I have run this event every year but 1. A few of them marathons and a few half marathon relays. I like participating in my home town events and Totally support the cause but there really should be a true half marathon. The problem is if you want to do the half marathon (relay), you HAVE to find a partner, maybe even someone you don't know to participate. They don't give the split times any longer (did in 2011) so you can't even go for a personal goal without a GPS watch and there is still no 'record' of your individual time. They would get a lot more runners if you could sign up for the half marathon on your own and run your own race!!!

Faced with changing course at such a late notice this group did a fantastic job. The course however was very hilly and challenging, despite which I still had a great time for my first marathon and still got my bq!

This organization did a great job of pulling this off under the circumstances however the steep downhill in the beginning was brutal. I held back as much as possible but still ended up with big toe jam in my nail bed. I hope I don't lose the nail. This never happened before and I wear running shoes with a large toe box. BQ here back in 2011 on the old route. The only time I will run Pocono again is when you go back to the previous route.

Thank you to everyone involved with this race and espicially the volunteers at the water stops! They did a great job! Really amazed at how easy it was to get through the stops. More than enough help and smiles at each one. It was a cold and wet day and I know it could not have been that pleasant but they did a great job!
Thank You!!!

Kudos to the marathon team for laying out a new course in under a month. Having said that; I am looking forward to the regular course next year! The sharp decents trashed my legs and I ended up much slower than anticipated. I have run all 8 races and the experience continues to improve. Packet pick-up/expo was really nice this year (are they ever going to finish Stroudsburg HS); water stops were well manned; and the small groups of spectators enthusiastic.

If you need big race amenities (and costs) this race is not for you. If you enjoy small races, beautiful scenery, and a challenging course, give Pocono a try, you will not regret it.

I am sure this is a sweet marathon in regular years. Unfortunately, the course change due to a bridge closing was a huge negative. I traveled from NC to run this 'fast course' to qualify for Boston. The alternate course was a killer. Not just much harder than the original course, but with many unreasonably (meaning bordering unsafe)steep up and down hill slopes. There was two directional traffic on much of the course with sparse course officials to monitor. On a narrow mountain road, I came very close to getting hit with cars coming in both directions. Although I feel satisfied to have finished this course in anything close to my target time, it is dissapointing to have traveled so far planning to run a fast course and miss my Boston qualifying time by 2 minutes. Big bummer all around.

That said, organization (other than traffic control) was well thought out. Although the crowd support was sparse, folks were very enthusiastic.

This is the first time we used the pacer function and we enjoyed it. Maybe it's because we hadn't used it in other races but I think it's an under valued asset especially on a course like this. If a runner hadn't trained on hills they wouldn't have a good idea how to stay on goal pace. Having experienced pacers is a big plus for that. This was our first time at this race so we can't compare to previous routes. But it was mostly gorgeous countryside. Only thing I'd like to see is a circular course so we could start & finish near the same place and avoid the travel logistics before or after.

New course due to bridge outage, so a lot more hills than I expected. That's the way it goes - I give credit to the course planners for doing the best they could do and still putting on a beautiful run with great volunteers. While this is not a PR/BQ type course anymore, it's still a beautiful area of the country and if you don't mind pounding out a hilly marathon, this is well worth doing one day.

This is a great race. It's by far the smallest marathon I've run, with only 520 individual runners and 82 two-person relay teams. The organization is superb, and especially so this year considering they had to create a new course on short notice because of road construction on the usual course. All the volunteers are helpful and super-friendly, and the organizers were very good about communicating the important information via email, web site and Facebook. The entry fee is very reasonable and it goes to a good cause, unlike some other races I have run (like those starting with 'Rock and Roll...').

I first heard about this race in Runner's World's list of top BQ courses. The big net downhill may look easy, but the combination of steep downhill in miles 6-9 and then lots of rolling hills later in the course (some on the steep side of 'rolling') make it a tough course in my opinion. But there are NO SURPRISES here, because the elevation chart was on the web as soon as the course was set, and it accurately depicts the roller coaster ride. By far the toughest course I've run. It's also a beautiful course if you like running on rural roads in the woods, along creeks, through small villages, etc.

At first I was apprehensive about the course not being closed to traffic, but the organizers and drivers handled this extremely well. There was excellent traffic control at all the intersections, including some major backups while drivers waited for runners to cross Rt 115 in the first quarter of the race. On the course drivers were really great about giving runners lots of room.

I'm very glad I ran it, and I would probably run it again. My only suggestion would be to move the start earlier than 8:00am. With the sun coming up at 5:15am in mid-May it should be easy to start at 7:00 or 7:30. Heat and sun weren't issues this year because it was cloudy, misting/drizzling at high-50s the whole day. But I'm sure that some years, like 2012, heat and sun are problems and an earlier start can help with that.

I am all about promoting physical activity in children but the 5 K race was a dangerous place to have children with no supervision. Kids were running and stopping abruptly making it difficult for adults to keep a steady pace. There were kids with no supervision and you had to push them out of the way to run. I would suggest having a separate 12 and under race so that it can be better supervised and give the adults a chance to run their race, otherwise I would suggest not doing this 5K.