Charlottesville Marathon

Fairly scenic race around neighborhooods and parks. Just as hilly as advertised, which definitely hit some runners hard on the back-half. Cool medals and organized well enough. Small race with the large majority doing the half marathon and very few doing the full. Very minimal crowd support aside from the occasional locals (which were appreciated). Good as a scenic or local race but probably not as a first marathon.

I have ran a lot of marathons, both small and big and I can say without hesitation this is the worst one I've seen! 1.) Expo- a booth to pick up a bib and shirt. A booth selling internet. That's all 2.) Pre-race- Minimal porta-johns No clear start 3.) Course- Nothing scenic about it. It goes through suburban residential areas, every area 2x. The course elevation is 700 ft more than the profile provided. The hills are worse than some trail ultras I've done. Course is very poorly marked, a whole group of us got off course, adding a quarter mile in what already a long course (final mileage 26.7), no medical aid on the course. 4.) Post race. No Medal, no heat sheets, nasty food options (cheap small bag of chips, meat sandwich (no vegetarian option) or cheap cookie. I got 3rd and had to wait over an hour to get my award even though she said 10 minutes. 5.) Overall..I tell everyone I can to avoid this race! I'll never do a race run by this organization again.

Everyone involved with organizing this was very nice and accommodating. I appreciated the efforts of the volunteers. The course is extremely hilly, with about 2000 feet of ascent. Once outside of downtown there wasn't a lot of crowd support, but the rainy weather could have had something to do with that. Running through subdivisions and along highways is pretty uninspiring. A number of us took a wrong turn at mile 25. Fatigue was a factor, but the course marking was poor and there were no volunteers directing us. That added about 1/4 mile on to the already cruelly hilly course. I'm glad I did it, but won't be returning.