Ran the full marathon today in Seattle. It was was wet, cold, and windy. The course is fairly flat until mile 20 or so... there are small hills, but nothing over 100 feet. After 20 miles, you are constantly either going up or going down. The first serious hill (Galer St). is a shocker; its only a block, but it's steep! The hardest part however was rounding Capitol Hill and facing a strong headwind and driving rain on the last three miles to the finish; that was more will-breaking than the hills.

There weren't quite as many water stations as I would have liked, but it wasn't bad, and the volunteers were super friendly. I think they listened to the comments on marathonguide.com about the food after the race: when I finished at 4+ hours, there was plenty of food of all kinds left, and the recovery area was heated (yay!) and not that crowded (yay!). Mmmm... chocolate milk. Hot cocoa. Fresh bagels. Bananas. Water.

I was surprised at how few people ran it compared to Portland. There are huge crowds for the half, but only 1300 people or so finished the full.

I'll certainly run it again, but I'll wear a hydration pack and train harder for the hills at 20+ miles.

I have completed the Seattle 1/2 Marathon 4 times now. The 2010 event had a great course and wonderful volunteers. This one lacked in one major area though. I can't believe after finishing the 1/2 that there was next to NO food in the recovery area. The only thing I saw was a little Campbells soup and some bananas. I have been to much smaller events in which the amount and type of food in the recovery area was well thought out. They had plenty for the amount of participants. I'm not sure what happened to the food organization at the Seattle Marathon, but it was the worst recovery experience I've ever had. Hopefully this years will be better. How about some bagels, bread, cookies, or fruit - the standard stuff?

Good organization, breathtaking scenery, and great shirt, though there was a somewhat weak post-race spread, and the software leaves much to be desired from what is thought of as IT country (race results are not searchable except for name, there are no age groups that I can find, no states or stuff that I am used to, and overall results were posted by gun time rather than chip time). I would go back in a heartbeat if and when I finish my 50 states.

Forget doing a PR. Forget running your best time; the course is much too hilly for that. But take it easy and enjoy an beautiful run past parks, trees, waterfront, city center - and just enjoy. I cannot remember a prettier race that I have run in recent memory. The course goes from the downtown to the waterfront, to a floating bridge, to park, to an arboretum, and hills with views of the city that should not be missed. Run this race; enjoy Seattle. The expo was perfect, the organization first-class, the size of the field just right, and the city a charm.

Seattle was great. The city is really nice. The weather, while not ideal, is not as bad as people like to say. On race day we did get lucky, having ideal running weather, but even if it had not been ideal, the city and the course are not to be missed.

Seattle has a great course. Weather was just below 40, with no rain and no wind. November in Seattle just doesn't get any better!

What needs to be done better?

1) Pasta feed was a joke: $25 for one walk-through a line that had pasta tubes and salad.

2) Long-sleeve shirts are nice, but the logo ruined them. Really, this is Seattle, the home to the most creative people in the country.

3) "Where is my stuff again? I'm freezing...." I was surprised to see the bag drop-stuff was not moved to the other side. Additionally, there was no signage at the finish to direct you that way. Once you did find it you had to walk the stadium steps to find it.

Nice job on the actual course: Water stations, first aid and GU. Great volunteers!

Ok, I ran the half not the full, but this comments page doesn't have an option for that. I like the Seattle Half better than the full because of the high probability of cold wet weather. I can put up with 1:38 of any weather, but being out there for a minimum of 3:35 (and maybe longer) doesn't appeal to me. What I like about the Seattle course (half or full) is the variation in scenery. You never get bored because it keeps changing - from cityscape, to freeway, to tunnel, to lake, to arboretum... and who doesn't love Interlaken? In the full you get to add the floating bridge and the "flat" lake section down to Seward Park and back. They've improved the bag check too, from the old days where you had to climb the bleachers in the stadium unless you could snag a boyscout volunteer to run up there and get your bag. And the recovery area is indoors.

Things I don't like about the Seattle Marathon: Having to listen to the national anthem (twice) sung by a Mariah Carey wannabe. What happened to the old days when you just plain sang the anthem and put your hand on your heart? Oh well; American Idol seems to ruin everything good. Not much else to beef about. Well, food in the recovery area was a bit slim this year. No salty soup (long gone are the days of Ivors clam soup) and weak coffee (really? In Seattle?). And I know from previously running the marathon that even this food can disappear by the time 7,000 halfers get through with it. Maybe they save some now and don't bring it out until later. Hope so.

Otherwise, the Seattle Marathon is great experience and I look forward to it every year. It's not a PR course - don't let anyone tell you it is. It's too narrow for the first 3 miles to go fast without burning up energy passing lots of other runners. The hills knock time off your pace and it's twisty in places. So don't expect a PR; just be happy with what you get, and enjoy it.

Lucked out on the weather (only dry day of the week! and not too cold). The scenery was beautiful in the parks and the hills in the last 6 miles were tough but I guess we were warned that it would be a rolling course. My only complaint is that the ankle band for the timing chip nearly cut my foot off (a slight exaggeration of course but the material was rather rough).Pperhaps long socks would help.

I have to love this race because I ran it very well and I do believe that the course is highly PR-able. The on-course support was great in terms of plenty of aid stations and medical tents (thanks to UWMC). HOWEVER. Organizers need to revamp some details and apparently haven't been listening to criticism for years. The expo sucked - I had to wait in line for 20 minutes to get up the escalator into the ballroom. Have it somewhere bigger than a hotel. Recovery area was even worse - I finished in the top third of marathoners, and if there was more food available other than bananas and canned chicken noodle soup, it was gone by the time I came in. Bagels? Carbohydrates of some sort? Don't let spectators clear out the food that the runners NEED. Just a few ideas. Also, the first aid station was needlessly early and created a choke point. Push that one back or dispense with it altogether.

I ran this for the first time in 2008 and the experience in 2010 was about the same, except I was 25+ minutes faster. I prepared for the rolling course that has a few rather steep sections and so was OK in that respect. The weather was great - between about 38-39 F and low to mid 40s. A few too many turns in some places for my liking but the scenery was solid. As usual, a mass of runners went out too fast at first. I started near the 3:10 pacer (and finished a bit slower than that), but was passed in the first mile by hundreds. Seemingly more than most races that I do (and it seems I spend the rest of the race passing the majority of them). Nonetheless, there were some good, flat sections, and a fair bit in wooded areas, which I liked.

Crowd support was good enough for me (I'm low maintenance in this regard anyways). The expo was fair, the food at the end fair (although I can't fathom why the chocolate milk people ran out of chocolate milk so fast, considering that I finished by 11:30 a.m.). Oh wait - I got confused. This is really the Seattle HALF Marathon (over 7,610 runners starting at 7:30 a.m.) - not really the Seattle Marathon (only about 2,340 runners starting at 8:15 a.m.). Looking at the half marathon results, I can see that over 7,500 half marathoners were chowing down in the recovery area (if they went there) ahead of me. Perhaps other food vendors had packed up before the bulk of marathoners arrived? A minor annoyance, I suppose. Seattle Center is a good place to hang out if your hotel is close and you're not heading out of town immediately.

After looking at the simplicity of the shirt design and the lack of food in the recovery area, I found this race to be very expensive for what you got. I found the course to be challenging, but a scenic way to see the various sides of Seattle. However, due to running on highways, in tunnels, alongside Lake Washington and through the arboretum, there were very few spectators. It was fitting though to see all the supporters with their coffee to go in hand.