First and foremost, I came into this race battling a Peroneal tendon issue that flared up again at mile 4 and essentially left me limp running by mile 21 and walking by mile 23. That has absolutely nothing to do with the race itself or the race directors and did not color my thoughts and impressions of this race.
The location of the race just east of the Seattle area is a beautiful trail made up of very compacted gravel and winds its way gently down a mountainous park area. The views are spectacular as you cross over many suspended bridges looking high over creeks and small water falls. The mountain tops just in the distance can't be seen for the clouds and mist that hang in the air around them.
As mentioned, the trail is compacted gravel, I never had a moment of losing my footing or having to dodge large rocks or roots. The race directors mention the advantage of wearing gators on your shoes, but I only had one instance of a rock getting in my shoe and having to stop to remove it. The downhill track is never overly steep and almost has no uphill at all, it's gentle enough to feel good but not have your quads ready to burst.
The name sake tunnel is a unique experience. Running in total darkness with only head lamps for light makes for a surreal experience of running in and amongst head lights that varied in brightness and range. Seeing the pin prick of light at the end of the tunnel slowly grow until you emerge on the other side is definitely an experience unique to this course. The organization on the other end of volunteers collecting your drop bag to return your head lamp to the finish line was well run and efficient as well.
Communication from the race directors leading up to race day is good, monthly emails with plenty of news and information. The location near Seattle is easy to get to and the race area is close enough to the city to be able to take in some sight seeing in Seattle the days before the race. I had no trouble getting an affordable hotel room or a rental car.
Unfortunately, the organization on the course was not on the same level. Since the water and aid stations were further apart than typical marathons, I carried a handheld water bottle with me for consistent hydration. This wound up being what saved me during the toughest miles of the race. At mile 15 I took nutrition and salt tabs using the remainder of my water knowing there was an aid station coming at mile 16 for a refill and sports drink to balance out all the water. For me, the miles from 14 to 20 tend to be the most mentally challenging as I've run almost to end of my glycogen stores but still have a lot of race left. Mile 20 is always a big boost for me, something mentally about hitting 20 and having only a 10K left always gives me a nice kick at the right time. So rounding the corner into Mile 16 and finding the water and aid station completely abandoned was the exact opposite of the kick I really needed. I initially panicked having just finished the remainder of my water. Fortunately, I was able to cobble together the remaining water out of several of the abandoned cans to be able to re-fill my bottle. Working with several other runners who were coming in behind me, we able to get ourselves hydrated enough to continue.
At this point, heading out of the abandoned water stop, I was mentally frazzled as well as dealing with the Peroneal issue. Out of concern for the unknown status of future water stops, I was overly conservative about drinking much from my bottle as I continued to run. Coming into Mile 18 confirmed the worst fears as that stop was also abandoned. Again, several of us cobbled together water from the cans left scattered on the ground, but there was no sports drink nor any medical personnel. I definitely had the though of what happens if someone gets seriously injured, we are literally in the middle of nowhere, no spectators, no race officials, no medical personnel.
As in Mile 16, I headed out from the Mile 18 abandoned stop concerned about my growing injury issue and the continued availability of fluids. Needless to say, this is not a good mental situation for a marathon. Thankfully, the Mile 21, and 24 station had 1 volunteer still there with sports drink at Mile 24 to break up the water, but by that point I was so mentally and physically out of the race it didn't make much difference.
I've never written a negative review for a race and hate to do so now, but I would absolutely not recommend this race. Until you run this trail, it's hard to appreciate how isolated it is. When the aid stations are abandoned I'm not sure how much you could depend on getting aid if something bad happened during the run. It was to the point where several of us were wondering if there had been some type of horrible incident in the Seattle area as the reason all the volunteers and medical personnel abandoned their stations. My injury issue caused my horrible performance, that is absolutely not on the race directors. However, there is no excuse for leaving so many of us on an isolated trail with no support for almost 10 miles (Mile 12 to Mile 21). There are several organizations that use this trail for marathons, I would suggest researching those groups and running the course with them.

The weather in Fargo on race morning was about 44 degrees with constant rain and a wind that blew anywhere from 15 to 25 mph and yet this was one of my favorites. The reputation of Fargo being full of exceptionally nice and polite people is well earned even though they have a wood chipper on display at the visitor center. Getting here is surprisingly easy, I rented a car at the airport and was glad to have it for getting around the city (which is also very easy).
The expo was small as to be expected for a race this size, but the people were so friendly I could have spent all day just chatting. The race swag bag is the best I have ever received. Very well constructed and plenty large, it will get a lot of use in my family. A hooded sweatshirt instead of the typical technical tee was a nice touch as well.
