Seven of the eight miles between miles 15 and 23 are continuously uphill, as are the first three miles. It's not hilly by C'ville standards, but it's hard to run negative splits on this course.

It's not an especially fast course, so I wouldn't recommend it if you are looking for a PR, but the marathon is not crowded in the way NYC and Chicago are so you can run at your goal pace with no interference.

Nicely organized. The half marathon, which is much bigger than the marathon field, merges with the marathon at around the sixteen mile mark. I had no problems with crowding at the merge. People had complained about this in previous years and the organizers seem to have fixed the problem. Nice expo, no need for buses, food was good.

Challenging course

miles 17 to 23.5 is a long slight climb with little down or flat.

Quality of Event:
1-poorly organized
10-very well organized

Good crowd support downtown, not bad in other places. Although I wouldn't do this one again, it's a well-organized race that is not too far away, less expensive than the major city marathons, and I liked the smaller atmosphere -- I can't see the point of paying a huge entry fee to shuffle along with 45,000 other runners.

very efficient. 1/2 marathon merged with marathon over a 3 mile beginning which worked well.

Expo was very good, crowd support was good