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Jun 30, 2024

Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio Marathon and 1/2 Marathon Runner Comments

Back to Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio Marathon and 1/2 Marathon Information & Reviews

Course 3.6

Organization 3.3

Spectators 3.9

Number of comments: 203 [displaying comments 191 to 201]

More Comments: [ < 1 .. 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 > ]

Ginger McDaniel from San Antonio, Texas (11/17/2008) "A welcome change for San Antonio" (about: 2008) 4-5 previous marathons \| 1 Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio Marathon and 1/2 Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 As an SA native, I knew I wanted to be a part of this race as soon as it was announced that it would be part of the RnR series. I was very pleased with the largely flat course. Crowd support was a pleasant surprise, and considering SA has never held a race like this before, I expect this will get even better. The weather was beyond perfect. The organization was fantastic. As a 6-hour marathoner, it was wonderful seeing people and resources the whole way through. There seemed to be some unhappiness with the madhouse at the start but I did not have to use the shuttles so I can't comment on that. A thing that could be improved was the start time. With an official start of 7:30, an actual start of 7:44, and 32 corrals, some runners had to wait over an hour to start. Starting it 30 minutes earlier would be great, since the time change will already have happened. The bands were awesome, and if anything I would have liked more. I appreciated the fact that I was allowed to supplement the live music with my own Mp3 player. I will be back to participate next year. Great job, San Antonio.
B. P. from Dallas, Texas (11/17/2008) "Great Job, Perfect Weather!!" (about: 2008) 2 previous marathons \| 1 Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio Marathon and 1/2 Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 They did a great job putting this together given the size. The only big issue was parking. You had to take shuttles to/from your car and after the race it took over an hour to get back to your car. The course was great and they had plenty of water/Cyotmax along the route. The food at the end was well laid out and they had plenty to go around. As you finished you ran by a big crowd, and the support during most of the race was great.
A. S. from Dallas, Texas (11/17/2008) "Great spectators, nice course, way too crowded" (about: 2008) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio Marathon and 1/2 Marathon COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 The course was nice, even though miles 13 through 22 did not have much to look at since the course was mostly on small rural roads. The corral starting system was great and should be done at all marathons. The organization was poor at best. The expo was so crowded that there was a huge line just to get into the event and once inside it was so crowded that it was very difficult to do any shopping or looking around. The finish area of the marathon was extremely crowded. There were 25 UPS gear check trucks for 30,000 runners. It took forever getting your gear and was more than just chaotic. Again, there was one beer line for 30,000 people. The line was so long that I am sure most people opted not to have a beer. The line for the shuttles to the AT&T center was so long that I do not think I could stood in that line without going insane. Overall, this could be a really good marathon but needs better organization to accommodate the huge number of runners. I will probably be back next year but really hope that the organizers fix some of the organizational matters.
A. S. from Columbus, Ohio (11/17/2008) "Fun, fast race with a few bumps along the way" (about: 2008) 6-10 previous marathons \| 1 Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio Marathon and 1/2 Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 Overall I had a good race experience. Getting to the start early was the key. Several people in my group didn't get to the start line until the gun had gone off and they arrived at the shuttle location at 6 a.m. The course was good until the marathon split away and became a little boring. The worst part of the race was the finish. There was a fairly steep hill at the end of the race. I was disappointed with a cotton t-shirt for registration and almost all of the apparel was sold out early Saturday morning at the expo. I would run this race again if the race officials are a little more detailed.
M. D. from Lafayette, Louisiana (11/17/2008) "I will run this one again" (about: 2008) 1 previous marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 This was a great race. It was very well organized and the support from the volunteers and the spectators was amazing. I have also run RnR San Diego, and the bands were much better in San Antonio. One bad part: do not stay at the Drury Inn and Suites; late checkout is at noon, with no exceptions.
