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☰
Philadelphia Marathon Runner Comments
Back to Philadelphia Marathon Information & Reviews
Course 4.3 
Organization 3.6 
Spectators 3.8
Number of comments: 749 [displaying comments 511 to 521]
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P. G. from Iowa
(11/20/2006)
"Nice run, but too many runners" (about: 2006)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Philadelphia Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 3 The weather was great, and the course was fine, but there were just too many runners. The race started almost 10 minutes late. Runners went down going around the tight corners. At the second water stop the pack came to a halt to get through the water stop because of the narrow course. Getting water at every water stop was difficult until the last few miles. I was still bumping elbows, dodging runners, and checking my blind spot until after mile 20. The expo ran out of safety pins and size XL shirts (maybe other sizes by the time it was over). Not a lot of spectators overall and the ones at the finish were pretty quiet for the number that were there. But, despite all of that, I still enjoyed the experience. | |
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J. P. from Columbus, OH
(11/20/2006)
"Good but not FLAT!" (about: 2006)
11-50 previous marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 This is a great marathon because of the city, the history that it embodies, the people, and the course to some extent. The course is hyped as flat and fast. To me it is not flat! However it is not too hilly either, but the ups and downs do get to you. The organization was a bit disorganized. Many folks did not know where the starting line was. Parking was absolutely ridiculous - no shuttles were available to/from the hotels. And my hotel did not offer late check-out to the runners - I asked, but they did not care. The crowd was great - no question about that. Lots of folks cheering everyone on. A great race and a great experience. | |
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R. S. from Philadelphia
(11/20/2006)
"Great course - crappy amenities" (about: 2006)
4-5 previous marathons
| 2 Philadelphia Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 4 I'm a local and ran last year. The course is fast and diverse (though it could certainly cover more of this large city instead of the out-and-back on Kelly Drive). But, sheesh, I shelled out $70, and I wanted more than a freakin' banana and bottle of water at the finish. I run small races for a fraction of the cost and I get tons of food and a shirt. AND, nobody was there to help take chips off shoes - ridiculous. The whole VIP thing if you pay with American Express angered me too. Nice work Amex, you screwed up a good race. I won't do it next year. | |
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s. w. from Toronto
(11/20/2006)
"Great course, surprisingly weak organization" (about: 2006)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Philadelphia Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 4 First the positive news. The course itself is a perfect urban marathon. 2006 saw upper 40s to mid 50s for temperature. The course starts in front of the beautiful Museum of Art and heads into the city core and south Philly. The city centre has narrow streets and attractive buildings. The crowds here are pretty good and enthused. The next section heads into a couple of park areas that the city should be proud of. At the 14 mile mark the course meets the start/finish area again and the crouds are big and a great place to meet up with friends. The last half of the race is out and back along the river. At the 20 mile mark you briefly run into a smaller town's centre where the crowd is great with many unofficial aid stations (beer!). This town was the hightlight of the race. Aid stations were well run. Now the negative stuff. For a race of this size, reputation and history it is surprisingly poorly organized. The expo is too big for the big tent that houses it. The race packet pick up desk is at the back of this too crowded tent and by the time I picked up my stuff I just wanted to get out. Would have loved to spend some money but it was just too crowded with not a central area to have questions answered. On race day there was one person in the tent with a megaphone answering questions but he eventully disappeared. The buses that were to hold the bags were ordered away from the start by the police and no one could tell us where to leave bags. The finish was void of volunteers. No one to check finishers condition, only a couple of people removing chips and you had to open boxes of medals yourself. No signs where the food, medical, massage or bags were. By the 4:10 finish the food was gone except green bananas & sealed cases of waters with no one opening them except runners. Not sure if the organizational issues were a this year only problem but luckily the course made up for the problems. | |
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C. K. from Niskayuna, N.Y.
