Peak Performance Maine Marathon... Race Ratings (Part 2 of the Double)

Peak Performance Maine Marathon ~ October 4, 2009
Ratings... Registration Fee: $45 (Early Reg., $55 late)

Overall Race Rating (weighted): 4.0/5.0
Average Calculated Rating: 4.05/5.0
~ Warning: much of this rating is based on Maine as the second half of a double, rather than rating the marathon on its own. I loved the ability to get there quickly and painlessly from the NH marathon. I also loved the people that participated... lots of Maniacs and 50-staters throughout, getting their double in for the weekend. Bad sides? No food/Gel on the course... but don't worry, there were LOTS of post-race cookies and I ate a couple dozen upon completion of my 52.4 miles for the weekend.
Race Director: Let's place race director...

~What would I have changed if I were race director? GU or some kind of Gel on the course. If this is being advertised as the second part of a weekend-double, expect hungry runners!!!

Event Organization: 4.7/5.0 (now broken into 2 parts, see below as well) As far as "event organization" we'll go ahead and include things like Host hotel, website use, ease of travel to the event and to the actual race, etc.

~ If you're looking to make this part of the NH/ME double, the travel is great! It only took us about 1.5 hours to get from Pete's place in NH to our hotel in Maine. There is also a hotel RIGHT near the race... so you can easily fly out of Portland. The website for this race is actually very good... providing a full course map & Description, as well as runner comments, local attractions, etc. They also provide you with a VERY long list of hotels... which there were plenty of, since you're so close to the airport.

Race Organization: 3.7/5.0

~ The race organization was pretty good, with a few ups and downs. This was a significantly bigger race than NH and there were a LOT of people doing the NH/ME double There was also a half marathon going on at the same time. Although I looked like a scared kindergartner on the first day of school (pictured left) before the double, there was actually a LOT of excitement at the start. There was also very large gym for packet pick-up so people could get water, stretch, etc, not too far from the start. 

The big thing I noticed for Maine was NO food/Gel on the course. I, personally had a hard time with this because I ran NH the day before and was SUPER hungry by the time I hit my 40th mile for the weekend! Luckily some kids at a water stop had some munchkins (those are from Dunkin Donuts, for you non DnD lovers)!!! The streets were definitely cleared well for this race (shut down). OH! And we tried to find the "pre-race massage tents" at the start, but none could be found :( Very sad.

Course: 3.4/5.0

~ This course wasn't all that exciting. It was an out and back with a loop in the middle. The elevation contained sloping hills throughout-- which I normally would love, but by day 2 of these was a little tough. Nice course overall.

Spectators: 4.8/5.0

~ Spectators were GREAT! There were people outside of their homes throughout most of the race! Lots of kids with their own water stands, and people seemed genuinely excited for the marathon! Again, there was a relay, so at the relay points, there were TONS of people cheering, especially for the people participating in the full marathon! Even the relay runners waiting on their teammates would cheer for the marathoners.

Pace Group: /5.0

~ DNE and didn't need (from what I could tell).

Runner/Corrals:

4.5/5.0

~ Again, there were TONS of 50-Staters and Maniacs along the route! I got to see all of my galloway friends along the way as well, since it was an out and back. I even got a chance to stop and take a picture with Wild Willie when I caught up to him. Wild Willie is an early starter and very, very close to finishing his 50-states!

Expo: 3.0/5.0

~ There may have been a bigger expo the day before, but on race day they DID have a table set up with some really nice Maine Marathon apparel! MB got me a nice jacket that was similar to a "Boston" jacket (*grumble, grumble*). For a smaller marathon, there was some good stuff!

Swag: 4.25/5.0

~T-Shirt... Yay! Another long-sleeve... finally! I've been waiting for a new one. My Disney one somehow got covered in coffee... oops. Cute shirt, nice fitting, breathable material, and they had (and gave me) my size! 4.6 for the shirt!

~Medals: Another nice medal... this time the medal was the shape of Maine-- very cute! 3.7

~ Goodie Bag: You had the optional goodie bag at the packet pick-up. If you didn't want to kill more trees, and fill your trash with paper then you didn't grab a bag. I peaked inside and looked for marathon discount flyers, but I already had all the ones provided. I thought it was nice that they didn't waste all that paper. + a couple tenths of points.