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Jul 7, 2024

Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon (formerly the National Marathon) Runner Comments

Back to Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon (formerly the National Marathon) Information & Reviews

Course 3.9

Organization 3.5

Spectators 3.4

Number of comments: 286 [displaying comments 141 to 151]

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K. D. from Fairfax, VA (3/26/2009) "National Marathon Experience" (about: 2009) 3 previous marathons \| 2 Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon (formerly the National Marathon)s COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 Overall, I was satisfied with the marathon because I qualified for Boston. This was my third marathon and I ran National in 2007 as my first one. The course was improved and it was nice to go into the neighborhoods, see the monuments and pass the waterfront. The spectators were better and I had enough water and PowerAde on the course. I also would like to thank the 3:45 Navy pace team for volunteering their time. They were fun to run with and I actually finished with them in 3:44:46, which was better than expected. A few suggestions for next year: Please get rid of the route where we cross the grid bridge at mile 19. Not only is it dangerous but it is very painful for the feet. Also, the porta-potties at the starting line smelled awful. I also suggest starting and finishing at another area in DC. The finish line was a bit off and I ended my marathon on a low note because I was confused with my time.
A. O. from Oak Hill, VA (3/26/2009) "not bad, not great" (about: 2009) 1 previous marathon \| 1 Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon (formerly the National Marathon) COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 3 Only my 2nd marathon, so I don't have a lot to compare to, and my other marathon (MCM) probably isn't the best to compare against, but here's what I thought: PROS: 1. smaller, more personal feel, with room to run 2. race started at 7:00, as the sun was rising 3. full-marathoners could dispose their excess clothing at the halfway point for later pickup (hopefully) 4. D.C. armory building opened up for pre-race shelter/warmth and restrooms. Ahh. 5. much better medals than MCM, and having them placed on you immediately (no backups) after the finish line felt good 6. a finish line volunteer helped me untie my shoes 7. good coverage/promotion by local NBC affiliate CONS: 1. boring 2nd half 2. lack of spectators, even in congested areas, but especially on the 2nd half 3. easily accessible; back gate to preferred parking lot didn't open until 5:00 (I like to get there "as early as I can," like the race directions said). Luckily, I had gotten lost the day before and knew a way to get to the parking lot. 4. RFK (race area) entrance under construction (ok, I'm being picky) 5. I guess others experienced a no-cups issue. I was fortunate to be ahead of that snafu. Good and bad. Would be nice if they ran through Georgetown, Rock Creek Park, etc. Skip Anacostia. Boring 'park' there. I know, hard to shutdown traffic all over, or in the most popular areas. I'll probably run it again though...
B. Y. from MD (3/26/2009) "A good race" (about: 2009) 1 previous marathon \| 1 Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon (formerly the National Marathon) COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 Long story short, this is a good race. I'd recommend it. Course: I really liked this course. It gives you a real feel for the city. You run past the landmarks, through the nicer parts of town, and through some rougher parts. But, you'll have that with almost any major city. If you only want to see DC's highlights, then run Marine Corps. If you want to run through the real DC, run National. And please disregard the individual below who made the Baghdad statement. In my opinion, that analogy is as inaccurate as it is inappropriate. Let's be clear. At no point on the course will you feel unsafe! Organization: There were a couple of issues here. I think this is due to the recent growth of this race. I ran the half last year and there were about 4,000 total registrants (half and full). This year they had nearly twice as many registrants. I think many of the issues (i.e. running out of GU, I passed a couple of aid stations that had run out of cups, etc.) probably stemmed from not scaling things up enough from the previous year. I do hope they recognize the issues and make adjustments. As an aside, I would like to point out that races that offer a GU stop before the half and full marathons split off from one another usually have that GU stop run out very quickly. The fact is that halfers will run more quickly than you (as expected) and many of them don't know that you really don't need GU to cover 13.1. I carried my own GU for the first half and didn't have any trouble with any of the stops after the half turnoff. Fans/Volunteers: These guys are great. Lots of enthusiasm in many of the neighborhoods. Yes, there were spots on the course without fan support, but then you'll have that. Personally though, I think that's a good thing. Would you really want to hear people screaming and cheering for 26.2 miles straight? Miscellanea: Weather- Perfect: 30 at the start (bit chilly), 45 and sunny at the finish. End of March is a good time of year to have this race. Medal- Good. Improved from last year. More interesting design. Tasteful coloring. Swag- Pretty much just a tech shirt. Not bad looking. Shirts for the half are kind of an ugly orange but the full is a nice, dark blue. They could stand to put fewer ads on the back, but it'll make a good running shirt. Transportation- I took the Metro this year. It opens a couple of hours early for race day. Certainly an easy way to go. The Stadium/Armory stop is about 75 yards from the start line. I drove last year and remember that parking isn't bad. They use the stadium parking lots, so there's lots of capacity. Of course, driving in DC is kind of a pain in general. I'd recommend Metro.