P. H. from USA (11/17/2008) "Worst organized marathon in marathoning history" (about: 2008) 11-50 previous marathons COURSE: 1 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 1 Once again marathon organizers went after the all mighty dollar and failed to consider the results of their actions. If you want walkers to sign up for your races, have separate events for walkers only. I waited 2 hours for bus transportation to the start. I arrived at the start after the race had started. I finished the race and waited 30 minutes to get by bag. Then I had to wait another hour for a bus. If you are going to allow this many people in an event, you need more organization and more space. I'm never running a Rock and Roll event again.
J. S. from Mission, TX (11/17/2008) "Too many runners!" (about: 2008) 3 previous marathons \| 1 Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio Marathon and 1/2 Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 3 I will start on a positive note. I actually liked the course and there were quite a few enthusiastic spectators in certain areas. The bands on the course were good and the cheer squads did a great job. There was plenty of water and Cytomax, which is not my favorite but I can live with that. There were also plenty of porta-pots at the start line. The medal was also very nice. Now for the bad news. In my opinion the race should have been limited to about half of what they allowed to enter. It was obvious from the very beginning that the organizers were not prepared for the number of runners that were there. Everywhere we went we had to stand in long lines. I have run in large races and never had to stand in lines like these. The packet pickup and expo were the worst I have ever attended. We had to wait for 15 minutes in line just to enter the expo. Once we did get in it was utter chaos. Lines were going in 2 different directions and very long. I wanted to get some information about parking but there was about a 35-minute wait at the information booth. On top of that, the race shirt was slightly better than what you would get at a local 5K race. Finisher shirts were nice, but at a cost of nearly $50.00. The shuttles to the start line were OK if you got there early enough although I heard some horror stories about what happened later in the morning. Once they dropped us off we still had to walk over 1/2 mile to the start village and another 1/2 mile to the corrals. There were not any nice hotels near the start so that was never an option. The start was a joke. I was in corral 17 out of 32. It was exactly 30 minutes after the start of the race before we were allowed to start. After the race I opted not to have a post-race picture because the lines were horrendous. The lines to pick up gear were even worse. But the absolute worst part was trying to catch the shuttle back to the AT&T Center. Again there were extremely long lines and absolutely no organization. In my opinion this could have been a very nice race if the organizers would limit the number of participants. There were too many things that took away from the race experience and there wasn't much to enhance it. I will not run this marathon again if the numbers aren't cut in half.
J. A. from Del Rio, TX (11/16/2008) "Very fun 26.6 miles" (about: 2008) 4-5 previous marathons COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 Very well run race - the best I've seen in 4 marathons. Great spectators, great bands, and the weather was just about perfect! It seemed to me that the course was a little bit long though....
L. F. from Damascus, Oregon (11/16/2008) "Awesome" (about: 2008) 4-5 previous marathons \| 1 Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio Marathon and 1/2 Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 The spectators were awesome. The course had a nice mixture of park and urban running. Great marathon. Only complaint: Bag pickup was slow and clustered because they did it by last name in a confined area.
D. L. from Akron, Ohio (11/16/2008) "Race operated on the cheap. Too bad... good course" (about: 2008) 6-10 previous marathons \| 1 Rock 'n' Roll San Antonio Marathon and 1/2 Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 5 Too bad the Rock and Roll people couldn't treat runners better when they have such a beautiful course and perfect weather. Course support was good but everything before was on the cheap. Cheap cotton t-shirts were the only thing you got for your registration fee. I was told by one Elite Racing official that "people complain if we give them a tech shirt." ...give me a break! I've never met one marathon runner who would prefer another 5K-type cotton t-shirt instead of a high-quality tech shirt. No names printed on bibs... even though I registered a year ago. No massages at the finish; they say that it's not good for you to get a massage so soon. How thoughtful of them... not! This can't be a world-class marathon if they're going to act like a small-town 5K. Doesn't make me want to sign-up for another Rock and Roll Marathon anytime soon. They should take a visit to Akron to see how a world-class marathon treats their runners, with a high quality tech shirt for everyone and free running shoes to all marathon finishers.

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