Very Hilly. Great weather with 50's at start. Lots of aide stations that were well manned even for back of the packers. Couldn't believe that last hill right before the finish line. Pretty good expo for smallish marathon. First part runs through cute downtown SLO and the majority of the course runs through vineyard. All the support people were great and encouraging but very few spectators. Recommend cake at madonna inn which hosts the expo and finish line. Loved wine tasting sun/mon after the race. Would recommend fruit next year. It is central coast cali and there is tons of local fresh produce. Oh check out farmers market for picnic stuff before hand. Could not believe there were fresh oranges and strawberries in early april.

I knew it would be hilly, but not that hilly. First 13.1 was almost non-stop rolling hills. It is one of the toughest course I ran out of my 50 full marathons, just behind Red Rock Canyon and Hoover Dam. Don't expect a PR unless u train on long hills.
The shutter pickup was good, and water stations were plenty and volunteers were so amazing and sweet. But the post race food was just Jamba Juice, no bottle of water, no fruit and nothing else.
The race starts at the SLO high school, everything there was good except the stupid DJ kept talking on top of the music and just talked and talked and talked.
Overall it is a good race. But prepare to running techniques on hills.

I still can't believe this was an inaugural race - I couldn't have asked for better organization. Fabulously course support and a beautiful race. Not a lot of crowds out there but you're running for the views and the experience, not the people.

It was very warm in the days preceding the marathon and I was worried about a struggle on race day, even with the early start we would still be running in hotter weather than is comfortable. But race day dawned foggy and cool, and it remained like this until about half an hour after I finished my post-race shower. Perfect. As a result I didn't mind the hills at all. I didn't mind the lack of spectators. The scenery was good, what we could see of it, and that meant vineyards and green countryside.
Only complaints are the rather unattractive free shirt and some sort of problem with getting accurate results out promptly. Every day I checked my finish time had changed.

San Luis Obispo and Get Off the Couch, Potato put on a good race for this inaugural event.

Scenic, rolling course, plentiful aid stations, and while the spectators were not numerous they were enthusiastic.

Pluses:
Started on time and the 6 AM start allowed us to be done before the heat of the day. Many aid stations, some with fruit which was appreciated. Course was well marked, good when you have a twisty turny start/finish. Traffic was off the course, and using an escort vehicle on one stretch was great rather than coning off one lane for the runners with oblivious vehicles coming at us. Shirt's nice, and the food at the end was good especially putting out peanut butter for the bagels.

Could use work:
Handwash stations at the start should be spread out rather than clustered near one line of portapots. Balloons or flags would help us find mile markers. Show the pedestrian overpass at mile 24.5 on the course map and label it as such. Put a mat and marker at the half marathon point so we know our times. More pace groups for non TNT runners  the 4:30 group was great, 5:00 and 5:30 pacers would have been good too. Separate half and full marathoners at the end, even if it's a tape/cone dividing the two lanes, so fulls aren't elbowing slow halfers out of the way and halfs don't get counted in the full marathon finishers list. (I'm being charitable and presuming that people who took 45 minutes to do the first 5K and have no time recorded for the 25K point were doing the half rather than cutting the full course.)

And it's in wine country and the course passes a number of wineries, perhaps have them sponsor a few aid stations? A small glass of Chardonnay at mile 19 would have gone down a treat!

Overall good race. I got a 14 minute PR which pleased me immensely, and the comments are suggestions for improvement not criticisms. This race was worth the 200 mile drive!

This was my 11th marathon and one of my favourites. It was wonderfully organized with care and attention given to all the details. Plenty of port-a-potties at the start, happy smiling volunteers on course, enthusiastic (but sparse) spectators sprinkled throughout. The stunning scenery was almost enough to take your mind off those hills. Yes you must do your hill work. A fantastic wonderful experience.