I can not say enough great things about the Louisiana Marathon. We had a beautiful course with lots of shade, perfect weather, supportive spectators - even the BRPD cheered us on, tons of water stops, great mile markers, nice expo, the list goes on....
This was my first race in my home state. So proud of Louisiana for putting on a great race!!!!

This race was exactly as advertised wiht a very accommodating staff, more than friendly runners. The weather was perfect and the course was interesting and relatively flat. The aid stations were well stocked with lots of enthusiasistic volunteers. I would only ask that the water stops have some consistency with the order of water and poweraid Actually, this is a very petty issue on a more than well orchestrated event. I highly recommend it!

The staff has proven for two years in a row that they can organize and execute a high quality race. The abundance of volunteers and support was much appreciated. Packet pickup and expo was easy. The course is improved and still includes the very beautiful scenes of the capital city. As much water, powerade, gels, fruit, port-o-potties, etc. as a person could want. The crowd support is even growing, which is great. Nice tech shirt and cool medal. The after race celebration appeared to be outstanding. No detail was ignored in my opinion. This is a must do Louisiana race.

Pros:
1) beautiful course
2) flat course
3) beautiful weather
4) nice shirt and medal
5) nice after party
6) conveniently located hotels (at reasonable prices) - walking distance to race start and finish
7) could wait indoors before race
8) aid stations every mile with gels available at a lot of them
9) name announced at finish line
10) easy packet pickup (very organized)
11) great pacers (I did not stay with pacer after mile 17, but Heather had us exactly on pace)
12) strongly recommend staying at the Hilton at the Capital (later checkout at 1:00 p.m., but I was not ready to go until 2:30 p.m., but they still did not charge extra)
13) volunteers at packet pickup, aid stations and after the race were awesome!
14) traffic control was extremely well done...never felt concerned about safety

Cons:
I don't have any.

I signed up for this race based on last year's reviews and so glad I did. Nice small airport, easy town to navigate, and walking around downtown was great.

With regards to the race, the pros:
1. Lots of water stops. And they changed up the poweraid flavors at each stop.
2. Expo small but efficient. Even allowed you to exchange shirt sizes.
3. Plenty of parking downtown to the start.
4. Start & finish line in same area. Walking distance from downtown hotels.
5. Lots of free food at the finish line, available to spectators too.
6. Overall the course was nice, the first part was a bit mundane, but once you hit the LSU campus and around the lake, that was enjoyable.

Cons
1. They ran out of chocolate milk even before the half marathoners had finished. Can't imagine the marathoners were too happy about this.
2. Pasta dinner was okay, not great. Two pasta options (but you could only have one), ran out of bread, buffet closed before you could get seconds.
3. After exiting the finish line area, it was a walk back to the post race area. Oranges & bananas left on a table for anyone to help themselves, including spectators. Same goes for the food. Hopefully they didn't run out of food for the marathoners.
4. Host hotels claimed to offer late check out but only to the first handful of folks that asked. After that, it was a noon check out.
5. Lots of potholes.

Overall, it was a great weekend. Perfect weather, nice course, well organized race, especially since it was only their second event.

If you want to run a scenic, flat* (there is one overpass that is out and back so you pass over it at mile 1.5 and 24.5), fast course, come to Baton Rouge. The weather has been perfect this time of year for 2 years in a row. I had a great time and enjoyed the entire course. I didn't make it to the after party b/c I was going to lunch with my family but I saw the spread and it looked great. I'll def be back to this race soon. Here's a breakdown of my thoughts.
Pros:
*Very organized
*great communication via Facebook and email
*Beautiful course
*Lots and lots of water/powerade stops
*Lots of food on the course
*Amazing start/finish location
*The spectators were great, neighborhood residents were friendly

Things that could improve:
*the expo was cramped, need a bigger location with more signage telling people how to get to it.
*More signage on race day for port-o-potties, start, etc. It was a little confusing to get to. Once I found them, the lines were really short though.
*I would have like something at the finish line other than just a bottle of water. I know the finish festival was huge but it was a good walk away and runners need access to something, even a protein bar or bagel immediately after finishing.

Wow! If this is Baton Rouge's first attempt, I can only imagine how great this run will be as the race continues to grow and improve.

The expo was small but had good variety and nice merchandise. The course was absolutely gorgeous. Having flown in to New Orleans and driven, I had a pretty bad impression of Baton Rouge from the highways. The course was 100% gorgeous - from start at the capital to the loop through the U, the lovely homes, the downtown areas, and so on..... What a pretty town.

The radio announcer at about mile 8 was a riot. The added touch of handing out candy was fun.

Although there weren't lots of spectators, I felt those that came out were very supportive of everyone.

The finish was great - from food to massage and general support.

Excellent work! Kudos to the organizers and to the city government for its programs encouraging health and exercise.

For an inaugural event I was so impressed by 2012 that I'm expecting big things for 2013. The Louisiana Marathon in Baton Rouge 2012 featured the best post-race food I've ever sampled; restaurants providing good portions of both cajun and New Orleans gumbo and other varieties of food I'd never eaten. I volunteered for packet pick-up on Saturday but was put into merchandising instead (blah), but volunteering means doing what's necessary to make matters organized and that's exactly was this inaugural race had as an advantage. 26.2 finisher medal was average, the black technical shirt however is awesome and I use it in other races. I'll be in Baton Rouge next year.

Pros:
1.) Good technical T
2.) Great finishers medal and original/unique poster awards
3.) Downtown start/finish
4.) Expo/finish festival were really good for an inaugural race.
5.) The state Capital building and surrounding grounds were interesting

Cons:
1.) Had to run with 1/2 marathoners at multiple points throughout the race-weaving in and out of slower runners is frustrating
2.) We stayed in the Baton Rouge downtown area but it was kind of dead, very few stores were open, not very many restaurant options.

This was the first running of the Louisiana Marathon and, for an inaugural event, it was VERY well organized.

Pros (many): cool looking bibs with runner name on them so spectators could cheer us by name; scenic first half of course around big lake and through LSU campus; mostly flat; good placement of fluid and gel stations; really nice tech shirts; my favorite race medal yet; chip timing; beer at the expo; beer at the finish!

Cons (I am assured these will be addressed next year): pasta removed from buffet before we could get seconds; narrow streets at the start made for crowding; railroad crossing about mile 12.5 had a train arrive during the race and dozens of us had to wait on it! (May have cost some people including me a PR :(

If they can devise a course that doesn't cross actively used railroad tracks, I would definitely run this race again!