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☰
Austin Marathon Runner Comments
Back to Austin Marathon Information & Reviews
Course 4.0 
Organization 4.0 
Spectators 4.1
Number of comments: 421 [displaying comments 141 to 151]
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P. S. from Louisiana
(2/20/2008)
"Good Race, Tough Hills!" (about: 2008)
1 previous marathon
| 1 Austin Marathon
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Well organized, except that they didn't have enough finisher's shirts in medium size! Having to wait on mail for it... Course is HILLY! Seems they never end. Support on-course was great, even for the slow runners like me. Rated the course a 3 because of continuous hills. It was nice winding through different areas of Austin. Go for the experience and be prepared for hills! | |
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j. c. from Schenectady NY
(2/19/2008)
"Well-Run in a Great Destination" (about: 2008)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Austin Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Train for hills and hope for a cool day - that would be my advice. A challenging, well thought-out course. Nice crowds and entertainment worth the effort; book early for a nice place to stay. | |
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C. B. from Chicago, IL
(2/19/2008)
"An uninspiring course, at best" (about: 2008)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Austin Marathon
COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 2 The course is hilly, as others have stated. That aside, the course itself is unspectacular and even mind-numbingly forgettable. Based on the layout (hills not considered), I'm highly disappointed I chose this race, though you have no way of knowing beforehand if you're not from the area. I have to believe the organizers can come up with something better than this. On the plus side, the volunteers along the course handing out drinks were fabulous, as were those manning the aid stations and working in the finisher's area. The overall marathon experience is what you make of it, and I enjoyed the Austin Marathon experience in total. However, I wouldn't recommend this marathon to other runners. | |
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G. M. from San Antonio, Texas
(2/19/2008)
"Great race if you're ready for hills" (about: 2008)
4-5 previous marathons
| 2 Austin Marathons
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 Overall I would give this race 4 out of 5 stars. I have been running Austin since the days of Motorola, and it has always been a well-run, well-attended race. There are minor glitches such as the nightmare parking situation for the expo, but overall this is a great race. Last year's course change was, in my opinion, quite drastic. I did the half last year and the full this year. The course was described by the website as 'honest'. I still don't know what that means. The days of the flat, fast course are gone. If you come to Austin, train for hills. I will do another marathon, but I do not think I'll do this one again. The difficulty of the course for a 5+ hour runner like myself unfortunately outweighes the other benefits. | |
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E. P. from Des Moines, IA
(2/19/2008)
"A really great experience!!" (about: 2008)
1 previous marathon
| 1 Austin Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 This was my first marathon, and I couldn't have picked a better place to run it! Austin was, in a word, amazing. Yes, it is a hilly course - no doubt about that, but if you know that going in and train accordingly, it's really no big deal. I personally enjoyed the challenge. The spectators and volunteers made this race for me! I have never seen so much support on a race course. Strangers had boxes of Kleenex and big punch bowls of gummy bears for runners. I never felt alone on this course. The last 1/2 mile of the race was awesome - a nice slight downhill, tons of people, downtown atmosphere! My only complaint is that when registering I placed an order for a size M finishers (technical) shirt. I finished in just over 5 hours and all they had left were XXL. Why not order shirts according to what people need? There were no finisher's shirts available for purchase, so I have no way to show off my accomplishment, which is kind of a letdown; but overall, I would highly recommend this race!! | |
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K. L. from New York
(2/19/2008)
"Hillier than advertised!" (about: 2008)
4-5 previous marathons
| 1 Austin Marathon
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 I had a good time but would not come back to run this again. Pros: Good organization, runner support, and spectators. Nice medals and finisher shirt. The music bands also kept me motivated. Cons: The course was very difficult even though I was trained for hills and have run other hilly marathons. I believed what others said about the hills ending after mile 18, which was not the case. The rollers kept coming and coming. Even when we got downhills, inevitably there would be an uphill on the other side. I was 6 minutes off my fastest time. They did not have gel/Gu on the course, forcing many runners to buy gear at the expo to carry all our fuel. Even then, I was so afraid of running out of gel that I under-fueled for this race. They had fireworks at the start. Good idea in theory but then we ended up running into the smoke - yuck! If they do that next year, they should shoot the fireworks much higher into the sky. | |
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A. W. from Tampa, Florida
(2/19/2008)
"The enitre city is uphill!" (about: 2008)
2 previous marathons
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 I had a really rough time this race, for reasons not related to the actual event. My main complaint about this race was that there seemed to be a LOT of uphill running - either steep gradual running. Nevertheless, this wasn't too much of a problem until my body shut down at mile 22 because of my not eating the day before the race (thanks American Airlines). I didn't like that there was a steep declines at mile 26 to the finish; seemed pretty mean to do to people who had been gunning uphill the whole race; now shred your quads at the finish? Fans were awesome, and the town is cool and laid back. I spent 45 minutes after the race in the med tent for my dehydration, hypothermia and severe lower leg cramps. The med team was amazing! They were on top of everything and each sick person had probably 5 or 6 medical personnel taking care of them. They were nice, helpful, professional and really made a lot of folks who were not feeling too well feel better. | |
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M. C. from Austin, TX
(2/19/2008)
"Lovely Run!" (about: 2008)
6-10 previous marathons
| 3 Austin Marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 All the minor niggles from last year have been fixed. Start and finish line were really well organized. Pace positions on the start line were very clear. Finish line chute was painless, and easy to meet up with people afterwards. I love the course and hope they don't change it much in the future. I expect there will be complaints again about hills, but Austin is on the edge of the hill country, so hills are what we've got. Train for hills and you will be OK. If you want a flat course, go to Houston and be bored for 26.2 miles. | |
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S. B. from Texas
(2/18/2008)
"Hard course" (about: 2008)
2 previous marathons
| 1 Austin Marathon
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 This was my second marathon (first was in 1994, so a long stretch). The course was hilly, which was nice but there were some steep, short hills that did not seem so steep on the profile on the website. Parking downtown was fine, free in the garage near the Capitol. The roads were a bit narrow and there was a lot of jostling for elbow space the first 4 or 5 miles. Crowds were enthusiastic but sparse in some places, especially in the mid miles. Spectators were especially friendly, offering extra water. My biggest gripe was my pacer, 3:20. My Garmin clocked us doing 6:45 miles which was NOT in the pace I trained for. Wound up getting burned out, but still got a PR. | |
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b. m. from texas
(2/18/2008)
"The hills are alive in Austin..." (about: 2008)
6-10 previous marathons
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 My comments are in reference to the half (I did not run the full). I thought the course was extremely challenging... the website says that miles 9-13 in the half are downhill, but that is NOT the case at all - do not get your hopes up! I actually thought miles 7-13 were the hardest on the course. Overall, though, I did PR and I thought the race was fantastic! Austin is a neat city; the race was very organized; the course was pretty scenic; and the spectators and volunteers were great! I would recommend this race, but I would not recommend it for people aiming for a PR. |
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