Marathon Details - Ann Arbor Marathon

North America Marathons > USA > MI > Ann Arbor > Ann Arbor Marathon

Probility Ann Arbor Marathon & Half Marathon, 10K, 5K

Ann Arbor, MI USA

October 13, 2024

http://www.epicraces.com

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Results:	2023 \| 2022 \| 2021 \| 2019 \| 2018 \| 2017 \| 2016 \| 2015 \| 2014 \| 2013 \| 2012 Top 3 Finishers by Year

Contact

Name:	Michael Highfield
Address:	Champions For Charity 3780 Santa Fe Trail Ann Arbor, MI 48108
Phone Number:	734-904-8945
Email:	Email the organizers



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Reviews

Course 3.3

Organization 3.5

Spectators 3.4

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Number of comments: 36 [displaying comments 1 to 11]

More Comments: [ < 1 2 3 4 > ]

M. M. from MI (11/7/2023) "all bad" (about: 2023) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Ann Arbor Marathon COURSE: 1 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 1 Beggars at the starting line!!! The director forgot to put a turn marker at mile 6... a bunch of us went the wrong way... no help from aide stations!! I ran the full and near the turn around at 11, ran face to face with 5K and 10K runners on a 6 foot path!! What the heck!!! Warm water only at the finish!!! I've ran 30 marathons and this is the worst.
M. C. from Illinois (10/1/2023) "74 marathon not very good" (about: 2023) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Ann Arbor Marathon COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 3 Paid 2 dollars for xxl; went to expo they ran out so I got stuck with xl; course advertises 6 hour time limit but roads were open after 5 hours so you had to go to the sidewalk to finish early start; course not marked well; race not for slow runners.
J. B. from Rhode Island, USA (5/21/2018) "Great Course" (about: 2018) First Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 Ran my first full marathon with this race. Great course, but VERY hilly. Don't be fooled, Ann Arbor is not flat like much of the rest of the midwest. There were plenty of hills and the paved part of the run was pretty bumpy - roads aren't great. The Arboretum part of the run made up for it - beautiful even trails. The race was well organized for the first 13.1, second 13.1 it seems that there were fewer water stops and far fewer participants, which was actually good in some ways. Weather was great as well. I do wish they had more food at the finish - seemed sparse for the cost of the run. Besides that it was generally well organized. Overall I tracked 1100+ feet of elevation gain over the 26.2 miles. I ended up doing about 26.8 miles according to my gps - not sure how accurate their markings were.
S. F. from Arkansas (4/27/2016) "Things to consider" (about: 2016) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Ann Arbor Marathon COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 3 Being a race director, I tend to be very careful with criticism of another event. For one thing, I know that many things going right with an event can easily be overshadowed by a couple of glitches, so try to keep that in mind. My comments are tempered by that. For a positive, there is a notable hill that marathoners do twiceat approximately miles 11 and 24. Not everyone will like this, but I found it to be a nice feature. It's in a pretty setting through the arboretum. Anyone who's done many trail runs probably has had the sensation of not being positive about being on the right route, and hoping to see a course marker or some other sort of 'confidence' sign. If you like having that feeling during a road marathon, this one is for you! You can find comments from past runners of this race from multiple years who refer to difficulty following the course. You might want to pay attention to these. A simple fact is: I'm done the Hardrock 100 ('wild and tough', minimal course marking, etc) five times, accumulating less extra distance in all those years combined than I did at one running of this road marathon. If looking closely, you might notice that this race is put on by an 'event company' rather than a running club. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I've found that I tend to have better experiences at running club races, or runs put on by runners for runners. E-mailing the 'event company' and race director with a couple of comments/questions from my experience, I did get a cursory response from the company CEO, but nothing actually answering my concerns, and zilch from the RD. I know there are better marathon options in Michigan.
