The full marathon road slanted mostly left, which for me is tough. A little rough, but better than expected. Results are questionable in that searching is hard for age groups and such. I will run again someday. Overall, very positive.

1. Fast, flat, incredible weather. If you don't PR here you are almost certainly injured.
2. New Orleans, baby! How can you go wrong?
3. The roads are a mess. I knew this heading in because I live here.
4. Much improved over 2010.

Absolutely the best marathon I've ever participated! Beautiful, flat route past antebellum homes, under Spanish moss-draped, sprawling, live oaks, through Audubon park and the French Quarter, and along Lake Pontchartrane; great crowd support, excellent execution of wave start for 17,000 with halfer's split off at 5 miles; hydration and nutrition needs were very well supported - including my favorite (CytoMax), along with gels and other goodies. Excellent expo - Brooks outdid themselves. Fun city with the best cuisine - how many marathons do you return from 4 pounds heavier? Weather was perfect - low 40's start to high 60's finish, with sunshine shaded by trees overhead. Large complement of motivating bands all along the way - kudos to Rock 'n' Roll. Cannot think of a single negative aspect of this fantastic event!

I picked this race for the sole purpose of qualifying for Boston, and I did it, with 5 minutes to spare even! Very flat and fast course. Before the race, I was concerned about splitting from the half-marathoner and then rejoining, but we stayed on opposite sides of the street, so no problem. Bands were good and scenery was beautiful. I especially enjoyed running through Audubon Park and along Lake Ponchatrain. I would highly recommend this race to everyone. I did not find the roads to be in such bad condition, but I do live near Detroit (pothole city), so maybe my standards are low. I really enjoyed going to Bourbon Street after the race to celebrate!!

Very well organized - wave start was nice so it wasn't so crowded on the course. I didn't care for the 19-25 mile out-and-back in the City Park. I would have preferred more of the French Quarter, which was great or through the Garden District, which was beautiful. Great crowd support when there were people around.

I ran the NO Marathon to check off Louisiana. Overall, it was a pleasant experience.

Course: Flat as a pancake. Couple of minor bumps, but nothing to think about. Complaints about the road surface are silly. First, it is a road. Second, you may remember a small news item called Katrina. It was fine.

Organization: Excellent, as all "Rock and Roll" events are.

Crowd support: Adequate. Not the best. As with all races, the volunteers rock.

Bands: Bowling for Soup at the end very cool. On-the-run bands... overrated.

Finish line food: Sad. For the price paid, I would expect more than a granola bar and packaged fruit. Don't need an omelet bar, but don't skimp.

T-Shirt: Kind of growing into it. The lime green can be seen from space, but at least it wasn't another white one.

Overall, the run was fine. Seeing NO once was cool for me. The locals were awesome. It is the drunk and silly tourists who are kind of disheartening. Glad I did it. I would recommend it to anyone checking off another state.

I ran the full marathon and really had a good time. We also had perfect running weather. The only thing I could recommend is better signs at the finish to indicate where the shuttles, free beer, medical tent, ice baths, etc. were located. The course was great. Porta-johns in the starting corrals were great. Having tubs of ice at the finish was a great idea. Everything was really well put together. The medal is nice. People complained about the roads in other posts, but I didn't think they were bad at all. I recommend this marathon.

This was my 25th marathon and this was a wonderful race. The expo had great swag with lots of shopping. Paying $20 for VIP parking race morning was worth every penny. Shuttles from the finish line to the start were outstanding. But, it would have been nice to been dropped off a little closer to the start. Course was flat and fast. Road surface, at times, was rough. Volunteers were OUTSTANDING! People all over New Orleans were friendly and it made for an incredible weekend in the Big Easy!

This was my first RnR and my 4th marathon. Weather was great and course was beautiful. Loved the big trees and the huge homes. Water stops were awesome and expo was great as well. Could not have asked for a better marathon experience. Course was flat and fast.

Only bad thing I can say is that the roads are horrible. It is New Orleans, so there's not much that can be done about that, though. I will run this race again.

This was my 5th marathon and it was *wonderful*! NOLA is a beautiful and fun city to visit - the course is fast, flat, and scenic. The bands were great, the local high school cheerleaders and spectators along the course were very fun, and the culture of NOLA - especially right before Mardi Grasis - is super. This is a great destination marathon as the food, music, and entertainment before/during/after the race is great fun. Loved it and would do this one again in a heartbeat!