This was my first marathon. When I finished(in 6 hours) everything was closed. All perks were packing up and going home. ONly got a bottle of water,due to everything empty!

This is my hometown and so I was looking forward to the race. Overall I thought the organization was good, very good for inaugural, but thought there were some key areas that needed improvement.

1) More spectator support. We need to find ways to have more of the community out there, especially in the last few miles
2) Course changes to give runners more shade in later parts of the course (17-24 miles especially). It's June and can be hot.
3) More water stations in later parts of the course and include food, gels, etc.

I'm looking forward to running this again and hoping this can grow to be a larger commumnity event. Race organizers should consider networking with organizers of Quad Cities marathon to get ideas from a race that does a great job of this with a similar sized town/area.

For those who haven't been here before it's a great place to visit and run and I am encouraged by the runner turnout and race and looking forward to next year.

great job for first marathon
maybe 6 am start to avoid the heat
and no hose water

The place was beautiful and the race was pretty well run except that some of the water stops were highly disorganized and several had really little cups.

Way too hot for me to PR or even put up credible showing as I baked in the limited shade available for most of the last few miles. Obviously that's not the race's fault but I would have loved the day before when it was cloudy, slightly rainy and much, much cooler.

It looked like a great little vacation town and in retrospect I wished I'd booked a longer stay. The drawbridge separating the finish from the post race area made for some nice pictures. The race was small and actually felt even smaller as it definitely had a bit of a locals vibe. The staggered start made the mostly bike trail course surprisingly uncongested (the half starts 30 minutes after the full goes off).

Not sure what the first reviewer was talking about on the food; I limped in a smidge over 4 hours and there was still some food to be had. Didn't think about the water since I grabbed one on the finish line side of the drawbridge but water on both sides probably would be an improvement. Agree on the parking though, that was easy, close and free.

I will definitely recommend this race.

Expo was very small. Course mostly flat w/ few small hills. Where was the music??? Buses to start and back to hotels worked great. Need some type of gel next year. Beware of weather. If the race would have been the day before, it would have been > 90 degrees.

The race organizers and volunteers were spectacular! When we asked at the race HQ at the Renaissance hotel about the shuttle to the Expo, one of the volunteers took my sister and I in his car, then waited for us to pick up our bib number and shop before he took us back to the hotel. Every volunteer I met was just as friendly and helpful. I would love to see more of the course on the trails, especially if there is shade on the last half of the course - there was none this year, and it was hot and humid. The medical staff at the waterstops were kind enough to give me ice, which helped tremendously. I would love to see cold water at the finish instead of water that was sitting in the sun for hours. Indy is a fun area to visit, so definitely stay for an extra couple of days.

Very good course....not all streets - some of the course on concrete trails. A fair amount of trees along the course. A lot of the course was through suburban neighborhoods and traffic was not a problem. Not alot of spectators but that's to be expected. Post race food was adequate- milk, bananas, cookies, Poweraid & water. No post race entertainment. I thoroughly enjoyed the race...there's one opportunity for enhancement: Water along the course, while plentiful, was from hoses. Not the taste I'm looking for while running a marathon...charge me more $$ and forget the hoses.

I did the full marathon this past Saturday. It was my 11th and in terms of a course it was no where near my favorite. The trails were the nicest part by far and sometimes cooler by about 10 degrees which was lovely. The many parts through newer subdivisions were bland and there was a lot of full sun at the end. The organization, especially for their inaugural event was fabulous. Plentiful drink stops, on time race start, no glitches with the set course. Impressive! The expo was small but nice and I found some nice things and more than pleasant sales people! Host hotel(Hampton Inn) was sparse but clean and QUIET! Parking at race(and there was a shuttle) was easy and uncomplicated. Shirts were ok. Medals were ok. They did say the place and time and year and that it was inaugural. I would've liked some artwork that represented the area more. This may sound petty but really hate that half marathoners received exact same shirt. I think marathoners shirt should be different. It wasn't too hot but humid. Tough race for me but glad I did it. I met a lot of incredibly nice people and had a very unique experience.
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Beautiful course, well run for a Saturday marathon. The water was horrid, warm with a strong plastic hose taste. An iffy timing for a June marathon was not too warm, but humid, could have been much worse.

For an inaugural marathon - this was extremely well organized. I was very impressed with all logistics - the miles were clearly marked, plenty of well-stocked aid stations, fantastic pacers, great volunteers, plenty of bananas and water at the end etc.

The RD was nice enough to let a friend pick up my bib - but Saturday marathons should allow sub pickups or should mail bibs. It is difficult for out-of-towners to sometimes get to the expo on Friday afternoons.

The absolutely best part - participants get free entry to the Monon Center, which meant hot showers!! All marathons should work out arrangements to provide shower facilities. Kudos to the Carmel crew.

The course is a mental challenge - especially when you are gutting through the last few miles like I was. It has many many turns and winds through many suburban neighborhoods. The half and full start together, separate, rejoin, separate again and then, finally meet again. Fairly flat, but not with some rolling slopes.

I was desperately hoping that the cold front would come through, but wasn't that lucky. We started in the mid-seventies, with high humidity. That made the race a big challenge for me.