Toronto has two medium-sized marathons within 3 weeks in the fall. This one has the better course, while the Waterfront Marathon offers much better organization. My biggest beef with this one is the lack of water stations. They claim on their site that their are 21 for the marathon. Now, that is world-class! Unfortunately, many of these are the same aid stations where they add a table 500 meters away and really shouldn't count. I mean, if you drink at 5K, would you ever stop at 5.5k? With the cool Oct. temperatures, it hasn't been an issue, but if they ever get a heat wave (a la Chicago), watch out.
The course is great giving you a nice trip down Yonge Street, before running along the waterfront. Post-race support is great with a nice food tent, and massages available. The lines aren't too bad, but waiting 5 minutes to get food seems like an eternity at the time.

Toronto was my 3rd marathon. Overall, I thought it was a very well-run event, and there were plenty of volunteers and policemen along the course directing traffic. We had beautiful weather (albeit cold temps in the morning, so I would recommend bringing a throw-away fleece).

The course was fairly scenic, through a few wooded areas of Toronto and down along the Lakeshore. I didn't particularly enjoy sections of Yonge Street (roadkill, nasty sewage smells in spots), although it was fun to tick off Toronto drivers! And at least spectator support was around through much of the course, as opposed to just the final kilometer in several other races.

Course was hillier than I thought from the elevation map. There was one hill between kilometers 4 and 5 that I thought was just a blip on the elevation map, but it turned out to be THE hill of the race. Most downhills are fairly gradual, but one had the potential to cause quad trouble.

For setting a personal best, I'd say there are better courses out there, but overall, I enjoyed the race. I'd certainly consider running it again in the future. Oh, and beautiful finishing medals!!

Thanks, Toronto!

The new Toronto Marathon course is a first-class tour of the city. It allows for a great downhill front half, down Yonge Street (Toronto's main street) through leafy neighborhoods and through a shaded downhill ravine to the Lake. It then does as a nice tour along Lake Ontario out to High Park and then back for a 3K uphill finish north of Queen's Park by the University of Toronto. A little nasty but manageable. At the finish there are tons of massage therapists and great access to showers and change facilities at the university. The set-up makes for a great PB course. I know because I got one!!! Their results page provides a whole bunch of analysis of your run and comparison of pace through the race and to other runners in your age group. That's the first time I have seen that. I found the whole event marvelous.

This year we were spoiled by perfect marathon weather - perhaps 3 degree C at the start, climbing to 13 degrees at the finish. There are small tweaks that could be done: fixing the rough, cross-country part at the 31K turnaround, and having a little better spacing of water stations. For me, it was small stuff.

Definitely a marathon that I would do again.

This was my 16th marathon and my fifth Toronto Marathon. I had some minor concerns:

1. There were only two water stations during the first 10K of the event, and at least four would be great.
2. There were NO porta-potties from 32K to 42.2K. Again, at least a few would be nice.
3. The trail from 22K to 32K was missing a few markers.

Other than that, it was a tough course and a good race. Great volunteers.

- Sanjay

Toronto is a great event for everyone from the first-timers to the veteran. You'll get lots of support along the course from outstanding volunteers and cheering spectators. I challenge any event to have a better-quality shirt. The medals were great too. This is an event that you have to run. Toronto is a fantastic city and this event runs through a good portion of it, allowing a nice tour from the northern part right down to the lake, and then finishing at one of the nicest urban parks of any city.

This was my second marathon. The course was gorgeous going through the many beautiful sights in town. The buses to the starting line were convenient (although some of the 1/2 marathoners were late because of those shuttles). I started having trouble around mile 21 when one of the patrolling paramedics on bicycles was making sure I was okay within seconds. I ended up okay and still finished with a PR. The crowd support in the second half was sparse and the 2-mile (approx.) uphill finish was tough. Overall, this is a good destination marathon, as Toronto is a fantastic city and has this excellent race.

The new out-and-back portion along the waterfront transforms this from a good to a great marathon. The course is simply one of the best! This is now a far superior event than the other fall Toronto marathon - September's Scotia.

This was my first attempt at the Toronto Marathon. I've run the Scotiabank before and several other marathons. Toronto's new course matches the best of them. I'll be back in the future!

Toronto is a fantastic city and a great place to visit. We had an amazing race experience from the expo to the finish line. The course is very scenic and has some areas that had really impressive crowd support with great bands and cheering. The new section down by the lake was beautiful and had more people there than I expected to see. The finish at Queen's Park is well thought out and everything seemed to click. I love a race that provides showers at the end.
Thank you Toronto Marathon and all you volunteers.

The new Toronto Marathon course is as close to perfect as you can get. Yes, a section of the 2nd half doubles back and in spots is a bit narrow to navigate but the Boston Marathon course is crowded and has a lot of downhill running... so what? The first half of the Toronto Marathon starts in the north end of the city and proceeds down Toronto's main street (Yonge Street). The route veers west into tony Forest Hill and the Spadina Village, going past a castle in the process. The route steers east towards Yonge but heads into one of Toronto's many ravines for a taste of the country. Going across the bottom of downtown, the race heads for Lake Ontario and travels along the shoreline on a biking/running trail. It's a bit tight in places, but it's easy to follow, and there's lots to see. The turnaround gives a great view of the skyscrapers and the CN Tower. The biggest challenge is the 2+ kilometers up the broad University Avenue; you can see Ontario's parliament buildings (the finish line) in the distance but it seems so far away. But by the time you reach Queen's Park and the Parliament buildings, the crowd noise gets infectious and you may find yourself sprinting. I love the new course and I've run Toronto 8 times. It's a PB course and great for Boston Marathon qualifiers.