Marshall University Marathon ~ Race Racings (Repeat State)

Tag line: 
"You're at the 30... the 20... the 10... TOUCHDOWN MARATHON"
Ratings...

Marshall University Marathon ~ November 7, 2010

Huntington, WV~ Marshall University and Downtown Huntington
Type: 100% Road/Sidewalk
Year Running: 7th
Registration Fee: $60 Early ($80 late)
Charity Race? No
Runners:  514 Finishers ... 164 Females

Available Races: Marathon, Half-Marathon, Half-Relay, 5M Walk
Average Finish Time: 4:13:58!

BQ %: 20.6%!!!!!


Overall Race Ratings: 4.2/5.0

Average Calculated Rating: 4.0/5.0

~ People come for the flat, fast course, but you get hooked in by the small event, relaxed feel! The final stretch is run with a football in hand in the football stadium! As the comments come in, the organization makes pretty big improvements! It's nice to see another director taking the comments seriously. I was very impressed all around!

Race Director: Let's play race director...

~ The first thing I would do is add a spot for Gel/Gu on the course. Since you wrap through the park a few times they could easily make 1 GU spot that we could hit twice. The awards could use a little help, but that's not a huge deal. Also... it would be nice to find a way to get the kids on campus involved! Put some type of incentive... they would make for great spectators!

Event Organization: 3.7/5.0 (now broken into 2 parts, see below as well) As far as "event organization" we'll include things like Host hotel, website use, ease of travel to the event and to the actual race, etc.

Distance from Airport to Expo/Race: NA (I drove)
Rental Car Required: Yes!
~ I drove, but I know there aren't too many close airports! Hotels are very much "West Virginia" so prepare yourselves for that! Getting around, however, is very easy. This isn't a huge town and everything is pretty easy to find and get to. Parking was SO easy (we literally parked AT the starting line) we thought we had done something wrong or parked illegally. The website is simple but effective-- giving you any/all information you need. I couldn't breathe/smell/taste so I'm not sure how the pasta dinner was... MB said it was terrible. It didn't look great, but I scarfed it down. They gave out A/G awards... but EVERY award was the same (see the bowl below). There were 2 different colors.. I believe for the half and full races. 


The MC at the event was a lot of fun. They call out the name and hometown of EVERY runner crossing and kept music blasting full force. They had massages available post-race which was great! 

A/G Award and LD Snack!

Race Organization: 4.5/5.0

Hydration Color/Type: Red?/Gatorade (Why can't I remember???)
Gel Type/Flavors/Availability:  None
~Post Race Food: .They had a full grill set up for hamburgers and hotdogs. They also had a table FULL of little Debbie snacks... oh and there was some healthy stuff like fruit (but who caressss). 

~ Water stops each and every mile +. There were also rest stops all along the way. They had mile markers at each mile and they were pretty dead on! No clocks. This happened on the course, so I'll include it here-- they did have a nice memorial moment by giving us flowers (optional) at mile 25 to carry with us about 200m to a fountain to place next to. I thought that was really nice! They also gave us footballs to carry the last stretch of the course in the football stadium, which was a very nice touch! 


No gel/gu at all... as the only marathon left in WV (and a pretty fast one at that) I'm thinking this race is going to grow pretty quickly and they're going to need to get some gels! 

Course: 4.0/5.0
MarathonGuide Rating 
Garmin Distance: 26.26

Type: 100% Pavement/Sidewalks
~ Elevation Gain/Loss: NA

~ This twisty-looped course was pretty basic until the end. The last .1 or so is run IN the Marshall University stadium, where they hand you a football, you run to one endzone and back to the other. That makes for a unique experience. There is a point where you go by a river or lake of some sort with the coolest fog coming off of it-- very eerie! The scenery was ok. The elevation is VERY flat... almost NO hills, except for dips to go under train tracks/tunnels. Let's not forget... this course is extremely fast with one of the highest BQ %'s I've ever seen! 


Spectators: 3.7/5.0

~ Any race around a college campus on a Sunday morning is going to be QUIET! This race had a very quiet feel to it but it was a relaxing quiet--peaceful-- that or I had WAY too much cough syrup before the race. There were lots of spectators in the park, which we wind through twice, but aside from that they are scattered throughout. 


 Pace Group: NA/5.0
~ NA



Runner/Corrals: 4.5/5.0

~ No Corrals, but runners were really fun and friendly. I found the runners to be exceptionally talkative! There WAS one girl that I liked toying with for a while that was blatantly trying to race me and would slow down as soon as she went past... that was fun! Lots of maniacs because this is one of the very few (and possibly only now that Hatfield-McCoy is cancelled) marathons in WV. 

Steph with Marathon Maniacs- GO LIPSTICK LADY!

Expo: NA/5.0
~ No real expo (only a few small vendors)

Swag: 4.1/5.0

~T-Shirts: Since I signed up a little later, I got a tech-t. They DO have the option (if you sign up early enough) to get a really nice Marathon Fleece. JEALOUS!!!! But the shirts were pretty nice. Long sleeve and technical. They have the HUGE marathon logo on the front. eek... 3.4

~Medals: The medals had a huge improvement from prior years. Although they totally copied off the flying pig "animal butt on back" I still love it! 4.8

~ Goodie Bag: None

Results: Stephanie
Chip Time: 3:25:05
Place: Overall- 71/514, Gender- 6/164, A/G (F25-29)- 1/13


Happy Racing,
Stephanie 
"Run to Win" - Meb