s. m. from ottawa, ON (4/8/2016) "My 78th Marathon! Toughest yet!" (about: 2016) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Ann Arbor Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 This was a very well organized race. There was lots of pizza at the finish line, beer, brownies and bottled water. The course is tough! Very hilly and there were two two mile long hills I walked! the weather was so cold that my camelback froze after 7 miles and most of the water and Gatorade was frozen. Only thing I would change is that the race kit should include a clear bag for storing your clothes. I had to get one at the start of the race and go back to my car to get my clothes. Also, the free showers at the end by the YMCA were nice but far from the race parking. Should maybe coordinate that better on race day to make it easy for the runners.
J. S. from Ann Arbor, MI (6/19/2015) "Scenic, challenging course; room for improvement" (about: 2015) 3 previous marathons \| 2 Ann Arbor Marathons COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 4 The course is very beautiful and overall fairly challenging. There is room for improvement in most areas, however. 1. COURSE: I've run several thousand miles through Ann Arbor over the past couple of years and have been fortunate enough to explore nearly all of the city. I feel that the organizers do an injustice to the city by pigeon-holing the course to two main sections (downtown, river) on a two loop course. There are undoubtedly external factors (permits, resident feedback, road closures, etc) that limit the creativity of the course, but this is less than ideal. Additionally, most spectators stay near downtown and the river by AA Huron High School which makes many long, lonely stretches of running. 2. ORGANIZATION: The event seems very 'bare-boned.' You get what you pay for: shirt, race, (uninspired) medal. Also it is a marathon in Michigan in March - it's going to be cold, so a space blanket or something at the finish would be nice. I have had headaches at the expo trying to simply pick up my packet and shirt every year as well. 3. SUMMARY: Course is great for one loop but should be modified to cover more of the city. Organization is poor and lends itself towards concentrating spectator support to a small number of locations. The actual spectators and volunteers, themselves, are great though!
Rob Klein from Paradise, Michigan (4/6/2015) "A Pleasant and Beautiful Course" (about: 2015) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Ann Arbor Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 The weather provided a chilly start to what turned out to be a sunny and pleasant day for running. It was well below freezing overnight. The temperature warmed to near 50 by mid-day. The wind, sometimes stiff, was a factor at times too, but it would come and go through the day. The course started on Main Street right in front of the Big House (the stadium). Roads were closed for 6 hours to accommodate the marathon. The course went downtown, then passed through the U of M campus. With the double loop, we went through the campus coming and going four times. It was never really clear where the boundaries were, but the community was very beautiful. And the architecture of some of the buildings was stunning. Anyway, after passing through the campus once, the course kind of followed the Huron River out east of town, passed under M-23, went over a bridge by a dam, then, still along the river, transited a park, and eventually returned to the campus, passing the enormous University Hospital complex. Into the woods, and a long winding upward trail brought us back through the university and then back to downtown. Marathoners were directed to turn right and start the second loop. The second loop had some differences from the first loop, but they had it all pretty well marked with cones, and volunteers were typically stationed at each critical point or turn. After exiting the campus heading east, the course was similar, except returning from the dam on the second loop, past the park, there was an out & back spur of about ½ mile along Huron Parkway. The rest was the same. There were hills on this course and at least one pretty