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Philadelphia Marathon Runner Comments
Back to Philadelphia Marathon Information & Reviews
Course 4.3 
Organization 3.6 
Spectators 3.8
Number of comments: 749 [displaying comments 681 to 691]
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A Runner from New York, NY
(11/27/2002)
 "Loved this course!" (about: 2002)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 After running the NYC marathon for the past 2 years, I LOVED this course! The downhills and flats were a blessing. I do agree with the other comments about lack of spectators. However, compared to 2 years ago (when I also ran this race), there were more supporters this year. Hopefully there will be even more supporters out there next year. I will definitely run this race again in the future. | |
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A Runner from Silver Spring, Maryland
(11/27/2002)
 "The Course is Backwards, but an OK Run" (about: 2002)
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 I participated in the 2002 Marathon and there were a couple of things that bothered me. The last ten miles are nowhere near any history and had the fewest spectators, when you need them most, if that part of the race was the first ten miles I would give it a five star rating. There were no gels on the course and large gaps in some of the water stations and they advertise 18 on the course, but subtract three from that as the start, finish and post race area are listed as spots on the course. Along the course at mile 18 and 22 there were anti-abortionists with children holding up graphic images of abortions. This is something we all as marathoners should be weary of as if we (participants and race directors) allow this type of behavior from any group, we're going to have 26.2 miles of special interests along every course. | |
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A Runner from Rochester, New York
(11/27/2002)
"Fast, scenic course" (about: 2002)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 I enjoyed the first 8 miles through the city and thought the crowd support there was great. Looping near the start/finish provided ample opportunities for family to see runners. Loved the out and back on the flat section near the river. Excellent traffic control, we had lots of road to run on with no fear of cars. Definitely need more bathrooms at the start and along the course. Volunteers were enthusiastic. The local newspapers don't seem to give a lot of coverage to this event and many hotels don't seem to have a clue, that's a shame. Would definitely recommend this race. 5,000 runners is a good size without feelings of being penned in for miles, yet good company along the course. | |
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A Runner from New York, Ny
(11/27/2002)
 "Favorite Race so Far" (about: 2002)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 I've done seattle and ny and now philly, liked this one the best. Great course. Spotty spectators are rowdy and colorful. Logistics are easy. One word of caution is there's a steep downhill at mile 12 that can wreck your quads if you haven't done any hill training. | |
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A Runner from New York City - Wall Street
(11/27/2002)
"A magnificent tour of a great city" (about: 2002)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 2 After much preparation, countless blackened toenails, temperamental hamstrings and endless whining about every ache and pain, our humble group of NYC runners finally arrived in the City of Brotherly Love, with their shoes laced tight, ready to run. The day was Fabulous. No wind, 35 in the morning, rising to a balmy 55 by race end. The course, although not as flat as advertised, was nonetheless a magnificent tour of a great and historically important city. But the piece d'resistance had to have been the mushroom cheese steak at the conclusion of the day?s activities. It was a culinary knock-out. I expect it was Philadelphia?s own nutty-professor Ben Franklin who dreamt up this impressive collision of Velveeta and scorched beef (yum). We took 100's of photos during our stay in that great city. The pictures are full of broad smiles and tell a wonderful story ? enjoy them. Photographs of this much heralded Marathon can be seen here. http://www.teamdude.com/images/philly/ Organizers might consider a better course map for 2003. The mimeographed materials supplied in our packets as well as the low resolution graphics available on the web site were simply too damaged to be very useful to an out-of-towner. We did however discover a fabulous course map supplied by the Philadelphia inquirer which we ultimately used to plan our race strategy. | |
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Jeff from Washington, DC
(11/26/2002)
"Pretty Good Marathon" (about: 2002)
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 Here are my thoughts for what they are worth: Course: Pretty flat and a potential PR course but its not a pancake. There are a number of mild upgrades on the course. Its certainly no Boston (in terms of hills) but, if you simply want to crank out a PR, courses like Houston, for example, run a little bit faster. I didn't like the out and back at the end (but what last few miles of any marathon are easy). I would have liked it better if they would have abbreviated that out and back loop and then finished with a small loop through downtown. Organization: As someone who had never been to Philly, I found getting around pretty easy. I appreciated the free trolley that picked runners up from downtown (near the hotels) and took us to the expo. All the race volunteers were helpful and I appreciated the trolley drivers pointing out points on the course. The expo was a bit cramped and I didn't see any water at the start but, otherwise, the organization was fine. FYI--some of the hotels had fairly cheap rates for this part of the country (one nice downtown hotel that was only a mile and a half from the start/finish, for example, only cost $100--even with late checkout. That's inexpensive for around here.) Spectators: Enthusiastic around the art museum and a few other parts of the course but,otherwise, nonexistant. I also did not appreciate the anti-abortion protestors. (Not exactly the most savvy folks in terms of political persuasion--they only served to annoy me and I'm sure many others--probably including pro-lifers.) Well, those are my thoughts. | |
