Beautiful course! Loved the race and the community support. Flat and fast course - I BQ'd. Nice tech shirt; I'm not so crazy about the pinkish color, but it's a nice fit and fabric. Loved the socks! The expo was extremely small. Would definitely do it again.

This was the third marathon course I've run, and was by far the most scenic. The race is a great size, with enough runners so that you are never alone on the course (but still lots of room to run). The course is fast; I PR'd by almost six minutes. The water stops are well placed and well supported. I would recommend this race to anyone.

The course is very scenic, as is the entire Traverse City area. Make this a long weekend and enjoy the area.

This is the most scenic race I've ever run. The race was perfectly organized, the weather was as good as it goes, and I loved my green T-shirt. However, 200 feet from the finished I nearly tripped and fell, because there were unsupervised toddlers in the finishers' way. Immediately after that, I had to pass a runner who was finishing with her little children accompanying her, and they blocked almost all the way. Dear spectators! The last thing a marathon finisher wants is to collide with an unsupervised child and fall. Please be respectful of us runners - many of us are very tired when we are finishing.

The course is very beautiful, with plentiful water stations (GREAT support by the GU volunteers as well), picturesque views, AWESOME medal (as nice as I've received in my 19 marathons), and FREE Cold Stone ice cream, yogurt, cookies and bananas/oranges!

This was my first marathon and I picked a great one! It was an amazing experience from start to finish. And I don't only mean the race. The Traverse City area is a great place to vacation, especially for the outdoorsman or wine enthusiast!

As for the race experience< there really wasn't much of an expo. But I knew about this before I chose the race. The local running store sets up a little bit of merchandise and there are a few pamphlets to pick up about other events - that's it. I'll also add my only other negative - the color choice for the shirts was horrid! Women's shirts were pink (eeew!!) and men's were bright green. The shirt itself was a nice, Brooks Podium, short-sleeve, but it is so incredibly ugly.

I was warned that packet pick-up lines would be long. They weren't! It went very fast! I got my bib, my shirt and free socks (Yes! Free socks!) very quickly.

My husband and I had no trouble finding parking race morning and we got there about a half-hour before the race start. After the gun, I had very little trouble negotiating the crowd before finding room to run. The size of the race is just right. There were plenty of aid stations and the stations were very big and spread out, with plenty of volunteers who did a great job shouting out "water!" or "Gatorade!" Kudos to those volunteers!

The race course was beautiful - better than I had hoped for. The sunrise over the lake on the way up the peninsula was amazing. The finish on the track with stands filled with spectators was uplifting.

The post-race refreshments were awesome! Lots of bananas, oranges, cookies of all kinds, YOGURT (!!), and Coldstone Creamery ice cream!

Even though I became personally acquainted with the dreaded Wall during this race, I still consider it an amazing experience. Do this race!

This was an excellent race. Great course, great conditions, great shirt, nice people - just an all-around great race. FYI: this race is not as flat as the Chicago Marathon. It is in no way hilly, but I was glad to know ahead of time that it did have gentle, rolling hills throughout. Maybe "soft inclines" is better way to describe them. Despite this, I PRed (and I have run flat Chicago twice)! This was my 14 marathon, and first Bayshore. I would do it again, and would recommend it to anyone looking for a race at which to PR or qualify!

I would highly recommend the Bayshore Marathon for anyone who needs to run a Michigan marathon for the 50 state club, or else for anyone who wants to run a relatively small, well-organized race on a beautiful course. The only negatives (and they are no big deal) were that the expo was small, and that by the time I finished the marathon they had run out of ice cream (oh the humanity!). All in all, a great race.

Expo was a bit chaotic, due to the size and number of people. Nice shirt and finisher medals. Course was beautiful and temperature was perfect. The conditions and course allowed me to beat my PR by 6 minutes. Will be back next year.

Not enough good can be said about the 2009 Bayshore Marathon. It was the best-run race that I have ever been a part of. I have run marathon majors and small-town races, but this was better than all of them. I will return. From beginning to end, my wife and I had a great experience. The highlights are:

1. Fast, PR course (4 minutes for me; 16 for my wife)
2. Great Brooks tech-shirt
3. Easy registration process
4. Well stocked and prepared water stations
5. Finish on the track was memorable
6. Great finisher medal
7. Age-group awards are available when you are ready to get them. No ceremony. (I have waited 45 minutes at other marathons to find out that I won a coffee mug.)
8. Free socks at the expo (good ones too)
9. Free pictures at the local Running Fit after the race (very classy)
10. Fast and easy expo
11. Good spectator support
12. Beautiful course

This was my 4th marathon, with my prior 3 all being Chicago. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I absolutely loved it. The course was beautiful, the race was well-organized, and the course was flat. There were lots of water and Gatorade stops, GU stations, etc. The organizers were all very friendly and helpful. Good t-shirts too. There aren't a lot of spectators, which is due to the race size and course layout, but I thought it was great anyway. It was a peaceful course and the spectators who were out there were awesome.