Vancouver USA Marathon

I was pretty happy with this race, which was my 11th state. It was a pretty course that was nice and flat. Weather was a little warm and sunny, but it was pleasant for June. The criticism received by the directors in that the course was about a sixth of a mile short and thus no one could qualify for Boston is deserved. I noticed it while I was running... how could they not when they were preparing? Unlike the previous poster, I'm not returning to Washington to run another marathon. My watch said I ran over 26.2 miles (thanks to all the weaving, I presume) so I'm considering the state done! But, similar to the previous poster, I was annoyed with the t-shirt situation. I've never in all the various races I've run, from 5Ks to marathons, had to come back for a t-shirt after the race. That was just silliness. I registered well in advance. I'm generally only interested in the running aspect of marathons, but I guess there was a pretty good beer festival afterwards.

I came from the southeast to get some mild weather, and that proved to be true. Comments: -Weather was great for a marathon, especially for June. -The course was a good mix of rural/scenic, through town, and along the water. -There were plenty of water/aid stops and the volunteers were awesome. Traffic control was great as well. -We got stopped by the train at mile 21 for about a minute. It sucked to start running again at that point, right after getting some momentum back from the only substantial downhill on the course. -The course was 1000' short. I'm not affected for BQ, but am inching up in states and now would need to repeat. There wasn't anything done to try to make up for it other than 'it was short, we apologize and it won't happen again.' -I emailed the organizers a few weeks before the race (I think about 6 weeks out) asking about getting around downtown from other hotels after the host hotel filled. They emailed right back and said they'd send me some more information. I never heard from them again. I figured it out, but I didn't like that they said they would respond and didn't. -I signed up after the tshirt deadline (which I knew). At packet pickup, they said yeap, we'll have plenty of shirts, just stop by tomorrow morning before the race and pick one up'. Cool, I still get a shirt. Before the race, I stopped by the tent and they said, 'sorry, you have to come back AFTER the race'. So, on the third trip to the tent, now after the race, I did get a shirt. It's a nice shirt, but they made that harder than it had to be, and it sure felt like a long walk to get that shirt after the race. -I liked the set up with the half marathon starting 2 hours later. It meant that the course was getting fuller as the race went on instead of lonelier. This was a great idea and was so much better than starting with a whole bunch of half marathons only to have them peel off and leave us all alone. Definitely would hope they keep doing it this way. So, overall, I really liked the town and the course, but I won't go back to do it again due to the few minor organizational things. It's a good small town race, and I think the half is probably pretty awesome. They have a great setup in their downtown. If they can find a way to avoid the train, get the course dead-on, and improve communication just a tad, it will a really great event.

This was a nice, small race with easy logisitics, good support, great volunteers and adequate water stops. Second half was much more scenic than the first half. Big negative for 2016 is that the course turned out to be 1000 ft short and thus didn't count as a full marathon for Washington for those of us working on 50 States. Total bummer.