(11/20/2006)
"Good but not great" (about: 2006)
4-5 previous marathons
| 1 Philadelphia Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 4 I would love to give the 2006 Philadelphia Marathon rave reviews, but it was too disorganized, too mistake-laden to get that. But, I had a pretty good race and would recommend it to others - with some reservations. First, the course is not completely flat. There are hills are miles 7 through 9, a nasty overpass to climb at 19, and then a gradual, grinding hill around mile 21-22. Its a fast course, but its better to know where the hills are. With no course elevation map on the web site, I found the hills, particularly the one at 21-22, an unpleasant surprise. Meanwhile, baggage check was a disaster. The trucks never showed and 15 minutes before the start me and hundreds of others were scurrying around looking for what to do with our bags. Not a volunteer in sight with information. (At the end of the race, shivering in my space blanket, it took me 15 minutes of staggering around before I found an unmarked tent where someone had placed all the bags. Inexcusable.) Finally, since they ran the half-marathon with the same starting time and mostly the same course, there were two sets of clocks in use. But, while running in a pack, it was hard to tell which clock was for which mile mark in which race. It made it very difficult to get accurate splits. Twice I hit my watch only to realize it was the half-marathon clock I was looking at. That's the negative. On the positive side, I found the course energizing, with a good mix of urban streets, nice parks and scenic roads along the river. The spectators were fantastic, particularly in the final .2 The city really supported the race. I found this to be a good race that, one day, can grow into a great marathon. | |
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R. J. from Bedford, NH
(11/20/2006)
"Don't miss this one!" (about: 2006)
50+ previous marathons
| 2 Philadelphia Marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 5 This is an event for both the first time marathoner and the seasoned veteran looking for a PR. I have run many marathons and ultras throughout the USA and Philly ranks at the top with Boston. Great weather, fast course, plenty of runners to give you that added push, steady but not large crowd support throughout, and a great city to visit after the race! Now the details. What's positive? Nice medal, nice technical long sleeve shirt, great traffic-free flat to slightly rolling course, consistently good weather (40 to 50 degrees), scenic course, and plenty of water and Gatorade. The negatives? Poor baggage check-in and retrieval set up. Water stops need to be on both sides of the road during the initial 10 miles of the course. Just too crowded otherwise. The medal was nice, but I would love to see the Liberty Bell on it. The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear the word Philadelphia is 'The Liberty Bell.' A sign for freedom and independence, as well as equality for All. Lastly, there are too many races. Cut out the 8 km altogether, and have the half marathon start 30 minutes after the marathon and relay. That will help with crowding at the porta-pots, the race start, and during the race along Philly's narrow, but beautiful streets. All in all, run Philly. The city, the people and the race are first rate. Don't miss this special race with all of its history. | |
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G. L. from New York, NY
(11/20/2006)
"Wow...What a Difference A Year Makes" (about: 2006)
6-10 previous marathons
| 2 Philadelphia Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 2 I ran Philly in 2005 and loved it, but I ran it again in 2006 and it was a disaster. It looks like they've added more races, e.g. 1/2 marathon, marathon-relay, and more total runners than their amateur-hour organization can handle. Here goes: Check-in: Disaster, human log jam Bag check: Disaster, the police shut down their plan for bags on buses, forcing the organizers to formulate a 'plan B' 30 minutes prior to the start. What a joke, and what a mess. Course: fast & flat, and somewhat scenic. But the organizers screwed up the mile markers and clocks. There were two markers for each of the first 13 miles, in different locations, that weren't marked as 'half marathon' or 'marathon', leaving all the runners guessing at their pace; totally ridiculous. Crowds: A reasonable number of people along the way, but they mostly just stand there silently waiting for their 'Dad' or 'Suzy', looking lame and stupid. Some runners were mocking the crowd, yelling out the signs and/or T-shirts of people in the crowd! Very funny. Finish area: totally disorganized, no attempt to separate runners from masses of non runners Food: above average, the hot chicken broth is a great touch Bag pick-up: Oh my, see 'bag check-in'; I suspect there are still people trying to get their bags today, 24 hrs later. Overall, Philly is a great course for BOS qualifying or setting your PR, but the organization is totally Mickey-Mouse amateur-hour. I probably won't be back next year. | |
