Glass City was the first marathon I ever ran way back in 1979 when I was in high school and growing up in Sylvania. It was a fairly well respected race but was held on very warm Father's Day weekend on a very dull out and back course. I thought it would be fun to come back and run in my 'home town' race.

Pros: Great value. This is a lower cost race. About a thousand runners in the marathon, with many more half marathoners starting at the same time. Nice medal and bonus glass mug for finishers. Even some merchandise for age group winners. Fast course with only minimal rolls mainly early on through a very nice residential area, and at 18.5 to 19.5 miles. Plenty of water stops. Good email updates from the race organizers. Easy packet pickup

Cons: Growing up in the area I have run portions of the course hundreds of times. But if I hadn't studied the course map ahead of time, I would have missed a couple of turns. The rain kept the spectator count down, but they needed marshals through some of the many turns beyond the half point. The orange paint used to mark arrows on the road wasn't real obvious, especially with the rain. I had no one in sight in front to help judge the course. In a crowd this probably wouldn't be as big a problem. Still some cones would help through the more winding areas later on and through the metropark as you switched from bike trail to sidewalk to parking lots. The timing service apparently had problems. The athlete tracker was WAY off for me, and the order of finish and finisher times was changed at least twice within the 48 hours after the race. Why the split times were placed where they were, and why they were so wrong was not good. Finally, the post race organization was bad. As others have said, there was no provision to protect the drop bages from the rain. The tents in the post race area were packed with runners and non-runners, and no clear direction as to where the food was. I was given a paper bag (in the rain) with an apple, one cookie, a mini licorice rope and offered a soggy, cold piece of pizza. And I finished under 3 hours - I can't imagine how bad the food must have been for later finishers. Needless to say, the paper bag didn't even make it back to the car in the rain.

Sorry for the sour grapes, but I feel like it's my hometown race from growing up, and it just seems like bad decisions took the shine off the race. Great race to choose if you want help with a BQ

Awesome race with nice residential and park areas to run through. Just need to organize the parking a little better.

I got my Boston goal here and it is as fast as advertised. Aid stations are plentiful. Bathrooms are fine. I couldnt stay for party after. And here would lay into the complaints that everyone else is saying as well.

The traffic getting to marathon for parking and leaving is the only bad parts to this marathon.

They need to do the post race party in a different area to alleviate some of the parking issues. Then i had a half mile walk back to the car after running a marathon was bad. I could barely walk and it was pouring out. If there was some kind of tram or busing system to parking lots that would be ideal.

I thought everything was pretty good. Only real improvement I think would be to have the half marathoners start a half hour later. Pretty congested early on. Also, there were some weird spots for the relayers to switch. But overall was good, other than I got a flat tire when I arrived.

This was my first half marathon. The course was well planned. The crowds/spectators were awesome, especially for staying out to cheer participants on in the pouring rain. I cannot express enough thanks to all of the volunteers! They were AMAZING! I thought the entire event was well organized. I appreciated the emails with updates leading up to the race. Thank you!!!!

Overall - I loved the experience. This was my third time running the half marathon with Glass City.

My two suggestions for improving the run:
1. I was confused on where to go for food and beverage. I saw the tents but they were very crowded. The tents could have also been more crowded than normal because of the rain and I didn't want to push through the crowds to find food and drink.

2. If the bag drop is going to be kept outside, please let me know. Of course I could have asked and then thought of putting my bag in a waterproof bag. When I finished my run, everything was soaked which prevented me from staying to enjoy the festivities.

The weather was awful for the race but that's obviously out of anyone's hands! Course was nice and flat, nothing spectacular to look at, but a good PR course. Water stops were good, there were times when spectators were on the course at random times walking in the opposite direction because part of the course is on a recreation trail open to the public which made things congested at times. Expo wasn't much but nice. Finish line was nice to be in the stadium. Since it poured the entire race, would have been nice for the gear drop area to be under a tent, keeping our clothes dry for after the race. Also having a specific gear drop bag would have been nice too, something plastic and a bit larger.

This race is a clean course through neighborhoods & Metroparks. Great medal with 'perk' of a mug, too. Great start & finish at the University of Toledo. Well organized, many water & Gatorade stops as well as fruit. Well thought out.

This is a great course and marathon. Definitely put on the list if you are a 50 stater! Nice flat course, only negative would echo some of past year comments. Pizza was gone by the time I got to the food tent. They had pasta though! Very fun race and good crowd support especially for 2013 since it was rainy for most of the race!

Excellent value and the course was flat and interesting - runs through flat trail areas and some lovely neighborhoods. Needs to put the bag drop area under a tent or indoors as our gear was left in the rain this year. It rained for the entire duration of the marathon. Also need a fix for the morning traffic tie ups to get into the onsite parking.