I have run 63 marathons & this one is definitely one of my top 10 favorites. Scott & his crew have put a lot of work into all the details to provide a great racing venue. This is one of those races devoloped by runners who know what runners want. The medals & shirts were fantastic. I live in a very flat part of the country & still found this race doable with some good hill workouts in training.

You will earn that beautiful medal & will be proud of the accomplishment. I would strongly recommend doing this race if you are a 50 stater (as I am) and are only choosing one race in Utah!!

Scott Hardy and his team have done things about as perfect as a race can be done. The whole staff lets everyone know they genuinely are glad you have come and they give you the best of everything. They set an overall tone of having fun while enjoying the beautiful course and the challenge of the up-the-canyon-at-night course. Aid stations were well supplied and staffed. Generous food at the end and lots of finisher's trophies!

The race is a fun challenge up and down a huge mountain. The race director is obviously a runner, he understands what the participants want and provides a terrific marathon to them. Excellent use of Facebook, YouTube videos - I knew what to expect. Great Nike Drifit shirt, huge medal. Beautiful course on the way down the mountain as the sun comes up. Love that the start is in the dark - the mountain isn't as visually intimidating in the dark. Don't come here to PR but do come here to do a fabulous race.

These guys ROCK  they just announced that Black Diamond will be giving each marathoner a headlamp for running this race!!!! I love it!!!!

I pretty much had the same experiance as those before me. It was alot of fun and great to be cheered on by the half marathon runners. The first half the aid stations are not supported, which is talked about in the race details and so if you are prepared for it, its no big deal everything was there just no one to hand it to you. It is a beautiful course. I can't think of any non positive things it went just like the race details. I will be there again this year it is one of my favorites.Very well put together race the second half can be one of the fastest halfs you have ran.

I went to pick up my packet for the half marathon. I was running it with 6 other family members. I learned there of the CRAZY challenge of running the coarse backwards....meaning, starting at the finish line (of the half) running UP the mountain to the half's starting line, and running the last half of the marathon with the half marathoners. Nervous? Yes! Excited? Yes!

Questioning my sanity? Absolutely!! I am from New York, and although trained well enough for a marathon (just completed one 3 mos previous), I hadn't prepared well for hills, altitude, etc. I believe we started about 4 in the morning, which worked really well. We all know running is very mental, and I think if I had to run up the mountain in the daylight, my mind would of played too many tricks on me. In other words, having to stare up a mountain for 13 long miles, wouldn't of worked well for my mental state! Only being able to see as far in front of you as your headlamp would allow is actually a great mental benefit in my opinion.

The first half, to my surprise, went by very fast. To be greeted by all the half marathoners waiting at the start was AWESOME!! They were cheering us all on...even on the bus as they passed us going up the mountain, you could hear the cheers. When we reached the top, the day light was peeking through, and it felt so fresh, as if we were just starting to run 13.1 miles, not finishing the latter half of our marathon. When I completed the race, I felt amazing!!

I have run 6 marathons to date, and have another one in Arkansas scheduled for March. So far, this race has been my favorite. It is something different, not many people can say they ran 13.1 miles up a mountain in the middle of the night!! It was challenging, it was invigorating, and just plain amazing. It has also been my favorite of all post race celebrations! They had a great band playing great music, my family and I were all dancing!! They had massage tables, plenty of food and water. Just overall an amazing race. If you are thinking about running this, I would say, don't think twice. I am SO glad I just jumped in and ran it!! It is one of my very proud running moments.

And I hear some of my friends describe me as the crazy girl who ran up a mtn in the middle of the night to run a marathon!! I will take the compliment!! I was planning on running it again,this time with my sister, but have since become pregnant and will be due one week after race. Sitting this one out, but will be there in spirit!! DO IT!!!

Imagine running 13 miles up American Fork Canyon in the middle of the night and being cheered on by the Half Marathoners waiting to start their race. Absolutely exhilirating! The most fun I've ever had in a marathon even though I was on the mend from some injuries.
Hills (the mountain) wasn't that bad. The real climb started about 6 or 7 miles into the run, but even then, not much of a climb. Party at the end, lots of foods, women's shirts ran small (and I'm small), the medal is the size of a dinner plate. Awesome!
One improvement for next year would be to have a separate Marathon shirt for just the Marathoners.

I loved this race; what a great concept to run to the start of the the half marathon to be welcomed by over 2,000 people... WOW is all I can say

If you love a great challenge this is it... You start in the middle of the night but it is so awesome to run up the canyon (wasn't as hard as I thought it would be) and get to the half way point to be greeted by all those 1/2 marathoners... and the MEDAL; oh yea, it was designed by a runner... IT IS HUGE and so clever... The race was well organized and YES I would recommend it.