Manitoba Marathon

Organization & volunteers were great. The course was fast & very very flat. The finish is inside the Blue Bomber (football) stadium and was well stocked even for those arriving in the last hours. As you exit the stadium, there were refreshment stations along the way to the exit. Then on top of all this, I came in 2nd in my category and they mailed me the category winner medal.

I enjoyed my time at the Manitoba Marathon. The good: Organization & volunteers were great. The course was fast & flat and went through many scenic areas. Medal is beautiful. The finish in the Blue Bomber stadium (a very nice touch) and was well stocked. As an additional touch, as you left the stadium, there were refreshment stations along the path you took to leave. No excuse to not have gotten food after the race. The bad: Nothing about the race. But if I remember a negative about the overall experience, it's that, it took FOREVER to get to Winnipeg and back again from Atlanta, GA. The neutral: Not the most inspired shirt. This does not matter to me, but I know it does to others.

There is a first time for everything& This marathon was put on by the University of Manitoba or was put on in conjunction with the University. Check-in was on campus, and check-in was a breeze. They had a nice expo too, and there were free samples of different food and drink options that would be of interest to runners. That was a nice choice to have, and it saved money from getting a hotel room, you could park on campus, walk to the start line, and not have to fuss with shuttles. It worked great; it was like being in college again for a day. The event started and finished on the University Of Manitoba campus. The course was basically a closed loop, except the start and finish line were not exactly at the same point - but very close. This event had the 10K, ½ marathon and full marathon people all start at the same time, but they were segregated into different lanes in the (closed) road, then joined up a mile or so down the road, only to be separated again at prescribed point along the course, as the course meandered through the community. The course was on concrete or asphalt. There were about 650 marathon runners, so after the ½ marathoners separated, the runners were really thinned out. The weather was decent. There was a thunder shower during the middle of the night, so there were puddles, and everything was wet. And the humidity was high, but the sun was obscured by clouds almost until noon. So it never got really hot. Still, the humidity kept the runners pretty soaked. From early in the race, I never had a mental picture of where I was in the town. A lot of that was because I was from out of town and I did not recognize anything. But the course was extremely well marked, and there were volunteers all along the course guiding the runners. The course was flat. It would have been a good race for getting a PR on (though I was not that fortunate). The course was very green, and pleasant. There were adequate water stations, and they were staffed with friendly & helpful workers. There were no gels available on the course and there were no other carb snacks either. So you brought your own gels or you had to make do with Gatorade and water. There was quite a mess of cups along the course, near water stations, but there were always volunteers helping to pick stuff up too. Law enforcement did a great job of controlling the traffic and keeping the runners safe. The post-race was on the Universitys track field, and the course organizers did a good job of keeping the non-runners out of the recovery area where they had food and drink refreshments  even popsicles! Also, bagels, chips, protein drinks, bananas and chocolate milk come to mind as I write this. The finishers medal was nice; it was robust and solid too. There are a few unique things I would like to point out. They gave the runners a small bagel in a sealed bag. This was a very good idea. Single serving, it was clean, and fresh. So many races cut up larger bagels and just have them all sitting out in the open air. I have never seen it done like this before, but I liked it. Another thing is that the event T-shirt had the logo in the lower left part of the shirt, almost on the side. I asked one of the officials about it. They chose this option, because some runners, she told me, dont like the logo across the front. This was also something I had never seen before. And this course had a mandatory 6-hour time limit. They had two milestones, or geographical points, that you had to reach by a published time, or you would be removed from the course and taken to the finish-line for re-hydration and refreshments (and receive a DNF!). In having run the course, I can see why they do this. There are lots of road crossings and road closures and law enforcement support only last for 6-hours; it would not be safe to leave anyone out there after the support people leave their positions on the course. When I asked about an early start a year ago, the declined and said, Just train harder and get your time below 6 hours. That is not very accommodating, but that is the way it has to be on this big city course. The other interesting thing is that Canada is all metric now, but this race continues with the mile markers (vs. kilometers). Both Maritime Provinces I have run marathons in used kilometers  so for those races we had to have some idea of unit conversion. I am glad I made the drive from the States and ran North of the Border. They have a beautiful community, the race is well organized, the University is very accommodating, and the course is runner-friendly. Just be sure to bring your own gels and carb snacks.