Click Here: Please visit our Sponsor

Jun 30, 2024

Marshall University Marathon Runner Comments

Back to Marshall University Marathon Information & Reviews

Course 4.2

Organization 4.4

Spectators 3.0

Number of comments: 208 [displaying comments 81 to 91]

More Comments: [ < 1 .. 7 8 9 10 11 .. 21 > ]

D. H. from Midwest (11/13/2010) "Good Small-Town Event" (about: 2010) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Marshall University Marathon COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 1 The Marshall University Marathon is a good small-town event. If you enjoy smaller crowds and less hype, this is a good race for you. Packet pick up is simply that. No expo, which is fine by me. The pasta dinner was simple yet plentiful. Lots of runners show up and you have plenty of opportunity to meet other participants. The start line is very easy to get to. You can sit in your warm car until 5 minutes before the race if you want. The course isn't beautiful, but it is flat. I enjoyed the two loops through the park. The spectators are sparse and really only cheered for their own runner. I'm ok with that, but if you need lots of people cheering for you, you will be disappointed here. The finish line was a cool experience, running into the stadium and carrying a football across the field. Lots of food was offered at the finish. Overall, this event is well done and worth running. Congrats to the race director for a job well done.
J. A. from Minnesota (11/10/2010) "This one is definitely flat" (about: 2010) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Marshall University Marathon COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 Having read the summaries here, I was well prepared for the race. The best way to describe the course is "odd." It sort of winds its way throughout the city with only a few scenic spots, and you run back over the same areas a couple of times. The support on the course was tremendous. I think there were 20 water stops. One of the stops appeared to run out of water, but you never had to go much more than a mile to find the next one. One suggestion would be to stock them with gels or food at some of the later ones instead of just water and Gatorade. Overall, I enjoyed the race and would recommend it.
J. B. from New Jersey (11/9/2010) "Excellent small-city race" (about: 2010) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Marshall University Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 Kudos to the organization team of the Marshall University Marathon. They put on one of the most organized races I've ever attended. The Rock and Roll people should learn a thing or two from them. This was one of the flattest courses I've ever completed - yes, West Virginia. On the organization side, again excellence. Only complaint was it was cold at the start and they kept talking for 5 minutes past the scheduled start time. Hats off to local law enforcement authority for their service. Try this one.
D. R. from East Coast (11/9/2010) "Rules Don't Apply?" (about: 2010) 1 previous marathon \| 1 Marshall University Marathon COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 3 This was my first half marathon as well as the first time running this particular one. The volunteers were great, organization was good, but the rules on the website and the course were lacking. I'll start with the course because my comment is brief. It lacks imagination. Take us around the nicer parts of Huntington more. I was pretty upset about one major rule that did not seem to apply. It stated on the website that due to insurance and safety reasons, we were NOT allowed to use headphones to listen to music from our phone or media device. I trained for months to the sounds of my favorite music and did not bring my headphones or iPhone on race day. I get to the starting line and almost everyone had their headphones on with their favorite music to distract them. If you are going to have rules, ENFORCE them or take them OFF the website. Very poor organization. I paid my money just like everyone else, but felt shortchanged in this regard.
Shelly Klinger from Richmond, VA (11/9/2010) "#1 on My Favorites List" (about: 2010) 1 previous marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 This was my 5th half-marathon. I loved this race, and I'd love to come back and do the full 26.2 next year. Incredibly friendly and helpful race director and volunteers; nice course with urban, industrial and park sections; and we got hamburgers at the end, free parking and a low entry fee. It was very moving to drop a flower in the fountain and carry a football in the stadium to commemorate the fallen Marshall University football team. I'll be back!
