cold! So helpful on a hot humid day. I saw gel at some stops but I carry my own so I'm not sure how many stops handed them out. To the previous comment who said he couln't find vaseline I got some at an aid station. The post-race set up was nice. Pools to soak tired feet and a fully stocked table of traditional post race food. I'm a slow runner (5 hours) and of course all the halfers had finished but there was still plenty of food. A sign of a well run race. Thanks! You get a tech shirt and nice but nothing special medal (if that's important to you). |
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