difficult hill, but I anticipated worse, based on information I received from others before running here. This race had a clearly published 6 hour time limit. With these races you never know if they will roll up the timing mat at 6:00 hours, or let the slower folks (like me) who exceeded 6 hours, finish. When the town clock chimed 1:30, the police literally pulled the barricades out of the roads, got in their cars and left. I was still on the course and downtown, and saw it. I had to ask turn directions from a couple of volunteers leaving their stations to get the last two turns figured out to get to the finish line. As I crossed the finish line they were already tearing down the props, and the timing officials booth was being disassembled. Thanks to the staff, they let the runners exceeding 6 hours finish the course and receive a finish time. There were probably 10 of us. There was an abundance of food left even at that late hour but the pizzas were barely warm. Still, the officials encouraged us to take extra food if we could use it, because there was so much food left. A beautiful university town, with a beautiful campus, and a great marathon event with something just over 300 marathon runners. Well done!
J. J. from Northern Mi (3/30/2015) "Survival" (about: 2015) First Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 I ran the half this year (2015) The volunteers were amazing, parking was a breeze, the course was scenic, 'HILLY' and it was bitter, bitter cold! (Thank you volunteers!!!). Other than getting my butt kicked by the hills it was a very good race.
R. K. from MI (5/16/2014) "Scenic small town race" (about: 2014) 11-50 previous marathons \| 2 Ann Arbor Marathons COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 I've run the Ann Arbor Marathon twice, once in 2012 and once this year (half marathon the second time). There was a big improvement this year in terms of the weather (much cooler temps because the race was earlier this year) and the course. The organizers removed the boring loop through the Briarwood Mall parking lot and replaced it with a double loop course through Ann Arbor parks and the University of Michigan campus. The course was much more scenic and enjoyable. If you can tolerate some potholes (no problem for me), I would recommend this race. It was well-organized, and Ann Arbor is a wonderful city to visit, with a lot of good restaurants and things to do.
D. D. from Lee Center, NY (4/3/2014) "Disappointed" (about: 2014) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Ann Arbor Marathon COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 2 If you want to see the pothole capital of the US go to Ann Arbor, Michigan. But that has nothing to do with the RD or race committee. Runners unfamiliar with the course(s) really had to be extra alert to prevent taking the wrong turn. Sadly some folks did. Course marshals seemed to want to help but several didn't have the answers when questions were asked. There wasn't enough clear signage and there wasn't enough yelling out of directions. If a hearing-impaired runner were to run this race s/he would have a very difficult time trying to figure out which way to go. All that said, the biggest disappointment came when my friends and I realized that the course was closed at about 5 hours and 40 minutes after the start (instead of the 6 hours as stated on the website). We ran a marathon the day before and figured on about 6 hours for Ann Arbor. However from mile 24 on everything was shut down. No fluids (unless you wanted to drink from the gallon jugs left on the sidewalk for the truck to pick up), no course marshals, no signs, no aid stations, no nothin'. So we wandered and wandered until we stumbled onto the finish line area...only to find the area closed. Chute gone, timing mats gone, water (forget munchies)gone, RD and staff gone. We happened to come across one young lady who had access to a bag of medals and gave them to us. My friends and I weren't alone. There were a few others who came in late. Thankfully, none of us became ill or injured while out on the course. There would have been zero assistance. Not what a runner would expect or deserve in any race, let alone a marathon. The quality of this event can only go up. Hopefully, adjustments will be made by the RD/race committee to ensure that next year's marathon is a more positive experience for all.

