Marathon Details - Illinois Marathon

North America Marathons > USA > IL > Champaign-Urbana > Illinois Marathon

Illinois Marathon & Marathon Relay, Half Marathon, 10K, 5K

Champaign-Urbana, IL USA

April 27, 2024

http://www.illinoismarathon.com

More Info:	News
Results:	2019 \| 2018 \| 2017 \| 2016 \| 2015 \| 2014 \| 2013 \| 2012 \| 2011 \| 2010 \| 2009 Top 3 Finishers by Year

Contact

Name:	Jan Seeley
Address:	Christie Clinic Illinois Marathon PO Box 262 Champaign IL 61824
Phone Number:	217-369-8553
Email:	Email the organizers



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Reviews

Course 4.5

Organization 4.5

Spectators 4.5

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Number of comments: 167 [displaying comments 1 to 11]

More Comments: [ < 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 .. 17 > ]

N. S. from Schaumburg, Illinois (5/2/2019) "Mostly flat until Mile 25." (about: 2019) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Illinois Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 This review will be divided into two sections...the Marathon Course itself and the Illinois Marathon Weekend. Marathon - I know many people say this race was flat, but honestly I have ran flatter courses (Chicagoland in Schaumburg and Run4Troops in Dubuque). The half marathon is definitely flat, but once you split up from the half marathoners there were a few tiny hills, but Mile 25 next to the golf course was a little brutal and I lost some time on that hill. Overall the first half of the marathon was very entertaining. I actually do think there were more musical acts then the Rock 'n Roll Marathon itself. You are running mostly through Urbana and the scene switches off consistently from town centers to residential to park trails. Hats off to the Navy ROTC which was ringing some bell at Mile 12. However, the 2nd half of the marathon was just residential and for people that need entertainment at their races then this was going to be brutal for you. You are mostly running through residencial neighborhoods. However, hats off to those people that live in those homes. A LOT of them came out and supported us. They were giving away Coors Light and other beers to the participants. If you are a weak hill runner like myself then be careful and be prepared for Mile 25. I was suprised by it and it slowed me down by at least 2 minutes. From there on...you can have a kick and finish fast all the way to the finish line if you still have it in you. Marathon Weekend : They also have the 10k, Marathon Relay, and the Half Marathon that Saturday. However, they do have a 5k on Friday night. That is pretty convenient if you have a child. My wife was able to do the 5k on Friday night while I was with my daughter. The expo seems like it was very legit. Many high profile speakers came and they had cool games and such. There was a lot of confusion on where to meet up with family members at the end. They need signs to tell us where to meet up with them. I couldn't find my wife after her 5k and we wasted like 20 minutes looking for each other. The 4 Mile Celebration and 27 Mile Celebration was cramped. I honestly think they should do it at the HUGE parking lot next to the street. Speaking of parking lots, there was PLENTY and FREE parking. Hotels will start spiking up their hotel rates by at least 30 to 40 dollars in one month so make sure you go on Priceline to book several months in advance. We stayed at Candlewood Suites for 70.00 and it was well worth it. It was clean, modern, and had a BIG fridge. Also....if you want to Carb up and if you need to be on a budget like myself (I come from a poor immigrant family)....there is a FAZOLIES in town!!! For 7 dollars you can get a good spaghetti meal. Finally...they will give you wooden chips at the expo to use around town. We did took advantage of it. We also realized that the list they gave us of businesses didn't have all them so if you go to places on Green Street and the surrounding area...ask if they take the wooden chips. We got a few great deals out of them. Champaign has several nice parks, museums (I am a history dork), and U of I is a beautiful campus. I would recommend a weekend trip here for sure. Everything is very economical (even gas so make sure you fill up before you head back to the Chicago area). Just make sure you book your hotel on Priceline once you realize you will do this race. You will save at least 30 to 40 dollars. That is at least 8 Subway Meals.
M. C. from Chicago (2/27/2019) "Great Course for Fast Times" (about: 2018) 6-10 previous marathons \| 1 Illinois Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 This marathon greatly exceeded my expectations for what I was looking for in a marathon. I was looking for a marathon with a flat course and wasn't too crowded in order to run a PR and qualify for the Boston marathon. I was lucky enough to have great weather and run a really nice PR by a little over 5 minutes and easily secure my ticket to Boston. Pros: -Very flat course -Very well organized -Not overly crowded -Great communications by race directors -Easy parking day of right near the start/finish lines -Nice medal/shirt/blanket they give away Cons: -Champaign/Urbana isn't exactly a huge metropolitan area so it doesn't attract a huge fan contingent along the course Really I don't have much other than great things to say about this race. My wife is a U of I alumni and has been talking about running a marathon so I convinced her to sign up for this one for her marathon debut. I would recommend this race for a first timer or someone who has done 30 marathons.
