I PR'd but missed a BQ by 96 seconds. Packet pickup was smooth, with various speakers all day. Buses to the start run on time. Lots of port-a-johns. Cold temps at the start. Long, straight roads - nice, but somewhat boring. Pace groups were great. Plenty of water stops and support. I did not care for the sport drink. But I met a lot of the best runners in the USA there. I'd do it again.

I also beat my other 2010 marathons times: Chicago (4 minutes); Sunburst (7 minutes); Martian (3 minutes) and Disney (27 minutes).

Once again, CIM put together another great race. Every detail was handled, and there were porta-potties in abundance at the start. I don't know what kind of MoJo they have, but the weather was perfect. This was my 5th CIM and the City of Sacto knows how to throw a marathon party. Whenever I can, I will always return.

Lucky break for 2010 CIM, weather-wise. Temporature was in the 40s, with sunshine and no wind. Perfect condition. I ran my first marathon and got my BQ. Organization was great. Getting back the goody bag at the finish was amazingly fast. For the food, I was impressed with the warm tomato soup, which made a big difference after the run, especially if it's cold. I stayed in Larkspur Landing Hotel, which provided a shuttle bus to the start. PLUS we got a VIP ticket (free) from hotel to stay in a warm tent before the race, only a hundred yards from the gate. Highly recommend the hotel if you run CIM.

This race was special for me since it was my first Boston Qualifier. Loved it it was cool and relatively fast. Only thing that sucked was waiting in the cold for the race to start. It was all worth it. Till this day the photo at the finish is still my favorite. I would recommend this race to anybody looking to qualify for Boston.

Pros-
Nice cool (or cold) weather
Great elevation - moderate uphills and downhills, but pretty flat
Great aid stations
Consistent crowd Support
Well organized overall

Cons-
T-shirt was REALLY ugly
Not very scenic
Start line is a long drive from downtown Sacramento, and the buses leave you standing in cold for a long time

I ran the 2009 CIM Marathon and loved it. Although getting up extremely early (around 4 a.m.) to be at the bus pick-up by 5 a.m. was not pleasant (the weather was extremely cold and it was still very dark), by the time I was finishing I felt very accomplished and happy to have taken on this challenge.

The course can be fast if you train properly, but all of the downhills do take a heavy toll on your legs. After mile 13, you begin to feel your quads and hamstrings. So it is important to plan your race and split times to not go out very fast and then pay for it. The course will get to you if you do not pace yourself.

I ran with the pace teams and it was a TREMENDOUS help. I really appreciated this. I left the pace team about 3 miles before the finish, but I'm pretty sure they made it exactly on time. I finished several minutes before the time I wanted. This was great.

I had a PR but I feel like I really worked for it and nothing came easy. The weather was extremely cold and windy. This affected me for a while; my ears were hurting even with a hat. The finish is really awesome. You see the capitol building and I personally got really emotional. Training for this marathon was tough and exhausting, but the rewards were worth it.

I never got to the food - too many people - but there were some nice cafés around with great coffee, oatmeal and sandwiches to make you feel warm and cozy after the finish.

Lying in bed after the entire ordeal, I felt extremely proud to have finished the 2009 CIM 11 minutes and 30 seconds faster than my first marathon in Death Valley the previous year.

I agree that the Ultima drink they give at the aid stations is pretty bad. It tastes like cough syrup and I did not feel like it did anything for me. I carried my own gels, which were crucial; I never relied on the GU they were supposed to give at some of the stops.

I feel the organization was quite good. It's not easy to have buses for so many people to take you to the starting line. It is a good idea because otherwise it would get very congested. I would run it again, hopefully under nice weather conditions.

All aspects of this race within the race organizer's control were top notch, with two exceptions: aid stations and replacement drink.

I ran with the 3:30 pacer and he did not know when the aid stations were coming and on which side of the street they would be on. No advance warning (no volunteers ahead of the station telling you it was coming up or other visual warning, i.e. a flag) made finding the aid stations a challenge. Add to that the congestion around the 3 - 3:30 goal times with extremely short aid stations, and you got total chaos coming into and out of the aid stations. Several times I either had to cut someone off, was cut off, or altogether missed aid stations because I couldn't get there. Several people tripped and fell. This was made even worse when the aid stations were coupled with the relay exchange stations. What a mess.

Ultima is crap, in my opinion, and I'm getting tired of the prevalence of this stuff at marathons. I wish they'd forever ban that stuff from endurance events. For half marathon and below, I can tolerate it; but when you're out running 3 hours or more, you can't get by on the additives in that stuff. Race organizers would tell you to have a friend hand you a bottle (what about that illegal assistance?) or load up on other supplements (did that), but why not just pick a better drink?