More Comments: [ < 1 2 3 4 > ]

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M. M. from MI (11/7/2023) "all bad" (about: 2023) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Ann Arbor Marathon COURSE: 1 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 1 Beggars at the starting line!!! The director forgot to put a turn marker at mile 6... a bunch of us went the wrong way... no help from aide stations!! I ran the full and near the turn around at 11, ran face to face with 5K and 10K runners on a 6 foot path!! What the heck!!! Warm water only at the finish!!! I've ran 30 marathons and this is the worst.
M. C. from Illinois (10/1/2023) "74 marathon not very good" (about: 2023) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Ann Arbor Marathon COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 3 Paid 2 dollars for xxl; went to expo they ran out so I got stuck with xl; course advertises 6 hour time limit but roads were open after 5 hours so you had to go to the sidewalk to finish early start; course not marked well; race not for slow runners.
J. B. from Rhode Island, USA (5/21/2018) "Great Course" (about: 2018) First Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 Ran my first full marathon with this race. Great course, but VERY hilly. Don't be fooled, Ann Arbor is not flat like much of the rest of the midwest. There were plenty of hills and the paved part of the run was pretty bumpy - roads aren't great. The Arboretum part of the run made up for it - beautiful even trails. The race was well organized for the first 13.1, second 13.1 it seems that there were fewer water stops and far fewer participants, which was actually good in some ways. Weather was great as well. I do wish they had more food at the finish - seemed sparse for the cost of the run. Besides that it was generally well organized. Overall I tracked 1100+ feet of elevation gain over the 26.2 miles. I ended up doing about 26.8 miles according to my gps - not sure how accurate their markings were.
S. F. from Arkansas (4/27/2016) "Things to consider" (about: 2016) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Ann Arbor Marathon COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 3 Being a race director, I tend to be very careful with criticism of another event. For one thing, I know that many things going right with an event can easily be overshadowed by a couple of glitches, so try to keep that in mind. My comments are tempered by that. For a positive, there is a notable hill that marathoners do twiceat approximately miles 11 and 24. Not everyone will like this, but I found it to be a nice feature. It's in a pretty setting through the arboretum. Anyone who's done many trail runs probably has had the sensation of not being positive about being on the right route, and hoping to see a course marker or some other sort of 'confidence' sign. If you like having that feeling during a road marathon, this one is for you! You can find comments from past runners of this race from multiple years who refer to difficulty following the course. You might want to pay attention to these. A simple fact is: I'm done the Hardrock 100 ('wild and tough', minimal course marking, etc) five times, accumulating less extra distance in all those years combined than I did at one running of this road marathon. If looking closely, you might notice that this race is put on by an 'event company' rather than a running club. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I've found that I tend to have better experiences at running club races, or runs put on by runners for runners. E-mailing the 'event company' and race director with a couple of comments/questions from my experience, I did get a cursory response from the company CEO, but nothing actually answering my concerns, and zilch from the RD. I know there are better marathon options in Michigan.
s. m. from ottawa, ON (4/8/2016) "My 78th Marathon! Toughest yet!" (about: 2016) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Ann Arbor Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 This was a very well organized race. There was lots of pizza at the finish line, beer, brownies and bottled water. The course is tough! Very hilly and there were two two mile long hills I walked! the weather was so cold that my camelback froze after 7 miles and most of the water and Gatorade was frozen. Only thing I would change is that the race kit should include a clear bag for storing your clothes. I had to get one at the start of the race and go back to my car to get my clothes. Also, the free showers at the end by the YMCA were nice but far from the race parking. Should maybe coordinate that better on race day to make it easy for the runners.
J. S. from Ann Arbor, MI (6/19/2015) "Scenic, challenging course; room for improvement" (about: 2015) 3 previous marathons \| 2 Ann Arbor Marathons COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 4 The course is very beautiful and overall fairly challenging. There is room for improvement in most areas, however. 1. COURSE: I've run several thousand miles through Ann Arbor over the past couple of years and have been fortunate enough to explore nearly all of the city. I feel that the organizers do an injustice to the city by pigeon-holing the course to two main sections (downtown, river) on a two loop course. There are undoubtedly external factors (permits, resident feedback, road closures, etc) that limit the creativity of the course, but this is less than ideal. Additionally, most spectators stay near downtown and the river by AA Huron High School which makes many long, lonely stretches of running. 2. ORGANIZATION: The event seems very 'bare-boned.' You get what you pay for: shirt, race, (uninspired) medal. Also it is a marathon in Michigan in March - it's going to be cold, so a space blanket or something at the finish would be nice. I have had headaches at the expo trying to simply pick up my packet and shirt every year as well. 3. SUMMARY: Course is great for one loop but should be modified to cover more of the city. Organization is poor and lends itself towards concentrating spectator support to a small number of locations. The actual spectators and volunteers, themselves, are great though!