m. s. from mansfield, TX (5/1/2017) "Great flat course" (about: 2017) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Illinois Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 Nice course though scenic residential area of Champaign/Urbana. Nice medal & aid stations.
Rob Klein from Paradise, MI (4/25/2017) "One Big Happy Community" (about: 2017) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Illinois Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 The biggest factor drawing me to this marathon was that the 50-States Marathon Club had a reunion run here, and I had not been to one of the quarterly reunion runs with the group for about 18 months - and I could drive here - in about 9 hours. For this marathon, the University of Illinois made a huge contribution - as did both communities. Urbana and Champaign are twin cities, side-by-side, with the University nestled in between, with a feel of one big community. The race organization brought both communities together, along with the University, to put on a spectacular event. For all the events they were hosting, they brought some 18,000 runners to town. Since I am focusing on the marathon part of that, there were 1,215 marathon runners - a small fraction of the total group. Hopefully, spreading the word about the excellent experience here will draw more marathoner runners in the future. Up front, plenty of information was available about the race, where to go - addresses, building designations or names, and where to park - for the expo and on race day morning. And from the time you arrived on campus, there were volunteers everywhere to help you - first with parking, then getting to the expo, and of course, where you could park race day morning. For packet pick-up, once inside the building, you were directed to one room where they assigned numbers and handed out bibs. Bibs were personalized with names, or nick-names - and they did it right there. I have never seen anything like this before. Then you progressed to the expo - a big room where you got your T-shirt and bag for s.w.a.g., and all kinds of organizations were represented there. There was a 'marathon store' at one end, but the rest of the room was mostly for folks trying to get information out about their specialty. Most were giving away stuff; some were trying to make a buck. It was a substantial expo. Race day morning the parking lots adjacent to the stadium and the start-line were open and parking was available very close to the center of activity. There was free coffee/tea, and Einstein bagels for pre-race food. The temperature was on the cool side before the sun was up probably in the 40's. So lots of runners were shedding warm-up clothes just before the start. Volunteers took these (then transported them to the post-race area for pick-up). The race started just after 7:00 a.m. with the wheel chair racers first. The runners were corralled by their projected finish time. Every couple of minutes they would release another wave. There were 8 corrals, and if you were in the back (like me), it seemed like 15 minutes before we got to run. I understand the reasons for doing this, but the clocks on the course are like 15 minutes off of chip time for those runners. We started down the main drag thru campus - with helicopters overhead and on live TV - then turned right and went through the town on Urbana, literally through downtown, and area neighborhoods. For the part through Urbana, the ½ marathoners with us. Returning to the campus, the ½ marathoners went left to their finish, and the marathoners turned right and headed through Champaign. Again, we got to see the town - and some very impressive homes. The course wound its way thru town then ended up bringing us into the football stadium, with the finish line out near the 50-yardline. It was spectacular. The only thing missing is that I did not have a football I was running with! These people did not leave anything to chance. There were perhaps 7 first-aid stations spread along the course. There were hydration stations every 2-3 miles, and they all had an abundance of friendly volunteers serving the runners. Some were stocked with gels too. And I think some friendly neighbors just set up their own table and served the runners as they saw fit. One guy was actually serving Moonshine! (Jan warned us!) There were course marshals too, then bikes patrols connected with runners thru the day too. There was usually a volunteer close by. And there were signs throughout the course too, keeping runners informed and on-track. Some of the mile markers were flags on a vertical pole, and they had a tendency to align with the wind, and sometimes you could run past them without even seeing them, if you were not watching closely. In the later part of the race (maybe in Champaign) they used rigid signs for mile-markers, and you could not miss seeing those. Throughout the race, law enforcement did a great job controlling the traffic and keeping the runners safe. I think Urbana closed their roads for