With a rainy race day, the start inside the FargoDome was a blessing of the highest order. Speaking of blessings, we actually had a marriage before the start of the race, definitely a first for me. And the bride and groom were serenaded by Elvis after the ceremony. You really had to be there for any of that to make sense. Basically it all means these race directors were on the ball and the race management was amazing.
The race itself can be summed in one word: Flat. Also cold, wet and windy but honestly once you’re out in those elements you adjust, it wasn’t that big of an issue for me. But, when they say the course is flat, it literally felt like running on a treadmill for long stretches. Not an issue but when you did hit a little up or downhill you definitely felt the muscles tighten up.
I can’t say enough about how many people were out in the neighborhoods cheering us on and all the volunteers who never missed a beat controlling traffic or giving out fluids. In that kind of weather, the support was amazing, truly a credit to this race. The course was mostly residential which would have gotten boring if not for all the neighbors out cheering on the runners.
The end of the race is back at the FargoDome with the race announcer calling out your name and people in the stands cheering. I’m not a big eater after a marathon so I can’t really speak to what the post race spread was like. I got my chocolate milk (my post race fave) and a banana and found a chair.
My review would not be complete without mentioning meeting Mike and Katie at the end of the race, very exciting to put a face and a smile to those names. I will be sporting my RaceRaves hat at future events and keep my eye out for others as well!
In summary, Fargo was fantastic. I ran it because I’m doing the 50 states but I would recommend this to everyone, regardless of what your ultimate goals are. This was a race that exemplified why we spend our money and go to these events, I loved it.

This was by far my toughest and worst marathon but none of the reasons had anything to do with the event itself. I ran this race just 2 weeks after being diagnosed with the flu and really felt like I didn't have enough time to recover properly. And then the weather didn't do any of the runners any favors!
The city of Little Rock absolutely goes all out for runners the weekend of the marathon. There are tons of signs around downtown and in front of restaurants and bars welcoming runners to the city. That's always a great thing to see when you're away from home.
The expo was well done although a little smaller than I expected. I think the race organizers do such a good job of hyping up the race that it's easy to forget that the actual race itself is pretty small in terms of number of runners. But, they had plenty of merchandise and good vendors to visit with so no complaints.
The day of the race the weather did exactly what was forecast, very cold with off and on rain for the first 2 hours which shifted over to sleet and snow for about another hour and then came the north wind blowing from 10 to 20mph. Since this was according to forecast, most of the runners were dressed appropriately, but there is no way to not be cold when you're wet and the wind chill drops into the 20's. None of this is the fault of the race directors, of course, and there was actually fairly good crowd support in spite of the weather.
The course itself hits a lot of Little Rock highlights. It goes directly in front of Little Rock Central High School, the state capitol building, and the governor's mansion. The back half of the marathon goes through some sketchy areas and there is a long out and back along a bike path that is a little boring but there's no way the entire course could be perfect.
I will say this course is the toughest that I have done so far. The hills are steep and long and come one after the other. In the early sections there is usually a nice downhill to get some recovery but the later hills don't go back down much at all. As noted by other reviewers there is a rough hill between 24 and 25 that is not a welcome sight at that point in the race.

After a difficult training period where I had to deal with several nagging injuries, the Philadelphia Marathon turned into a wonderful experience. I stayed at the Sheraton on 2nd Street and had walking access to the expo and start/finish line. The Rocky statue and museum steps were about a 15 minute walk away as well.
The expo was good, although smaller than I would have expected for a large race. They had everything covered, though, and there was plenty of branded merchandise for sale. Being someone who enjoys a good expo, this one was fine and had good information about the course available.
Philadelphia runs their half marathon on the Saturday before the marathon instead of running it with the marathon. It was fun to go down and cheer on the half marathoners, something I have rarely had the opportunity to do in the past. I was concerned that this format would mean the marathon wouldn’t have much support because people wouldn’t want to come out two days in a row. Thankfully, this was not the case at all.
The weather in the days leading up to the marathon included snow, drizzle, and lots of cold. Sunday morning started at 34 degrees with no precipitation and virtually no wind, perfect conditions. The sun peaked out a few times but otherwise the clouds kept the sun away. I think this contributed to overwhelming support from the people of Philadelphia. There were plenty of “dead” areas of course, but everywhere supporters gathered they were loud and fun and gave the runners the needed burst of energy to keep going.
The course itself was good, the first half was the same as 95% of the half marathon and passed by plenty of landmarks and interesting sights. The biggest pain in the first half is that you pass the start/finish area around mile 13, not something I wanted to see at that part of the race!