j. k. from New York, NY (3/25/2009) "Room for improvement" (about: 2009) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon (formerly the National Marathon) COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 1 The National Marathon was well worth doing, especially in a great destination town like D.C. The race could use improving, and I'm sure it will do so. This one has great potential. Bag check was pretty tough. Some water stops ran out of cups and offered sips from jugs! The roads in D.C. are surprisingly bad. I stepped into a pothole and several speed bumps. The T-shirt and medal are excellent. The volunteers were great.
Tammy Massie from Rockville, MD (3/24/2009) "Cute Course; Major Logistics Issues" (about: 2009) 50+ previous marathons \| 2 Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon (formerly the National Marathon)s COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 3 I ran the inaugural marathon 4 years ago. This year, there was a vast improvement in the course! The 26.2 mile race explored and saw highlights from all 4 area's within DC. And unlike in 2007, through this journey we visited very few sections that were really seedy. BUT there were major problems. There were no water cups from mile 5-11, and it seems that there was limited beverages for those of us running a 2:30 half or 5-hour full pace. Furthermore, in my pace group (11 minutes/mile) there was no longer GU. At mile 18/19 I could see evidence of sports beans on the ground but there were NO packages left for the average runners. Considering the race limit was 5:30 (or 6 hours), there should have been beverages and food available for all runners on pace for this time limit.
R. E. from Florida (3/24/2009) "Great logistics; low-budget marathon" (about: 2009) 4-5 previous marathons \| 1 Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon (formerly the National Marathon) COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 I seemed to have had a different experience in the 2009 marathon from others. This was my 5th marathon in 2 years (I'm a slow runner and not competitive, so don't think my comments are from some elite athlete - just an everyday runner). There were a lot of good things about this race, and some needed areas of improvements. I would recommend the race, but take note: Great things: (+) Having it adjacent to the metro stop is wonderful. The neighborhood may not be that great, but with 10,000 people walking around, it's very safe. I walked off the metro at 6:45, and was ready to run the race at 7:00. Smooth sailing. No worries about traffic or, parking. (I didn't deal with the bag check.) (+) We were able to wait indoors if needed. (+) Awesome volunteers. Everyone at the water stops were great. I really liked all of the support during the last 4 miles. Police were great. The route was clearly marked for runners. (+) Different-colored cups for PowerAde and water. (+) The course was relatively interesting, especially running near the capital, etc. The course bills itself as a DC Marathon, so you run though all parts of the city - residential, urban, preserve. Don't expect a lot of monuments, and it is a "city" marathon. Areas to improve: (-) Add more toilets, especially for the half-marathon portion. (-) They ran out of cups towards the end of the half-marathon, but the last half of the full marathon was fully stocked. (-) They need to provide Kleenex and Vaseline at the water stops. I didn't see one box of Kleenex along the entire course (-) Move the ambulances or have them turn off their engines. Running by exhaust fumes was not fun. There was enough of that naturally from the city. (-) Very small expo. I think only two vendors were selling clothes. Two vendors were selling GU, etc. (-) There were speed bumps early in the course that were not clearly marked. I saw a couple of people fall because it was so dark and the speed bumps were gradual. It was sad. (-) Low-budget finisher medal. (-) The finisher T-shirt is branded with every sponsor's logo. It would be nice to have T-shirt without all of the ads. But it is a technical T-shirt, which is nice. (-) Inaccurate timers. The time on the clocks throughout the race was not accurate (according to my watch). And even the time shown on the finish line didn't match my watch, or even the printed time on the results page. I do wonder if it was timed accurately. (-) Horrible food and organization at the finish line. After crossing the finish line, one got their medal and chip removed, but then there were no directions to the food area, and no one was handing out water. When I did find the food tent, it wasn't staffed, and all that was offered was grocery store-quality bagels, bananas, and orange slices. There was also water and PowerAde. It was open to the public, so maybe that was why the food was so poor. But please, provide some sweets! I've had better food at half-marathons. (-) They need a better course map that can be zoomed in. It was really difficult to determine where the actual course was. My friends couldn't find it, given all of the overpasses and tunnels in DC. (-) There was a mediocre number of spectators, but they were very friendly. Few signs, though. (-) The course has some decent hills for the first part of the race, but the last three miles of uphill running are just evil. Granted, I did enjoy the very flat course from miles 14 - 23, but the steep uphill from miles 23 - 25, and then the gradual uphill from miles 25-26 were just mean. As I opened with, I liked this race, but could tell that they were constrained by the budget.