the course, but Champaign used half of the road for runners and used the other lane for car traffic. In any case, it worked great, and there were not, to my knowledge, any safety issues. A couple of other comments: The weather forecast was for overcast skies and mid 50's. That is about as good as it can get for a marathon; not too hot, and not too cold. I did not see actuals, bit it felt pretty close to that. It was mostly clear at the start, and as the Sun was about to come out, it got cloudy. And it seemed to stay that way most of the morning. During sun-breaks, there seemed to be plenty of shade. Probably in the early afternoon the Sun did come out in force, but most everyone was finished by then and it never got hot. The wind was variable, but sometimes strong. After crossing the finish line, we received a medal, posed for a photo, got bottles of water and Muscle Milk (I needed Muscle Milk before the race!), then we headed up behind the bleachers and had hot food - pasta and pizza - bananas, granola bars, pretzels, and the like. RD Jan was available to runners before and after the race.
T. P. from Maple Grove MN (4/23/2017) "Fantastic and very well organized Marathon!" (about: 2017) 50+ previous marathons \| 6+ Illinois Marathons COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Just finished my 9th Illinois marathon and 400th marathon overall. Very well organized marathon and great weather for the marathon with just a little windy at times, but a dry marathon experience compared to years past. Love the marathon medal which celebrated University of Illinois 150th birthday, and there was even birthday cake out on the plaza to celebrate. Nice touch to get the blanket when you finish the marathon in the football stadium which makes for a great finish. Great race staff from the Directors, to volunteers, medical personnel, and police, etc.. I had a great time pacing the 4:30 group, and thanks to all the runners that ran with me - especially the first time 1/2 and full marathoners. Now I start looking forward to my 10th Illinois marathon next year.
D. J. from Mead Co (4/22/2017) "Very nice marathon!" (about: 2017) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Illinois Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Although the wind absolutely sucked, the course was flat and the spectators were plentiful and enthusiastic. The organization for this race was as good as any I've seen. There was never any question as where to be at any time at both the expo and the race itself.
R. P. from Illinois (5/24/2016) "Nice Midwest Marathon" (about: 2016) 50+ previous marathons \| 6+ Illinois Marathons COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 I have run this every year. Rained ALL day, but the free plastic poncho was perfect. Too much concrete at times. This is a very well organized race.
M. M. from Illinois (5/14/2016) "Weather sucked, great race" (about: 2016) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Illinois Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Yeah, the weather sucked. Besides that, great race! Amazing fans, fast course, great support! I almost never run races more than once, but I will be back to this one. Anyone trying quality for Boston, this is the course!
B. R. from Illinois (5/3/2016) "GOOD!!!" (about: 2016) 11-50 previous marathons COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 This was my 44th marathon and it was a good one. Sure it rained and the wind blew a bit, but top-notch organization. Great communication. Nice updated website. Flat and fast course and I'm sure there would have been more people cheering if the weather wasn't so darn nasty. Events for the entire family from youth run to marathon. Nice swag too; medals (very nice medals to include the challenge ones for completing multi events on Fri and Sat), fleece blanket, good shirts. Finish on the 50 yard line of Fighting Illini. Really good event. This staff is great. Keep it up. Looking forward to seeing date of next years race, so I can see if it fits into my schedule. WELL DONE.
J. M. from Peoria, IL (4/27/2015) "Great race despite the weather" (about: 2015) 4-5 previous marathons \| 3 Illinois Marathons COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 For the first time in the 7-year history of the race, we experienced bad weather. I was at mile 19 when police first drove by announcing through the speakers that the race was 'shut down' and to seek shelter. With the current culture's propensity for lawsuits, management made the correct choice. However, my group and I never did see lightning, and it even stopped raining once, so we kept going and finished. Some of the amazing volunteers kept working (including the finish line), and the rest left their water stands set up for self-service. Besides that weather-related negativity, the race was awesome. The chilly weather was actually great for keeping cool during the run. Flat course as always, and the 'hill' at mile 24-25 is negligible. The increase of fruit at water stations was great. Spectators (fewer than most years) and volunteers were wonderful too. Even some of the entertainment improvised, setting up under bridges and awnings to keep playing for us. Definitely a grade-A marathon for first-timers, PR's, or those with a connection to the community.

