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Silicon Valley Marathon Runner Comments
Back to Silicon Valley Marathon Information & Reviews
Course 3.7 
Organization 3.9 
Spectators 3.1
Number of comments: 54 [displaying comments 1 to 11]
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a. b. from United State
(6/20/2011)
"IT WAS REALLY GREAT!" (about: 2009)
50+ previous marathons
| 6+ Silicon Valley Marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Dean Karnazes Silicon Valley 10.31.09 - I absolutely hated this one. Tons of 'Silicon Valley' tech industry employees participated in the half marathon (starting at the same time as the full-UGGHH!) with NO DEODORANT. The funk, the smell, the horrible odor as you're trying to run was just disgusting. The looped run through the trails where people were walking with their kids, dogs, and riding bikes was ridiculous. I should not have to say excuse me to people walking their dog in the same path that I am supposed to run a marathon. At some points we did not know where we were supposed to run because there were no directions. REPETITIVE TRAIL RUN - THE WORST!!! | |
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T. D. from SF Peninsula
(11/3/2010)
"Great, No-Frills, Local Marathon" (about: 2010)
11-50 previous marathons
| 3 Silicon Valley Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 2 The Silicon Valley 'thon has morphed in an interesting progression since I first did it on the old course in '99. The current course is a great improvement. As an "event," it's definitely shrunk. Fewer people, less hype, tiny expo, minimal amenities. That being said, it's a great, small, local race if you don't require frills. There's no goody bag and the "expo" doesn't even deserve the name. There's no award ceremony, and logistics aren't communicated terribly well. But the things that matter are covered. Good course, accurate timing, solid aid stations, volunteers, and course control. If you're looking for hype, crowds, and pampering, don't do SilValley. If you're focused on a solid, supported run with excellent BQ potential, SilValley is a good choice. Oh, and yes, parking and access are extremely easy/convenient. I did wonder, though: what happened to the post-race food from Wahoo? They had a tent, but no food! | |
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K. E. from San Francisco, CA
(11/2/2010)
"Nice, small marathon; fast" (about: 2010)
11-50 previous marathons
| 2 Silicon Valley Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 2 I really enjoyed this marathon. It is a small race (around 800 marathon finishers) so be prepared for that. It doesn't have time splits or even a half marathon split time. The mile markers were sometimes hard to see and I missed many of them. But it was really easy to get to (street parking a couple of blocks from the start); and the course is quite nice and flat, and passed quickly. There were not a lot of spectators but those that were there were enthusiastic. I ran a PR and placed third overall, first in my age group, so I am happy. I'd run it again. | |
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J. E. from San Jose
(10/27/2009)
"Good, Small Race" (about: 2009)
11-50 previous marathons
| 3 Silicon Valley Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 1 This is a good local race that does a lot of things right. The course is nice and pretty fast. Naming it the "Dean Karnazes" Silicon Valley Marathon was pretty stupid. The guy doesn't even live down here. | |
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M. H. from Oakland, CA
(10/27/2009)
"Really bad timing." (about: 2009)
4-5 previous marathons
| 2 Silicon Valley Marathons
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 4 If you wanted to run this race as a qualifier, you had better be right up front - SVM only provided gun-time results. You're out of luck if it takes you two to five minutes to hit the starting mat. Why even bother having chips at all? Second complaint is that SVM didn't have swag bags at registration and packet-pickup. They just handed you your number, (useless) timing chip, ties, pins, and t-shirt - and you had to hold on to this pile of stuff. Everyone was walking around looking for some kind of bag to put their stuff in. At least TELL people if you're not going to provide a bag so that I can bring my own. Really poor call on their part. On the chip-timing thing again... aren't most marathons these days using the disposable chips? It's so much easier to deal with. I also did a smaller, less-popular marathon three weeks prior, which provided not only chip-time and gun-time, but also both times and rank for the first half. I'm not sure if I entirely blame SVM for providing poor timing. Go look at Eternal Timing's website; they didn't give chip-times for any race this year. What's up with that? Didn't SVM check to see what kind of service these guys provided? I probably won't run this one again. Way to go, SVM. | |