I don't know where others are coming from regarding scenery. There is nothing scenic about strip malls and suburbs.

All nit-picking aside, this was a top-notch, well-run event for runners looking for a fast course. I PR'd here by 50 minutes and will be back again in 2010 looking to BQ.

There were so many things that were excellent about this race. Everything that has been talked about on this message board is true when it comes to the great course, great weather, easy expo, nice people, enthusiastic fans, beautiful view, focused yet friendly runners, willing and able pace teams and so on.

The one most obvious area of improvment needed would be the aid stations. It was indeed crowded on the course and if you were on the wrong side of the road when the aid stations were upon you then you had no chance of getting over to grab some liquid if you are not willing to stop running (I personally missed 3 that I wanted to hit). They need more organized water and Ultima stations, maybe with those big flags (the ones they used for the first mile markers) so that from a distance away you know what side of the road to be on.

I do not want to sound like I did not absolutely love this race, because I truly did. I PRd and loved the atmosphere of "purist" runners. I am planning on doing it again next year but just thought that this was one large area that they could improve on.

I have run CIM in '08 and '09 and absolutely love this marathon. Both years, I have posted large PR's: 45 minutes and 24 minutes, respectively. Note that the field was increased yet again and led to logistical issues in '09. Here are my thoughts:

1) This is a fast, downhill course but it does have rolling hills. Most of the "hills" are barely noticeable, UNLESS you ran the first downhill miles unwisely. For each hill, you are rewarded with a nice downhill twice as long. Do your hill training, study the course elevation chart and, by all means, attend the course talk at the expo!

2) I would usually recommend taking the bus, but this year was a pain! Our downtown hotel was promised two bus pickups, of which none came. After waiting 30 minutes with 100 other marathoners, we finally walked the few blocks to the main pick up area. We lost precious time for start line prep. Fortunately, due to the huge number of porta-potties and an easy bag drop, I was able to line up near my pace group a few minutes before the gun.

3) The first couple of miles were very crowded. Also, watch out for all of the warm-up gear thrown in the street! I blame the thoughtless runners who don't follow the race instructions to toss to the sidelines.

4) Yes, the weather was cold! The freezing temps at the start turned some of the water stops into skating rinks. I slipped and fell at mile 4. I was lucky, but it could have been bad. Freezing conditions were forecasted days before. They should have been prepared for icing.

5) I think the course is beautiful and crowd support was fantastic. Yes, there are a few quiet areas, but this is so minor that I can't believe some complain about it.

6) The increase in participants led to a very congested finish area. The capitol mall is too small for all of the runners and their family now. The food line was long and you had to push through the masses to find the bag pick up in the back. Once you got there, the food options were good and the bag pick up was very well organized.

7) Other comments: the expo is fairly small but packet pick up was easy. The tech shirts are nice with long- and short-sleeve options, and the medals are great! Sac is a neat town with great restaurant and hotel options. Old Sac, the capitol building and the river give the town personality.

Over all, I love this race and will probably run it again. If they raise the number of entrants again, I may rethink it. I had planned to run CIM '10 to BQ for 2011. However, Boston is filling up in November, so CIM is now too late - an important factor that now has me looking at an October marathon.

This is my 4th CIM (and the 3rd "finished"), and for me it is a nice, local race. It is not very flat - like every one here states, be prepared for rolling hills, with the last one after mile 21 - but our Sac hills are nothing compared to San Fran or Atlanta... so, it is not so bad. It is a faster course than San Fran's by far, with a very good, flat finish and lots of cheering. The water stations are well spaced, but this year they were not consistent with water/sports drink placement, and the sports drink was terrible. They did have it available to try at the expo, so the runners could choose to bring their own sports drink (or tablets) as my friend did, and it seemed to work OK.

I think that it is well organized; I never had problems with bus pick ups, but I do advise getting there right at 5 a.m. to get on one of the first few busses - the trip to the start takes about 40 minutes. Do not wait till the last minute to drop off your sweats - it got a little crazy 10 minutes before the start time. I found the pace groups very helpful and did not experience unusual congestion at the start (unlike some previous commenters). In fact, it was a lot better than some marathons I ran in other cities. A few points you should know: the middle of the marathon (approximately miles 10 - mile 20) is run on a long, seemingly endless street, with no interesting landmarks (other than strip malls), and it can be a little boring. Be prepared and power through it! It gets a lot better after mile 20! Expo is OK; I am not a huge fan of a tech shirt they produce each year, but all of this is not important.