More Comments: [ < 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 .. 17 > ]

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N. S. from Schaumburg, Illinois (5/2/2019) "Mostly flat until Mile 25." (about: 2019) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Illinois Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 This review will be divided into two sections...the Marathon Course itself and the Illinois Marathon Weekend. Marathon - I know many people say this race was flat, but honestly I have ran flatter courses (Chicagoland in Schaumburg and Run4Troops in Dubuque). The half marathon is definitely flat, but once you split up from the half marathoners there were a few tiny hills, but Mile 25 next to the golf course was a little brutal and I lost some time on that hill. Overall the first half of the marathon was very entertaining. I actually do think there were more musical acts then the Rock 'n Roll Marathon itself. You are running mostly through Urbana and the scene switches off consistently from town centers to residential to park trails. Hats off to the Navy ROTC which was ringing some bell at Mile 12. However, the 2nd half of the marathon was just residential and for people that need entertainment at their races then this was going to be brutal for you. You are mostly running through residencial neighborhoods. However, hats off to those people that live in those homes. A LOT of them came out and supported us. They were giving away Coors Light and other beers to the participants. If you are a weak hill runner like myself then be careful and be prepared for Mile 25. I was suprised by it and it slowed me down by at least 2 minutes. From there on...you can have a kick and finish fast all the way to the finish line if you still have it in you. Marathon Weekend : They also have the 10k, Marathon Relay, and the Half Marathon that Saturday. However, they do have a 5k on Friday night. That is pretty convenient if you have a child. My wife was able to do the 5k on Friday night while I was with my daughter. The expo seems like it was very legit. Many high profile speakers came and they had cool games and such. There was a lot of confusion on where to meet up with family members at the end. They need signs to tell us where to meet up with them. I couldn't find my wife after her 5k and we wasted like 20 minutes looking for each other. The 4 Mile Celebration and 27 Mile Celebration was cramped. I honestly think they should do it at the HUGE parking lot next to the street. Speaking of parking lots, there was PLENTY and FREE parking. Hotels will start spiking up their hotel rates by at least 30 to 40 dollars in one month so make sure you go on Priceline to book several months in advance. We stayed at Candlewood Suites for 70.00 and it was well worth it. It was clean, modern, and had a BIG fridge. Also....if you want to Carb up and if you need to be on a budget like myself (I come from a poor immigrant family)....there is a FAZOLIES in town!!! For 7 dollars you can get a good spaghetti meal. Finally...they will give you wooden chips at the expo to use around town. We did took advantage of it. We also realized that the list they gave us of businesses didn't have all them so if you go to places on Green Street and the surrounding area...ask if they take the wooden chips. We got a few great deals out of them. Champaign has several nice parks, museums (I am a history dork), and U of I is a beautiful campus. I would recommend a weekend trip here for sure. Everything is very economical (even gas so make sure you fill up before you head back to the Chicago area). Just make sure you book your hotel on Priceline once you realize you will do this race. You will save at least 30 to 40 dollars. That is at least 8 Subway Meals.
M. C. from Chicago (2/27/2019) "Great Course for Fast Times" (about: 2018) 6-10 previous marathons \| 1 Illinois Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 This marathon greatly exceeded my expectations for what I was looking for in a marathon. I was looking for a marathon with a flat course and wasn't too crowded in order to run a PR and qualify for the Boston marathon. I was lucky enough to have great weather and run a really nice PR by a little over 5 minutes and easily secure my ticket to Boston. Pros: -Very flat course -Very well organized -Not overly crowded -Great communications by race directors -Easy parking day of right near the start/finish lines -Nice medal/shirt/blanket they give away Cons: -Champaign/Urbana isn't exactly a huge metropolitan area so it doesn't attract a huge fan contingent along the course Really I don't have much other than great things to say about this race. My wife is a U of I alumni and has been talking about running a marathon so I convinced her to sign up for this one for her marathon debut. I would recommend this race for a first timer or someone who has done 30 marathons.
m. s. from mansfield, TX (5/1/2017) "Great flat course" (about: 2017) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Illinois Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 Nice course though scenic residential area of Champaign/Urbana. Nice medal & aid stations.
