Casablanca Marathon - Race Reviews

For an interantional marathon I give this excellent ratings. The course is mostly flat with a few modest inclines and a few small hills. For those running the full marathon the roads were very secure with police and enthusiastic volunteers at every intersection. The aid stations were well placed with bottled watered handed out every 5km. Timing stations were strategically placed. The results do not show chip time only the gun time. Expect hotter temperatures late in the race. I would prefer an hour earlier start at 6:30am. This year (2014) the time changed on October 26th, moving back one hour. Even though we started at 7:30 it seemed like 8:30. It made the last half of the race more challenging. My wife ran the half marathon and they began re-opening the streets before the advertised time alloted. This was dangerous for the last 100 finishers in the half.

This year's organasAtion improoved a lot, with around 2000 runners mainly on the half marathon, the finish line was in a race track of a small stadium Totally runAbale if you are around...

Small marathon, less than 200 running the full distance, but merged in with a 4man corporate relay and a larger-field half-marathon. Rather chaotic organisation: venue of Expo, and start/finish appeared to change at last minute due to tram-works in Casablanca, but worse was 1) that all aid stations after 25km ran out of water, resulting in the runners having to scrounge from spectators and marshals, and 2) the marshals misdirecting runners such that a 2mile loop was missed out on the first half of the course. Route was hilly, and tough with a sunny day and no shade. Few spectators on the route, but those that were there were great with their support of all runners. Overall an enjoyable and interesting experience, but not one I would rush to repeat.

There couldn't have been 250 of us doing the full marathon. Literally, there were more police and support folks ensuring that the route was clear than there were runners. And they did a great job keeping the streets clear for us. Streets are in great shape, nice pavement. Nice tree-lined streets. And fairly flat. Nothing too notable. While this is a two-loop course, it doesn't follow much of the same route, and the parts that are the same are very nice. Great job by the organizers. And with this small of a group, you actually get to see and meet the elite runners. We even had the pasta dinner with them. VERY COOL!!! I recommend the Casablanca Marathon. Oh, and the entire thing was only $31 USD. A great value.