Rob Klein from Paradise, Michigan (4/6/2015) "A Pleasant and Beautiful Course" (about: 2015) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Ann Arbor Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 The weather provided a chilly start to what turned out to be a sunny and pleasant day for running. It was well below freezing overnight. The temperature warmed to near 50 by mid-day. The wind, sometimes stiff, was a factor at times too, but it would come and go through the day. The course started on Main Street right in front of the Big House (the stadium). Roads were closed for 6 hours to accommodate the marathon. The course went downtown, then passed through the U of M campus. With the double loop, we went through the campus coming and going four times. It was never really clear where the boundaries were, but the community was very beautiful. And the architecture of some of the buildings was stunning. Anyway, after passing through the campus once, the course kind of followed the Huron River out east of town, passed under M-23, went over a bridge by a dam, then, still along the river, transited a park, and eventually returned to the campus, passing the enormous University Hospital complex. Into the woods, and a long winding upward trail brought us back through the university and then back to downtown. Marathoners were directed to turn right and start the second loop. The second loop had some differences from the first loop, but they had it all pretty well marked with cones, and volunteers were typically stationed at each critical point or turn. After exiting the campus heading east, the course was similar, except returning from the dam on the second loop, past the park, there was an out & back spur of about ½ mile along Huron Parkway. The rest was the same. There were hills on this course and at least one pretty difficult hill, but I anticipated worse, based on information I received from others before running here. This race had a clearly published 6 hour time limit. With these races you never know if they will roll up the timing mat at 6:00 hours, or let the slower folks (like me) who exceeded 6 hours, finish. When the town clock chimed 1:30, the police literally pulled the barricades out of the roads, got in their cars and left. I was still on the course and downtown, and saw it. I had to ask turn directions from a couple of volunteers leaving their stations to get the last two turns figured out to get to the finish line. As I crossed the finish line they were already tearing down the props, and the timing officials booth was being disassembled. Thanks to the staff, they let the runners exceeding 6 hours finish the course and receive a finish time. There were probably 10 of us. There was an abundance of food left even at that late hour but the pizzas were barely warm. Still, the officials encouraged us to take extra food if we could use it, because there was so much food left. A beautiful university town, with a beautiful campus, and a great marathon event with something just over 300 marathon runners. Well done!
J. J. from Northern Mi (3/30/2015) "Survival" (about: 2015) First Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 I ran the half this year (2015) The volunteers were amazing, parking was a breeze, the course was scenic, 'HILLY' and it was bitter, bitter cold! (Thank you volunteers!!!). Other than getting my butt kicked by the hills it was a very good race.
R. K. from MI (5/16/2014) "Scenic small town race" (about: 2014) 11-50 previous marathons \| 2 Ann Arbor Marathons COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 I've run the Ann Arbor Marathon twice, once in 2012 and once this year (half marathon the second time). There was a big improvement this year in terms of the weather (much cooler temps because the race was earlier this year) and the course. The organizers removed the boring loop through the Briarwood Mall parking lot and replaced it with a double loop course through Ann Arbor parks and the University of Michigan campus. The course was much more scenic and enjoyable. If you can tolerate some potholes (no problem for me), I would recommend this race. It was well-organized, and Ann Arbor is a wonderful city to visit, with a lot of good restaurants and things to do.
D. D. from Lee Center, NY (4/3/2014) "Disappointed" (about: 2014) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Ann Arbor Marathon COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 2 If you want to see the pothole capital of the US go to Ann Arbor, Michigan. But that has nothing to do with the RD or race committee. Runners unfamiliar with the course(s) really had to be extra alert to prevent taking the wrong turn. Sadly some folks did. Course marshals seemed to want to help but several didn't have the answers when questions were asked. There wasn't enough clear signage and there wasn't enough yelling out of directions. If a hearing-impaired runner were to run this race s/he would have a very difficult time trying to figure out which way to go. All that said, the biggest disappointment came when my friends and I realized that the course was closed at about 5 hours and 40 minutes after the start (instead of the 6 hours as stated on the website). We ran a marathon the day before and figured on about 6 hours for Ann Arbor. However from mile 24 on everything was shut down. No fluids (unless you wanted to drink from the gallon jugs left on the sidewalk for the truck to pick up), no course marshals, no signs, no aid stations, no nothin'. So we wandered and wandered until we stumbled onto the finish line area...only to find the area closed. Chute gone, timing mats gone, water (forget munchies)gone, RD and staff gone. We happened to come across one young lady who had access to a bag of medals and gave them to us. My friends and I weren't alone. There were a few others who came in late. Thankfully, none of us became ill or injured while out on the course. There would have been zero assistance. Not what a runner would expect or deserve in any race, let alone a marathon. The quality of this event can only go up. Hopefully, adjustments will be made by the RD/race committee to ensure that next year's marathon is a more positive experience for all.

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Marathon Details - Ann Arbor Marathon