Rob Klein from Paradise, MI (4/25/2017) "One Big Happy Community" (about: 2017) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Illinois Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 The biggest factor drawing me to this marathon was that the 50-States Marathon Club had a reunion run here, and I had not been to one of the quarterly reunion runs with the group for about 18 months - and I could drive here - in about 9 hours. For this marathon, the University of Illinois made a huge contribution - as did both communities. Urbana and Champaign are twin cities, side-by-side, with the University nestled in between, with a feel of one big community. The race organization brought both communities together, along with the University, to put on a spectacular event. For all the events they were hosting, they brought some 18,000 runners to town. Since I am focusing on the marathon part of that, there were 1,215 marathon runners - a small fraction of the total group. Hopefully, spreading the word about the excellent experience here will draw more marathoner runners in the future. Up front, plenty of information was available about the race, where to go - addresses, building designations or names, and where to park - for the expo and on race day morning. And from the time you arrived on campus, there were volunteers everywhere to help you - first with parking, then getting to the expo, and of course, where you could park race day morning. For packet pick-up, once inside the building, you were directed to one room where they assigned numbers and handed out bibs. Bibs were personalized with names, or nick-names - and they did it right there. I have never seen anything like this before. Then you progressed to the expo - a big room where you got your T-shirt and bag for s.w.a.g., and all kinds of organizations were represented there. There was a 'marathon store' at one end, but the rest of the room was mostly for folks trying to get information out about their specialty. Most were giving away stuff; some were trying to make a buck. It was a substantial expo. Race day morning the parking lots adjacent to the stadium and the start-line were open and parking was available very close to the center of activity. There was free coffee/tea, and Einstein bagels for pre-race food. The temperature was on the cool side before the sun was up probably in the 40's. So lots of runners were shedding warm-up clothes just before the start. Volunteers took these (then transported them to the post-race area for pick-up). The race started just after 7:00 a.m. with the wheel chair racers first. The runners were corralled by their projected finish time. Every couple of minutes they would release another wave. There were 8 corrals, and if you were in the back (like me), it seemed like 15 minutes before we got to run. I understand the reasons for doing this, but the clocks on the course are like 15 minutes off of chip time for those runners. We started down the main drag thru campus - with helicopters overhead and on live TV - then turned right and went through the town on Urbana, literally through downtown, and area neighborhoods. For the part through Urbana, the ½ marathoners with us. Returning to the campus, the ½ marathoners went left to their finish, and the marathoners turned right and headed through Champaign. Again, we got to see the town - and some very impressive homes. The course wound its way thru town then ended up bringing us into the football stadium, with the finish line out near the 50-yardline. It was spectacular. The only thing missing is that I did not have a football I was running with! These people did not leave anything to chance. There were perhaps 7 first-aid stations spread along the course. There were hydration stations every 2-3 miles, and they all had an abundance of friendly volunteers serving the runners. Some were stocked with gels too. And I think some friendly neighbors just set up their own table and served the runners as they saw fit. One guy was actually serving Moonshine! (Jan warned us!) There were course marshals too, then bikes patrols connected with runners thru the day too. There was usually a volunteer close by. And there were signs throughout the course too, keeping runners informed and on-track. Some of the mile markers were flags on a vertical pole, and they had a tendency to align with the wind, and sometimes you could run past them without even seeing them, if you were not watching closely. In the later part of the race (maybe in Champaign) they used rigid signs for mile-markers, and you could not miss seeing those. Throughout the race, law enforcement did a great job controlling the traffic and keeping the runners safe. I think Urbana closed their roads for the course, but Champaign used half of the road for runners and used the other lane for car traffic. In any case, it worked great, and there were not, to my knowledge, any safety issues. A couple of other comments: The weather forecast was for overcast skies and mid 50's. That is about as