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A Runner from Glen Head, NY
(11/26/2002)
"Nice Race -- Unjustly Criticized" (about: 2002)
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 I hesitated before entering this marathon as it gets a lot of criticism on this site. True, the race doesn't get much in the way of spectators, that's not why I run. The course goes through a variety of neighborhoods though the out and back is tough psychologically (more so if you're a back of the pack runner). Pre and post-race massages were great (no long lines) and the porto-potty count wasn't too bad either (a source of a lot of criticism last year). Volunteers were terrific. If I had to criticize anything, I would say that the official hotels needed to have a better late checkout policy for runners -- I had to drive 4 hours to my home on LI without being able to shower because the Hampton Inn wouldn't grant me a late checkout (boo!). I ran this because I missed the NYC lottery. I'd do it again without hesitation. | |
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A Runner from Philadelphia, PA
(11/25/2002)
"'26 Miles, 385 Yards of History'" (General Comments)
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 I'm a new marathoner but long time runner. The race is alleged to be the third largest feed to qualify runners to Boston. I can believe this to be true. For one, this is a late race (always the Sunday before Thanksgiving), allowing the local runners to train for this race under favorable weather for nearly four months prior to it. The course is generally flat with the exception of mild-grade hills near Belmont Plateau, which reaches an altitude of 200' above the river shore. Mile twelve is literaly one lovely downhill to the river from the plateau -- a great place to stride out and stretch your muscles. Overall, the crowd support is non-existant except for the Art Museum area (start, mile 1.25, mile 13, and finish) and the Manayunk turn-around (miles 19-21), where crowds are plentiful. If you are looking for a BQ course, this may be for you as it is relatively flat. Praises: the volunteers that removed the chip from our shoes, the two girls that knew the race better than the runners and cheered on EVERYONE in the most obscure stretches of the course, the well-staffed water stops, the volunteer uniforms, and the weather (always decent this time of year). Complaints: Start to Mile 1.5 is a loop for spectators. You better be in the front of the pack or you will surely regret it due to the accordion effect -- which will ruin your splits fo rthe first two miles. Second, this is not a course condusive for spectators -- most of this course is in Fairmont Park/Belmont Plateau and the roads are closed preventing spectators in. Overall, precisely average. Not a bad course for a decent variety of scenery, and relatively flat. I hope you BQ at Philly in 2003. | |
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A Runner from corning ny
(11/25/2002)
"excellent urban marathon" (about: 2002)
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 The race is a manageable size, well organized with a good course and I recommend it. Phila is my hometown and I love coming back to run the marathon. I've done it 5 of the last 7 years and I intend to do it again. Overall I am positive about the event. However, this year's run was marred by an organized and graphic anti-choice political demonstration that I hope the race organizers will discourage in the future. As for the run, the course is well laid out and provides a good tour of parts of the city. The hills from about 7 to 11 miles are a challenge, but not extreme. Crowds are supportive where they congregate (downtown around 6-7 miles, around the 20 mile mark in Manayunk and at the finish), otherwise there are a few groups of folks here and there and a lot of well run water stops whose volunteers offer encouragement. Course control is excellent with Philly's finest doing a great job with the traffic. The out and back part of the course for the last 12 miles is scenic and gives most runners an opportunity to see the race coming at them. For these reasons, I like that part of the route. Highlights of the race this year included an excellent rendition of the National Anthem at the start, Santa Claus along the course and the Manayunk drummer. | |
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A marathon runner from Baltimore Maryland
(11/25/2002)
"Great Marathon but needed fuel on course" (about: 2002)
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 This is my second marathon and compared to the first I thought it was a nice flat course. Well attended with good spectator support. I was surprised that there weren't any gels on the course. Luckly I had my own. I plan on running it again next year but hope the abortion activists take their message somewhere else. |
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