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J. C. from Ann Arbor, MI
(11/20/2006)
"Great course- fast and fun" (about: 2006)
4-5 previous marathons
| 1 Philadelphia Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 4 The course route was great. Downtown was nice and fast, and the out and back along the parkway was truly fun. So good in fact I PR'd and was very satisfied. Organization was a major problem: 1) Expo was poorly managed. Expo tent was not big enough to accommodate all the registrants. Everyone was packed in like sardines, and there was no organzation for lines or where to get what. A total cluster bomb. 2) No one knew anything. I asked at least 5 officials about how the starting line was going to work (pacers/ pace times/ etc) and everyone said 'oh, those people over there...' Nope. I ended up with zero answers. 3) Race Start: One guy announcing through what seemed to be a cone. Muffled and unclear. Couldn't hear any instructions or details. Everyone was complaining...'what is this guy saying?? Give it up!' And, race started 7 minutes late, c'mon! 4) Course: mile markers were inaccurate. I was running a 6:50 pace and hit the 3rd mile at 8 minutes, then the 4th mile at 5 minutes. This happened several times. The half marathon mile mark was 4 minutes off. Additionally, there were no clear indications about the mile markers for the half marathoners and the full marathons. I had to figure out on my own that the mile marker colors must coordinate with what color you bib is. Having such a great route and great weather was really overshadowed by the extreme lack of professionalism. Makes you truly appreciate well-planned races like Chicago, even when they're 5 times as big. | |
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K. M. from Philadelphia
(11/20/2006)
"Nice course, poorly organized" (about: 2006)
2 previous marathons
| 2 Philadelphia Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 2 As I posted in the bulletin board: (1) baggage check/retrieval was chaos; (2) some of the mile markers were hidden behind poles; (3) post-race food was worse than last year (e.g., no oranges or broth this year); and (4) they didn't prevent non-runners from coming into the tent after the race, meaning that spectators were eating food and taking drinks. Thumbs down to the new sponsors. | |
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J. S. from NY
(11/20/2006)
"pretty good marathon - better organization needed" (about: 2006)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Philadelphia Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 4 I believe the start to the 2006 race began more than 13 minutes later than expected. Part of this may have been due to the fact that approximately a third of the portajohns were locked at the start and the lines of people waiting for one of the usable ones were long. Or, maybe it was because people could not find where to place their bags. Since I could not hear much out of the sound system, I am not completely certain but base my comments on word of mouth among the runners at the start. I do know that the anthem was sung two minutes before 8:00am and two minute warnings were given multiple times after the anthem. Probably the one thing that shocked me the most was that a police officer stopped the runners to allow traffic to run through the course around mile 4 or 5 -- so much for it being closed to traffic!!!! Next year I hope they have staggered starts for the marathon and the half marathon so it is not so crowded at the beginning. It would also be helpful to the runners who were confused by the duplicate mile postings starting at mile 11 after the two groups joined up again (one was red & one was blue)to have half marathon & marathon written next to the corresponding color/time. I was pleasantly surprised to see gatorade early on in the course and at many more stations than I expected - the flier telling the runners where the gatorade would be suggested that we wouldn't see it until closer to mile 7 or so. More volunteers would be great to have at the finish so that the runners do not have wait in a crowd of finishers to pull their own blankets out of the box. The spectators on the course were great and the course itself made it easy to see many of the same spectators multiple times along the route. Some people even provided sound out of their own radio systems to help us along. I think there were only two or three bands along the course. The run to Manayunk was a bit quieter than the rest & while there were not very many spectators along the course, there were more than I expected. Since Kelly Drive is used to run toward Manayunk and then back toward the finish, we could watch the runners on the other side of the road go by. While the course does not have many hills, I was under the impression that it was flatter than it was. An elevation chart or a drive through before race day would have been a bit helpful. Also, there were quite a few sharp turns along the route. |
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