Charles River Marathon

This was a great marathon! Alain does a great job of directing it and setting it up. I was a little nervous of getting bored running 10 loops, but it works out perfect, you know the course and what to expect without any surprises after the first or second loop. Fast course. Great views of the Charles River and the crew teams rowing. Fairly flat with 2 small bridges each loop with minor elevation changes (approximately 15' climbs each). Great course support. Definitely a great course for a BQ or a PR! Loved it.

I highly recommend this marathon. The multi-loop course allows for easy spectating, the BYOB is super helpful to pack whatever beverage you want to drink, and the extremely flat course is great for a PR.

This marathon far exceeded my expectations. I was apprehensive at first about doing 10 laps of a flat course for a marathon, but I found a lot more positives from this by the end. The course loop is excellent, located along the pretty Charles River, and passes the finish line for rowing races on the Charles River. The rowers are out during the race and there was a lot of mutual recognition and respect for the respective endeavors taking place. Except for two small climbs on the bridges that book end the course, this is a genuinely pancake flat course. You will feel it in the hips the next day as a result. The quality of the field is up there with the Boston marathon. The President of the Boston Marathon Association gave a speech before the start, and everything about this race has a Boston Qualifier vibe about it. With the course being ten laps, unless you can run at a pace in the sub-3-hour range, you will likely be passed by the front runners at some point. It's actually pretty cool being passed by runners going that fast. Make no bones about it though. This race is not for slow runners. The cut off time for most of the field is 4 hours and 30 minutes. If you do enter, you will experience one of the very best organized events. There were three fueling stations on the 2.62 mile course, and the support from the gathered crowd is amazing. They put your name on the bib, so you will hear your name being shouted throughout. Multiple groups called me out by name on every lap. The rowing teams are particularly vociferous. The large crowd gathered at the finish line also comes into play 10 times. There are so many small attentions to detail things that make this race special. For example, there is a scoreboard that reports your lap time, pace and estimated finish time on every lap. If you are an out of towner like me, the hotel for the race is within 200 yards of the start line. Most of the runners were locals that know about this special event. If you need a BQ, there is no better event in my opinion. Get in early though: the field size is capped at 300. And you will be required to commit to raising at least $100 for charity. The main purpose of the event is to raise money for Race Cancer, an organization that is dedicated to raising awareness of the risks of skin cancer and you might see them at various race events, around the country, giving out free sunscreen to runners. The cause is great and the overall event even better.