I have heard many comment about the city of Detroit; say what you will but they put on a good marathon. The course was pretty fast; (ran a PR), the race was well organized and the fans that came out were great. The fans were a little thin but the Lions were playing (5-0 record this year).

I did not care for the tunnel coming back from Windsor as it got pretty hot. But the weather was perfect; overcast, 50 degrees and a couple of sprinkles. Could not have asked for a better day.

If you have not done a MI marathon, give Detroit a try.

This is my 3rd Detroit, and I've never looked back. I love the variety of shapes, sizes, colors, and backgrounds the participants bring to the race. Despite Detroit's size, this feels like a smaller city race like Duluth, where the locals know each other. We see all of what Detroit-Windsor has to offer, from the upscale Indian Village to the vacant houses. The medals and shirts are great, I'm just disappointed we can't order 1-2 extra shirts so we can use one for working out, and one for memories. I'll be back in 2012!

This was my first marathon. Although I had read many negative reviews I decided to run my first close to home. The most amazing part was the mismarked mile markers. I also thought it was weird that there were no posted split times. Lastly, the pace leaders were a joke. I passed the 4 hour 30 minute pacer at about mile 20 and I finished at 4 hours 44 minutes and she finished well after me. Isn't a pace team supposed to help runners stay on pace??? I followed the pace leader for my team for the first 13 miles and realized there was no way I would finish at my projected pace if I continued to follow her and I was correct. I suggest to the organizers to ditch the idea of pace leaders since these runners are not experienced enough.

Spectators were great in Canada, Cork Town, Indian Village and sporadically throughout the course.

This was my fifth year running this race (half marathon), and likely my last. Every year there has been a cluster at the bridge. Even with the wave start there are too many people for this tight point in the course.

The post-race food is pathetic - and has been every year. Everyone had a bruised banana and there was no other real food.

The people in the finish area were very rude about pushing you to the back of the very large finisher's corral.

Shirts: I was fortunate to be able to get my shirt. But they ran out of shirts, many people did not get one, and they won't reorder.

My favorites on the course were running over the international bridge (though it was crowded), running under the river, and running around the cool island. I had a great experience. Not a LOT of spectators, but there were some. And those who were there were great. I had a good time. Thanks, Detroit. Aside from the extra $200 I had to pay to enter Canada (because of a past DUI), I had a great experience.

Pros:
* Running into Canada through tunnel and Ambassador Bridge - truly good experiences.
* Staggered start based on estimated times.

CONS:
* No timing on the course - hard to know your mile splits without a watch.
* Dirty city.
* Parking was difficult.
* Fan support was sparse in places.

If you want to run this, do it once for the Canadian crossings.

Pros:
* medal
* shirt
* expo
* great gear
* running over the bridge and back through the tunnel
* waterfront course
* crossing into Canada is fun for some reason
* couple of houses in Indian Village had beer stops... awesome!
* the 1/2 marathon runs entirely with with the full course, which is great if you're running the full and your friend is running the half or vice versa

Cons:
* Inconsistant mile markers - this is pretty maddening even if you're with the pacer. I'd say only about half the course had mile markers.
* Crowd support is overall kind of weak considering this is a major city marathon. Many of the bands weren't even set up by the time I went by, and I only ran a 3:29!
* Couple of the toughest (albeit brief) uphill climbs were within view of the finish line, which is kind of a buzzkill.

Recommendations:
* run the course by the stadiums and not through the lifeless, downtrodden area.
* mile markers!!!!!

I only ran the 1/2 marathon.

- Great volunteers. It is amazing how these people get up early on a Sunday morning to do this for us. THANK YOU, VOLUNTEERS!
- Good start at 7 a.m. Perfect as you cross the Ambassador bridge
-I loved the shirt! Long-sleeve - something I will wear often, especially when I travel out of town to show the Detroit connection. It did not have the typical sponsors logos.
-Medal was very nice.

Plan to do it again.

Almost everything was great about this year's race. It was well organized, expo was good, parking seemed better this year, starting line was well organized, the volunteers were excellent, the crowd support was good, and we got a nice, unique medal with a Motown theme.

Only two negatives for me: Huge bottleneck going into and on the bridge. One of the lanes was under construction and everyone really had to slow down for this section. Since they knew about the construction, I wish they had spaced out the wave starts more or added additional waves. Second issue is that the post race food was bad. A lot of the bananas were rotten and there were no bagels. They need more food and more selection.

But overall, things went great.

This is a great race for a half marathon, not so great for a marathon.
This was my 12th marathon, and second in Detroit. I don't like running with the half-marathoners, especially when there's such a numerical difference in runners between the two races. Also, there are way too many turns - you end up running an extra mile, per my Garmin anyway. All in all, a tough race to finish - I was under 4 hours but it was a miserable last half because of Belle Isle, the inclines at the, end and all of the needless turns. So sign up for the half, but find somewhere else for your full.