T. M. from Raleigh, NC (3/24/2009) "Great tune-up 1/2 maration for Boston" (about: 2009) 2 previous marathons \| 1 Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon (formerly the National Marathon) COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 3 I ran the 1/2 as a tune-up for the Boston Marathon, 4 weeks later. Overall, a very good race. There's a good chance I'll run it again in the future as a Boston tune-up. High points: - Getting to wait/stretch/stay warm inside armory before the race. - Weather. As they said at the start, this was "no excuses" weather. Mid-high 30s, clear, and not windy. - 1/2 course. Great views of the mall, and NW Washington. The view of the capitol between miles 9-10 coming down N. Capital was spectacular. Hilly enough to be challenging, but not so much that it seriously impacted your pace. Some potholes/rough pavement, but only in a few sections. - Water/PowerAde stations. No problems from my perspective. - Start corral, at least for the 5:30-6:15 pace runners. It wasn't crowded at all up front. - Expo was efficient (although a pain to get to) and the Reebok tech shirt is good. - Post-race. Food/drink were good and plentiful. Results were posted very soon. Nice medal. Easy access to the metro. - Competitive field. Not-so-high points: - Bag check was a disorganized scrum. I got my bag back after the race though, so no harm done in the long run. - Porta-potty lines were a little long pre-race, but no worse than at any big race. - Few spectators (but the ones that were there were good, especially around miles 7-8).
J. K. from Cleveland, OH (3/24/2009) "Great course, logistically lacking" (about: 2009) 2 previous marathons \| 1 Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon (formerly the National Marathon) COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 2 This was my third marathon, the first two being USMC and NYC. I was expecting this marathon to be an entirely different experience. It certainly was, but not all positive. First the positives: -Great course, with multiple views of the capitol and downtown mall. -Fan support in Anacostia was actually pretty good. -Police and volunteers were helpful and numerous, if not vociferous. -On the back half of the course, they took care of the marathoners pretty well (for the first half see below) -Free beer at the finish line, which I consumed liberally. -Decent shirt and medal. -I found a $40 pair of brooks Adrenalines at the expo (Adrenaline 7s, but who cares). Now, the negatives: -Very little fan support outside Anacostia and a few other small areas. I was expecting good fan support on the first half (where the 1/2ers were on the course), but there was very little, even there. -There was plenty of Gatorade, but the stands inexplicably ran out of cups (at least for those at my pace, 4:30). I had to drink out of 1-gallon jugs handed between runners, which created lines and backwash potential. Kudos to one of the volunteers, who actually bought extra cups for us from a store on the route. - The first GU station was out of GU. - Porta-pots were lacking, and I wasted quite a bit of time waiting to go. - The free stuff in the goody bag was not great for a $90 race. Not that this was all that important. All in all, a good course/race, but it needs to grow in publicity to get more spectators, and rid itself of the logistical problems that keep popping up.
G. G. from Ohio (3/24/2009) "Good course, but the rest of race needs help..." (about: 2009) 11-50 previous marathons COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 2 I liked the course a lot and it had some very scenic stretches to it. Organization of the race was poor at best. Bag check was very disorganized, and I noticed at the start of the race that there were still a ton of people over at the bag check. And after the race, there was no organization as to how the bags were organized. It was a giant mess of people searching for their stuff. Aid stations were marked, but they should have been on both sides of the road for the first few miles given the congestion, as it was tough if you were on the wrong side of the road and had to cut over. Blue PowerAde; what were they thinking? It was somewhat comical to see everyone with the blue stains on their shirts but certainly not real funny if you ruined an expensive shirt, which I can guarantee that many people did. And I certainly don't run races for shirts, but a pink running shirt for a man? C'mon.... There are about 5-10 other things I could point out as well, but these reasons may seem picky, and I don't run races based on things like bag check or the color of the PowerAde. Still, this stuff is common sense, and it does distract from the total experience. I would recommend the race. I thought the course was challenging but fair - and scenic for an out-of-towner.
P. T. from Washington, DC (3/24/2009) "Overall great race" (about: 2009) 2 previous marathons \| 1 Rock 'n' Roll USA Marathon (formerly the National Marathon) COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 1 I ran the half. Liked: - The course was great - some hills, some monuments, some regular old neighborhoods with folks on porches. I'm local, and this was a great view of my city. - Expo wasn't overwhelming; volunteers were friendly and helpful. - Nice medal, which my boyfriend said looked like a beer bottle opener (sadly, it doesn't serve that purpose). Room for Improvement: - The port-a-potty lines on the first 6 miles were shockingly long. - I didn't stop at any water stations but noticed all kinds of crowds, lack of cups, lack of water (?), etc. Glad I didn't need to stop! - Crowd support was sparse, but that's not really a race responsibility. - The finish area was pretty narrow and I had to cut in front of some fast marathoners just to hit my stride. - I feel like I missed half of the mile markers, especially in the beginning (but, it was dark, so...). - Expo parking was a disaster, but that could have been exacerbated by the road construction around the armory. - Bag check drop-off was a mess, but post-race all bags were simply laid out on tables, which made retrieval a cinch. I set a PR in this race and will definitely run it next year.

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