Marathon P'tit Train du Nord

I'll start with the negatives. The bib pickup is in a random location, poorly accessible if you don't have a car. The t-shirt they give you is really ugly and poor quality in my opinion. There are also very few spots with fans cheering. That said, the course is on a very beautiful path in the nature. Most of the road isn't on asphalt, but on a hard compressed dirt path, which is perfect for running. Very fast course, and very little turning points.

This is perhaps one of the worst organized events I have ever participated in, and in terms of my training group, the worst race in which they did not get to participate. From race kit pick up (an awkward location nowhere near the event), to the start line antics. We live 10 minutes from the start line (we could walk there), but were told we had to drive to the finish line (St. Jerome) and take a bus at 6:30am for a 8:00am start. One of my training partners can't ride on a bus without getting ill, could provide a Dr's note, but the race director wouldn't even communicate with her but instead hid behind a volunteer. All this information (Start line / bus, etc) was relayed to us well after registration had closed and a refund was not possible. I won't participate in this event again, although the course is wonderful, I can run on it just about anytime I want.

The course is set on the P'tit Train du Nord bike path and goes from Val-David to St Jerome. It is VERY fast (~700 ft of net downhill in a straight line). The views are stunning (Fall in the Laurentians). The surface is hard-packed gravel, with about 6 or 7km of asphalt (at the start, finish, and on short sections when the course crosses roads). The race is very well organized. Shuttles out of St Jerome (where you can park right near to the finish area) take you to the start line in Val-David, start area has lots of portapotties and a bag drop. Since it follows a relatively narrow path (old rail road converted into bike path), there are several small-ish (~250 runners) waves. Runners are grouped by estimated finish time. Spectator support is obviously not the same as in a big city marathon, but you still see quite a few people when the course crosses roads. The race sells out very quickly when registrations open in January. There is also a half marathon on the day before.