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Z. Z. from San Diego, CA
(10/26/2009)
"Running with Dean is Always Fun" (about: 2009)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Silicon Valley Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 This was a fun run. The bike bath was a bit more rolling than I expected and the area near the turnaround was a challenge. The crowd control and aid stations were outstanding, especially the woman passing out fresh strawberries at mile 20. Yummy tacos at the finish. Always awesome to be inspired by Dean at the expo. | |
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M. B. from San Jose
(10/25/2009)
"Beautiful race" (about: 2009)
4-5 previous marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Beautiful race. The problem is, I am very disappointed that I don't figure in among your finishers. The volunteers cut my chip after the race and I finished in 3:54.23. According to my time, I had number 20. It is not a great time, but it was a tremendous effort for me. I feel let-down that I am not being recognized. | |
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A. B. from Belmont CA
(10/25/2009)
"An OK Marathon with Horrible AID Station drink" (about: 2009)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Silicon Valley Marathon
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 3 I'm done participating in events that provide Ultima Replenisher instead of your standard carb-loaded Gatorade drinks. When people do these things they need carbs! And when they pay $80 they should get it. Ultima Replenisher is essentially Kool-Aid with salt and artificial sweetener. Why the hell would I want artificial sweetener when I'm struggling for energy? Ugh. The course was fine with a majority of it on a shaded trail. There was ample, nice scenery, but the full marathon doubles back into the same trail so you're not really maxing on the sights. The police were great when we did hit the local roads, and the extremely sparse spectators (we're talking one or two every half mile) were very nice. If I could base my grading just on their presence, I'd give them five stars. But alas, there was next to zero energy coming from non-organization spectators since there were so few. The aid station volunteers were great though, and I thoroughly appreciated their cheers. Finally, the post-race was okay. It was nice that they had full meals being given by Wahoo Fish Tacos. But what really drags the end down was the abysmal medal they gave out. What an absolute piece of unimaginative JUNK! It's essentially a ribbon tied to a loop with no indication of the uniqueness of the marathon except the phrase "version 12.0!" I may be a bit disappointed more because in the past few years, I'd heard they'd given medals that had a computer chip replica in it. My disappointment to see what they gave out really made the run almost not worth it. I may as well just have run 26.2 miles in the woods (would probably have been better since I'd prep carbed drinks for myself), and given myself an over-sized metal earring and tied a cheap ribbon on it. Yep, so... I'm never doing this race again. | |
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K. C. from San Jose
(10/22/2009)
"Good small-town marathon actually in a big city" (about: 2008)
11-50 previous marathons
| 6+ Silicon Valley Marathons
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 3 The race is excellent. If you're into marathons for expos and shirts and stuff, you may not like it. | |
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F. M. from San Mateo, CA
(11/1/2008)
"Excellent all-around smaller marathon" (about: 2008)
6-10 previous marathons
| 3 Silicon Valley Marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 Course is fairly flat, but far from boring. It doesn't have the scenic value of some other CA courses, but it's got a nice mix of very comfortable trail, city streets with excellent traffic control, a high school, and a couple of lakes. A few long, straight stretches in residential areas. Only 1 serious hill (maybe 50 feet gain over a block). Mentally, it feels much easier than other courses I've run. Police traffic control was excellent; I felt very comfortable. Aid stations were fine, albeit a little confusing, with water and Cyto givers right next to each other. The sweats guy was hunting down runners at finish to return their sweats. Great service. The finish area is at a small park, which is nice place to collapse. Parking and access are extremely easy and convenient. You actually can park free on the street (legally) about half a mile away, which makes for an easy exit (in addition to more convenient garage and lot parking). Announcers at start and finish were great. I actually had a potential problem when they gave me a half-marathon bib number, which I didn't discover until late. But they were very helpful, and it proved not to be any problem. |
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