I had such a good time at this race. The city, the expo, and the race were all fantastic. After running Portland in the prior month, this course was absolutely beautiful. The weather was great. I was worried about the hills after reading some reviews, but the hills after mile 19-20 are not to bad really. The only part that really disappointed me was the lack of food at the finish. I got 1 bite of steak on a toothpick and a chocolate milk. All other food was gone when I got there, oh yes, there was some clear chicken broth that they called "hot soup." Other than that, this was one of the best times of my life.

There are three reasons why I will never do this again (until these things change):

1. The time of the year is awful. We definitely got lucky this year with the weather, but it was really cold Sunday morning.

Solution: Change the date.

2. Going into Seattle to pick up your race number on either Friday or Saturday is ridiculous. There is no place to park (free), and for people who live in the greater Seattle area, it means two trips to the city instead of one.

Solution: Allow runners to pay extra to have numbers mailed out or allow day-of-race pick-up for numbers.

3. I rated the course a four. It is a nice course, but there is so much of Seattle that you don't see. Ballard, Magnolia, University District are all absent. I would like to see the out-and-back to Seward Park and the out-and-back on the floating bridge reworked.

Solution: Reroute the course to see more of the city - Ravenna, Cowen Park, University of Washington, Burke Gilman, Ballard.

This was my 34th marathon and second Seattle Marathon. I ran (the same course) in 1999. The first thing I noticed was how much the entry fee has increased. Wow, you expect some increase over the years but... wow.

This is a great marathon. Don't come here expecting 70-degree, sunny weather and a flat course... not going to happen. So, dress for a cold and maybe rainy day and train for hills and have a really great run along Lake Washington. The aid stations and course support are great.

The only problem I noticed was the total lack of food in the recovery area. The problem is that friends and family are allowed into the runner recovery area. I watched families walk by and help themselves to large quantities of the food/goodies. Hmmm.

Come on, Seattle. For the amount of money you charge, you can do better. If you cannot figure this out, look to the south to the Portland Marathon and see how they do a runner recovery/feed area; there is always a variety of great recovery food... even for the runners and walkers that finish in six hours.

I ran in the half marathon and I can tell you why there was so little food left. A lot of half marathoners were feeding their friends and family the post-race food. The race organizers need to control the entrance into the recovery area or this will happen again.

The course is nice and varies from city, to highway, to suburban lakeside and park (the arboretum), and back to city running environments. The views of the city and the waterfront are excellent.

The volunteers on the course and traffic control were excellent. Restrooms were ample - it is the first marathon I've seen where they mounted the mile marker on the huts. Great idea!

Running into the stadium at the end is a nice touch and they called out your name as you finished. That rarely happens at any big-city marathon I've ever run (about 10 to date). There are benefits to finishing in over 5 hours! Yes, I missed the food just like many of the faster marathoners, but you get over it. Thanks also to the two lady TNT supporters who had oranges and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at mile 22 - the PB&J saved me. However, there were no bootleg beer providers on the course. That's surprising. Every race I've run in California has always had this. :>)

Having to go up in the bleachers to retrieve your bag after the run was a bummer though!

The crowd support is not great at this one, but the more marathons I run, the less this seems to matter to me. Seattle compares to San Francisco - great views, hills, parks, etc. The marathon is going on, but not too many in the city seem to care. This marathon had lots of serious runners and not many slower runners and/or walkers who seemed to be running for charity.

Regarding the issue about the marathon organizers not donating loads of money to charity, who cares? When you signed up it did ask if you wanted to donate to the U. Wash. Med Center Housing Fund. They never implied or said that any of your entry fees actually went to the cause. I think most people sign up for the challenge first, the city it is in second and charity last. There are plenty of other marathons for the masses where you have the opportunity to raise money for a cause.

This is my local race and I've see it in sun, rain and even snow! The course is moderately scenic; the best views are out over Lake Washington and around Seward Park. There are some tough, long, steep hills with one nasty dip under Highway 99 right at the end that can have the legs of those not expecting it turning to jelly.

Organization is very good, with lots of lemon/lime Gatorade (avoiding the vomit inducing cherry) and selections of energy gel plus time callers at regular stages.

This is a world-class race with great support, but it is expensive to enter unless you get in almost a year in advance when it's much cheaper.

When we first got there, we spent 20 minutes trying to find the gear-drop spot. We must have asked 5-6 volunteers and nobody could tell us where to go. Finally another runner pointed us in the right direction. The course was beautiful, but the hills at the end were far harder than I had anticipated. The volunteers at all of the water stops were amazing. It did seem as though the half marathoners took care of most of the post-race food though. All I could find was a banana and a cup of coffee.

This was my 19th marathon, and 2nd Seattle Marathon. I really enjoy the course finding it challenging but not brutal. I only have a couple of complaints with the organization. The lack of finish line food was a surprise. And having the walkers scattered all over the last few miles is unacceptable. I agree it was an improvement from the 2005, but still a problem they need to figure out. I'm not sure the organizers know what it is like to weave in and out of traffic with twenty-some miles on your legs and mind. Also, they advertised a military award division; does anyone know who won that division???

Seattle Marathon
Sunday, November 25, 2007
8:15 a.m.

It was a gorgeous day to run a TOUGH marathon on a scenic course on a beautiful city. Temperature was in low 40s, sunny, and the light wind was not a factor. The hilly portions of the route were marked in orange (slight upward slope) and red (upward slope) on the course elevation map, and there was a fair amount of orange and red on the map. The point-to-point course started and ended in Seattle Center. Miles 4.5 to 8 were out and back to Mercer Island via I-90 Floating Bridge. Then out and back to mile 17 alongside Lake Washington, which included a 2.5-mile loop in Seward Park. The last 10K was indeed challenging, as there were several hills and I felt the pain in my bum knees while running the sharp downward slopes. We could see the Space Needle from about mile 24 to the finish, which was indeed eye-catching.

This was a well-organized race. Packet pick-up was efficient. The expo was pretty good. The long-sleeved high tech race shirt and finisher's medallion were nice. The sporadic crowd support was good. There were water/sports drinks stations at every other mile, and sports gels at two locations. The course was well monitored and the race volunteers were cheerful and helpful. The splits were provided at every mile and mile markers were posted on portable restrooms (called Honey Buckets!). The finish line was inside the Memorial Stadium. We had to take a large number of stairs to the upper deck of the stadium to pick up our sweat bags, which was not an easy task. There were plenty of hot and cold drinks at the recovery area but no solid food, which did not surprise me, because it was not the first time that I finished a marathon, which also had a half marathon, and no food had been put aside for marathoners. I stayed in Best Western Loyal Inn, which was within a short walking distance to start and finish of the marathon, as well as the city center. Seattle is indeed a neat place to visit.

I am a 50-stater and this was #32.

I wasn't going to run this year but got talked into it. I'm happy that they took care of the problem with the walkers blocking the road on I-90, but there is still a big problem from the end of the arboretum to the finish, with walkers completely blocking the road. Not sure what can be done about this; maybe post signs reminding people to leave a passing lane. They ran out of food this year. The big reason I won't run this again is the requirement to come down to Seattle twice - once to pick up your number and then again to go to the race. I spent $46 over two days in gas and parking fees. What a waste to spend an extra $23 (on top of a $100 entry fee) just to pick up numbers. However, the course keeps getting better every year as more pavement gets redone. Very smooth surfaces this year. Disregarding the crowding problems, the course is nearly perfection. Unless you're not in shape, the inclines should be a breeze.