good as it can get for a marathon; not too hot, and not too cold. I did not see actuals, bit it felt pretty close to that. It was mostly clear at the start, and as the Sun was about to come out, it got cloudy. And it seemed to stay that way most of the morning. During sun-breaks, there seemed to be plenty of shade. Probably in the early afternoon the Sun did come out in force, but most everyone was finished by then and it never got hot. The wind was variable, but sometimes strong. After crossing the finish line, we received a medal, posed for a photo, got bottles of water and Muscle Milk (I needed Muscle Milk before the race!), then we headed up behind the bleachers and had hot food - pasta and pizza - bananas, granola bars, pretzels, and the like. RD Jan was available to runners before and after the race.
T. P. from Maple Grove MN (4/23/2017) "Fantastic and very well organized Marathon!" (about: 2017) 50+ previous marathons \| 6+ Illinois Marathons COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Just finished my 9th Illinois marathon and 400th marathon overall. Very well organized marathon and great weather for the marathon with just a little windy at times, but a dry marathon experience compared to years past. Love the marathon medal which celebrated University of Illinois 150th birthday, and there was even birthday cake out on the plaza to celebrate. Nice touch to get the blanket when you finish the marathon in the football stadium which makes for a great finish. Great race staff from the Directors, to volunteers, medical personnel, and police, etc.. I had a great time pacing the 4:30 group, and thanks to all the runners that ran with me - especially the first time 1/2 and full marathoners. Now I start looking forward to my 10th Illinois marathon next year.
D. J. from Mead Co (4/22/2017) "Very nice marathon!" (about: 2017) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Illinois Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Although the wind absolutely sucked, the course was flat and the spectators were plentiful and enthusiastic. The organization for this race was as good as any I've seen. There was never any question as where to be at any time at both the expo and the race itself.
R. P. from Illinois (5/24/2016) "Nice Midwest Marathon" (about: 2016) 50+ previous marathons \| 6+ Illinois Marathons COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 I have run this every year. Rained ALL day, but the free plastic poncho was perfect. Too much concrete at times. This is a very well organized race.
M. M. from Illinois (5/14/2016) "Weather sucked, great race" (about: 2016) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Illinois Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Yeah, the weather sucked. Besides that, great race! Amazing fans, fast course, great support! I almost never run races more than once, but I will be back to this one. Anyone trying quality for Boston, this is the course!
B. R. from Illinois (5/3/2016) "GOOD!!!" (about: 2016) 11-50 previous marathons COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 This was my 44th marathon and it was a good one. Sure it rained and the wind blew a bit, but top-notch organization. Great communication. Nice updated website. Flat and fast course and I'm sure there would have been more people cheering if the weather wasn't so darn nasty. Events for the entire family from youth run to marathon. Nice swag too; medals (very nice medals to include the challenge ones for completing multi events on Fri and Sat), fleece blanket, good shirts. Finish on the 50 yard line of Fighting Illini. Really good event. This staff is great. Keep it up. Looking forward to seeing date of next years race, so I can see if it fits into my schedule. WELL DONE.
J. M. from Peoria, IL (4/27/2015) "Great race despite the weather" (about: 2015) 4-5 previous marathons \| 3 Illinois Marathons COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 For the first time in the 7-year history of the race, we experienced bad weather. I was at mile 19 when police first drove by announcing through the speakers that the race was 'shut down' and to seek shelter. With the current culture's propensity for lawsuits, management made the correct choice. However, my group and I never did see lightning, and it even stopped raining once, so we kept going and finished. Some of the amazing volunteers kept working (including the finish line), and the rest left their water stands set up for self-service. Besides that weather-related negativity, the race was awesome. The chilly weather was actually great for keeping cool during the run. Flat course as always, and the 'hill' at mile 24-25 is negligible. The increase of fruit at water stations was great. Spectators (fewer than most years) and volunteers were wonderful too. Even some of the entertainment improvised, setting up under bridges and awnings to keep playing for us. Definitely a grade-A marathon for first-timers, PR's, or those with a connection to the community.

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Marathon Details - Illinois Marathon