What a well done marathon! A great experience! I am a walker, but had support throughout the entire marathon! Great crowd support, great traffic control, well-staffed water stations. The weather was windy, but what can you say!? The beach scenery was spectacular... and the finish at the Neptune statue is great. The cap and finisher shirt were first-class! Don't miss this one!!!!

Not a bad event! Everything was extremely easy to get to and while the expo was small it had everything you would expect!

The course was the flattest one I've ever done and the only incline was a bridge we ran over twice. I don't really even recall any subtle altitude changes, so if you want flat, this one is definitely it! Contrary to the half posting below, I really liked running through the trees from 16-19. Very peaceful!

Spectator-wise there wasn't much. I did see some people but it was surprising to see so few people supporting the event! The volunteers were great, though, and I thought the aid stations were placed just right!

Suggestions: Run more of the course on the boardwalk by the ocean! I thought we'd see a few miles or more of it but we really didn't run much on it. Also, start the half marathoners 90 minutes earlier rather than 60. I saw some of the faster marathoners have to maneuver around the back of the pack of half walkers and increasing the gap between the two would help quite a bit!!

This marathon was a well-organized and rewarding experience. The pace groups were great, and especially welcome on a day dealing with some headwinds. Enjoyed it, although the course was a little benign and redundant at times.... It certainly was perspective-changing, though, seeing all the military recruits cheering us on at the Army base....

The shirts, caps and expo were first-class. The course was well marked and manned; and the wind made this a challenging marathon. They did run out of food at the post party. But plenty of cold beer. My chip worked fine and I do like the ease with which it comes off after the race. We got lucky with the weather. Hope to do it next year.

I came into this race after having a knee issue and had very little expectations of what the race would be. I wanted to finish no matter what and hoped to make it under 4 hours (PR is 3:49). The weather was iffy, but turned out great: mid 40's and overcast. I stuck with a pace group for most of the race. The course was fast and flat even with the wind. Running in a pack really helped. Best part was finishing on the boardwalk with a bunch of a screaming fans on the one side and the ocean on the other and most importantly... a tailwind. The expo was very well organized and easy to get to. I was able to get a cheap hotel on the beach 2 blocks from the finish. I could also walk to the start. Very fan friendly course. Sure you can't get too much fan support through the military base (as commented on earlier), but there were plenty of runners around and the military guys came out to cheer everyone along.

The timing chip issue is there with every race. With thousands of chips, a few are going to have problems. Last year's complaints were from one person who wore it on her wrist (duh, can't imagine why that didn't read) and someone who wore it under pants!! There was music along the way at certain parts and the signage around the 16 to 19 stretch was entertaining and helped get me through the "boring" middle-of-nowhere part. Such sayings as "man who run behind car get exhausted" among others, along with interesting facts about Virginia. The mile markers were very visible (not sure about the prior comment as to the missing ones). I think they must have had their head down or something. They were about 8-feet tall and bright green (you could see them a 1/4 mile away).

The volunteers were very supportive and it was nice to hear my name announced as I crossed the finish line. Also was nice to have the medal placed around my neck (most races just handed theM to you). The volunteers made you feel very important the whole day. Finisher hats were a nice touch and cool to see later that night out at the bars and the following day. Great wicking shirt and fantastic-looking medals. Post-race tent was a nice, warm place to eat some stew and sip on a free Yuengling (you could get 4 free).

All in all, a great race... definitely would have a PR'd if it were not for my injury and thus lack of training. The wind wasn't much of a factor as a lot of the course is shielded from the wind, and the final 5 or 6 miles had a tailwind, which made it easier to run over the wall. My only suggestions would be to have more than one lane to run through during the mid miles. It did get congested. Also, during this same stretches, it made it difficult to get to the water/Gatorade since the tables were only on one side (a lot of runners were tripping over each other to get drinks). Great for a first-timer or someone looking for a PR or BQ. SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!!!

I also wore my chip as directed and it picked up my times for some splits but not for all. It didn't include my finish time. Big problem is I needed the lag time to show up on the difference between gun time and chip time (which I am confident is there) to BQ. Now what?

The race was a lot of fun though. I though the military base part was great with the guys out there doing cadences and pumping the runners up. The boring part is through Fort Story, even though there were some interesting signs out there to read to break up the monotony of the scenery.

I was really pleased with the medal and the schwag and such. I think they need to limit the consumption somehow on the stew because I didn't get any (didn't feel like eating until awhile after I finished and I saw a lot of people - mostly kids - running around with cups of it even though I know most of them didn't run the marathon or half). There were a lot of runners still coming in when I went in the tent to get this.

This was my first marathon with fewer than 30,000 people, which I actually preferred - I wasn't running into people at water breaks, but there were enough (close to 3,000) to keep me pumped. The course was excellent, and almost entirely flat. I loved finishing right on the beach. They also had these hilarious signs posted on the middle stretches when there weren't spectators, which kept us all entertained.

The expo wasn't huge, but the Brooks technical shirts were fantastic. The finish was very well organized, and finishers got a great sports hat as well as a medal. The finisher's tent was fabulous, with beef stew and FOUR free beers (on tap!) per participant, thanks to the main sponsor Yeungling (I, however, could only stomach one after running 26.2 miles....).

I have only two complaints. The first is, I am almost positive the second to last clock was wrong. It was at mile 25 and said I was at 4:15, yet my clock finish was 4:33. There is no way it took me 18 minutes to go 1.2 miles! Secondly, they need more spectators/bands/cheerleaders/etc. from mile 20-25. I needed some serious motivation and the spectators were scarce until the final stretch on the beach.

Overall, though, fantastic.

All in all this was a good race.

The expo was a bit disappointing; I expected it to be bigger.

I ran the Dolphin Challenge (8K and 1/2 Marathon). The 8K course was excellent and the fans were awesome.

The 1/2 marathon course was a bit boring through the trees and then through Fort Story. There were very few fans to encourage the runners. Although, the trees I'm sure helped break the winds for us. Some of the mile markers were missing and made it difficult for a first-time runner. A suggestion for next year would be to have the 1/2 marathon mile markers one color and the marathon mile markers a different color. When the courses crossed, it got a bit confusing. The fans and volunteers were outstanding! The energy level at the finish was incredible! I will most likely be back at Shamrock next year!

It is very frustrating to invest your time, money and effort traveling to and running an event and and then not get your time captured.

After reading the comments on prior year events on the system used here, I was very careful to place the timing chip as low on my ankle as I could get it, but in the end I did not get a finish time.

It would seem from my review of the initial results published that this is far more than an isolated issue. With the systems and technologies available today for timing, I think the organizers need to seriously re-think their timing strategy/supplier for the future.

Other than that, this is a very nice event.

I have run my first half marathon and decided the Shamrock would be my first.

Here are my comments:

Pros:
-lots of Shamrock spirit
- expo
-free goodies!
-volunteers and supporters were GREAT!

Cons:
-course got a little boring through the military base
-every mile not marked
-entertainment on course was very limited - more music needed

All in all, I thought this race was great. I really enjoyed myself.