L. K. from Pennsylvania (11/8/2010) "Not bad for a small marathon" (about: 2010) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Marshall University Marathon COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 I decided to run this marathon because I am working on running a marathon in every state and I also love the Marshall Univeristy story. Packet pick up was in a very small area so that is was hard to get around. There were to many people for such a small area. The fleece jackets that you got with registration were very nice. The start of the race was very convenient, as it was close to the finish and there was plenty of parking. The race started on time, which is always a plus. The course was nice for the first 13 miles and then was boring and lonely. From mile 13 until mile 20 there were no spectators. After the 12 mile mark, the marathoners were to make a left hand turn but the volunteer standing there did not inform the group of us running until we were way past the turn. There was no sign or white arrow to signal where to go. Ritter Park was beautiful to run in and this was my favorite part of the race. It was really cool to finish in the stadium and get to carry a football across the finish line. This was a nice marathon if you are looking for a small marathon. I do not plan to run it again anytime soon, but if you are looking for a flat marathon in West Virginia, this is the way to go.
R. B. from North Carolina (11/8/2010) "Well-run race with flat course" (about: 2010) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Marshall University Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 2 It is nice that the race starts outside Cam Henderson Center (Marshall's basketball arena, which is just a couple of blocks from the stadium). The arena is open to all runners. That means a warm place to stretch and wait for the race to start. It also means plenty of nice bathrooms so that I don't have to deal with the porta-potties that are the only option for many races. It finishes inside the football stadium and you can carry a football over the last 100+ yards. I highly recommend this race. The course is very flat, with the exception of during a couple of short east-west stretches that included about a half-block hill that didn't amount to much. Huntington is a nice, small, college town. The course includes short stretches at the beginning and toward the end at Harris Riverfront Park. That was an interesting sight running by there early with the thin layer of fog or mist rising just over the surface of the Ohio River. I loved the miles along the beautiful Ritter Park, which included running on trails. I wasn't a big fan of the two loops that went into the southern part of Huntington. Those were fairly nondescript and boring, but that would be my only beef about the course. MUM's expo was one of the smallest I've ever seen at a marathon, with only one vendor. But that isn't a big deal to me at all and something I'm glad to deal with when I choose a smaller race with a reasonable ($60) registration fee. The spaghetti dinner was free, but I didn't think it was all that good. With that money, I got a nice fleece jacket (which they were selling for $40 after the race). You chose between the jacket and the long-sleeve technical shirt. I obviously made the right choice in picking the jacket, since it only cost me $20 to buy the shirt after the race. When I bought the shirt, they gave me a free DVD of the movie "We Are Marshall." Sunday happened to be the 40th anniversary of the tragic plane crash that killed most of Marshall's football team. To commemorate that, they offered runners a flower as you entered the campus late in the race. The post-race food spread was excellent. It's the first race of any length that offered hamburgers and hot dogs to finishers, in addition to the more common bananas and bagels. Another concession when you pick a small marathon is that there isn't much crowd support. I'm sure the colder weather made the support smaller than usual. I'm OK with that and still much prefer smaller marathons over the huge mega marathons that force you to constantly zig-zag around people. The actual course support by the race officials, volunteers and police officers was excellent.
m. c. from wv (11/8/2010) "Excellent. Change nothing. Best yet." (about: 2010) 11-50 previous marathons \| 6+ Marshall University Marathons COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 The course is very good and reflects thoughtful calibration. The organization is excellent too, and I like the fleece.
B. W. from Michigan (11/8/2010) "Fast course, cool finish, but not a great race" (about: 2010) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Marshall University Marathon COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 1 If you want a flat, fast race that finishes in a football stadium, this is a good race. Much of the course goes through industrial wastelands. It is offset slightly by a few miles in a beautiful park and along a stream, but the course is mainly ugly. At one point, a police officer came running toward us to tell us we needed to turn. She didn't catch some of the runners in front of us. A better map needs to be available at the packet pick-up; spectators were out of luck. Also, a timing mat at the start is needed. Why bother with chips without this?