The second half of the marathon was a huge out and back along the Schuylkill River. This was a fairly quiet section of the race, the spectators were widely spread out but again they were loud and fun. With the turn around being at Mile 20, this actually proved to be a nice boost for me at a time I really needed one. As long as you’re OK running 12 miles passing people going the other way, the out and back won’t be a big deal.
The finisher area was great, plenty of food and various drinks of all kinds. This was the first race I have run that had a warming tent and I spent about 20 minutes there after my finish. I never got really cold during the run, but felt the chill big time after the run. The medal is awesome, the bell actually rings which made the finisher area sound like a million little Salvation Army bell ringers randomly ringing their bells.
This race was a lot of fun and after having the injury issues over the summer and early fall, this was a finish that 2 months ago was seriously in doubt. The people of Philadelphia were warm and welcoming and the race was given a ton of attention around the city. I highly recommend this race!

Grandma’s Marathon was my 14th full marathon and absolutely ranks as one of my favorite races of any distance. This is a really fun race and is completely worth the trip to Duluth.
That trip was the only part of the race that was difficult in any way. I flew into Minneapolis and drove a rental car 2.5 hours to get to Duluth. There are flights from Minneapolis or Detroit to Duluth, but you need a car in Duluth anyway so the drive was better than the extra expense of flying directly into Duluth. The drive wasn’t that bad, and the view coming into Duluth was spectacular.
I stayed at the Radisson and paid about 3 times the normal rate as all the hotels in the area jack up their rates for this weekend. Since that is out of the control of the race directors, I don’t consider that a negative against the race. The Radisson location is fantastic and is walking distance to the expo and the finish line where you can take the train or bus to the start line.
The expo was good, appropriately sized for the race with plenty of race merchandise for sale. I got there early on Friday morning so I didn’t have any issues with huge crowds of people. Packet pickup was easy and they had a station to double check your time chip on your bib which was a nice thing to be able to do before leaving.
The weather forecast leading up to the race was calling for thunderstorms for race morning. The afternoon before the race a large storm did blow in and knocked out power briefly and rained several inches in just a short period of time. Everyone was afraid that this was a preview of what was to come the next morning.
I got up early on race morning to be able to take the train to the start line, which I highly recommend over the buses. The first thing I checked when I got up at 3:30am was the forecast and was amazed to see the storms had been moved rom early morning to late afternoon and the chance of rain during the race was dropped to about 30%. The forecast temperature of 59 turned into an actual temperature of 50, pretty close to perfect conditions.
Taking the train to the start line was an option for the first 1000 runners wanting to ride. The train departs about 5:45 so the sun is up and the views heading out along Lake Superior are fabulous. The train is also plenty warm and roomy and there are lots of toilets available. The only downside is the trip takes every bit of an hour so if you want to get to the start line super early don’t take the train.
The race start is well organized with most runners lining up in accordance with their expected finish times. With the half marathon starting an hour earlier and starting from the marathon half way point, I never saw anyone with a half marathon bib and couldn’t even tell you what color their bibs were.
The first 19 miles of the course are along Lake Superior which is unfortunately very often blocked by all of the trees. We did deal with a pretty heavy fog and off and on light rain for most of the race, but the wind was at out our back and I never felt like the scenery became monotonous. Crown support during this part of the race was limited to certain spots along the road but was very enthusiastic in those spots and provided much needed boosts. The aid stations had clearly labeled water and power aid and was always water first. The volunteers did a spectacular job, you could tell this race has been run for over 40 years, these were some well trained and experienced volunteers.
Just past mile 19 the course heads into Duluth and the pine trees and lake views change to a city run with spectators everywhere. The final 6 miles were full of rowdy spectators providing a ton of distractions, even a long line of troll dolls along the curb around mile 22 which qualifies as one of the strangest things I’ve come across during a race.
The finish was great, there were a lot of twists and turns in the last half mile or so, but it didn’t bother me as much as I feared from previous reviews. The finish line area was plenty busy, but I had no problem getting my medal and finisher’s shirt and there was plenty of food and beer available. I actually like the fact that you get your finisher shirt when you finish the race, that’s the definition of finisher shirt. The medals were big and heavy, certainly appropriate for the accomplishment.
I love events where it seems like the whole town shuts down for the race and they really appreciate the runners who came to be a part of it. The way Duluth embraces the race and the runners is extremely impressive and rivaled the support I’ve experienced at much larger events like Chicago. If you can get to northern Minnesota in June you won’t find a better event than Grandma’s Marathon.