D. B. from Indianapolis, Indiana (12/5/2009) "Great small marathon!! Fantastic post-race food!" (about: 2009) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Marshall University Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 2 Let me start by saying what a well run event this was. Great communications by the race director leading up to the race, and the event came off without a hitch. It's a relatively small marathon, in its 6th year, drawing somewhere in the neighborhood of 3-400 marathoners. They also have a half at the same time with double that, so about 1,000 athletes in all. The halfers start 15 minutes later, so the start is not a mess for the marathoners. Good thinking! The race is small enough so there isn't really an expo - just a packet pick-up. Parking for packet pick up turned out to be a hassle, because that was because a "Battle of the Bands" going on and the lot was full of spectators for that, but that is a one-off and not the fault of the race organizer. At packet pick up they gave everyone the DVD of the movie "We Are Marshall" to commemorate the football team tragedy. We actually had not seen the movie yet, but had wanted to, so it was great treat to get this in the packet. The course is in the city of Huntington. It loops around a little and there is a section that runs through a park that you go on twice, but the second time you go the opposite direction, so it feels like you aren't running the same course twice. Much of the course is on city streets that have a lane coned off for the runners to use. It worked just fine. They had plenty of police and military and firefighters working the intersections and there was no problem with cars infringing on the runners' lanes. One of the problems with the coned-off lane, though, was that the camber of the road sloped quite a bit near the curb, and I found myself running very close to the vehicle lane to get on a more level surface. All in all, it wasn't too much of a problem. The forecasters were predicting rain all week, but on Sunday morning it was 38 degrees, sunny, and calm. Perfect!!! The perfect conditions also got me thinking about being a bit more aggressive. I had packed clothing for any possible weather situation, and changed into a singlet 15 minutes before the start. Put a warm-up top over it. Turned out to be a great move. Parking was free and one could park at near the start/finish line at the stadium. More importantly, the course doubled back in front of the parking lot at the 5K mark. I had positioned my car to be facing the street, and when I got there, I simply threw my warm-up shirt on the hood of my car without losing a step in the race. It was still there 4 hours later. One of the highlights of the event is a tribute to the Marshall football team that died in the plane crash some 20 years ago. The marathon finish is on the goal line inside the Marshall football stadium. You enter the stadium and are routed to the opposite end. There (if you want), you are handed a football that you can carry 100 yards to the finish line at the opposite end. It's kind of cool, and is a highlight of the race. I definitely took the easy lob pass and scored a touchdown on a 100-yard pass play! Not even Marvin Harrison or Reggie Wayne have any 100-yard receptions in their stats! Small world, these marathons. I ran with a guy in my age group for a bunch of miles. I also found out that this fellow had run Grandma's Marathon (Duluth, MN) last year when I did. It's fun to meet the same nice people again and again. The relatively flat course is very conducive to a fast race. I was on a pace to negative split until mile 22. But by then, I'd also passed the last guy that looked like he might be in my age group at mile 22 (turns out he wasn't), so my incentive waned. Nevertheless, the second half was only 30 seconds longer than the first. I could see setting a PR here. I can recommend this marathon for sure. Well-run, and the food afterward almost rivals that at the Indianapolis Marathon. They had pizza, burgers, dogs, Pepsi products, etc. But what tasted the best to me were those little chocolate layer cupcakes - no doubt full of all kinds of bad things, but dang those were good!! I left there stuffed, which is hard to do because I get ravenously hungry after a marathon! Sign up early and you will get a superb Marshall-University-green fleece jacket. I missed the jacket cut-off date and still got a nice tech long-sleeve shirt. Gotta run, Doug

More Comments: [ < 1 .. 7 8 9 10 11 .. 21 > ]

Quick Links

Marathon Search
Upcoming US Marathons
Upcoming International Marathons
Search Marathon Results
Latest Running News
Recent Newsletters
Race Director Tools

Become an Advertiser

Click Here: Please visit our Sponsor

Click Here: Please visit our Sponsor

Click Here: Please visit our Sponsor

Click Here: Please visit our Sponsor

Become an Advertiser

© 2000-2024, All Rights Reserved by MarathonGuide.com LLC

Privacy Policy Refund Policy Terms of Use