overcast and drizzly at the beginning. Low 50's and stayed cloudy and chilly.

cool, overcast

Cool, breezy, humid, overcast, 55 degF

Overcast with cold foggy drizzle; temp in upper forties to low fifties; NNE wind significant in open stretches. [I am estimating a total of six miles of head-wind. Depleted energy, hydration, and left me fairly chilled.]

Wet, humid and I got cold...

50-60, overcast, and slightly humid from all the rain in the preceding week.

Cool, overcast, WINDY on that darn bridge!

city pavement, a littlebit of country across river, plus long bridge.

City streets - asphalt; streets cleaned of wet leaves! Watch out for the face wipes - they cling to your shoes.

Slick water and crowning on road

4

training in Charlottesville made this seem mostly flat with minimal hills.

Not too bad after training in Charlottesville except for the breeze coming across the bridge.

This will feel overall flat compared to training runs in Charlottesville, but there are rolling hills in the latter part of the course. Don't get overconfident in the 'easy' start. The downhill finish is awesome! Makes you feel like a rockstar.

Challenges are the rolling hills in the latter part, the winds on the bridge, and this itty bitty upramp around 18 - 19 that made me think "really?" In all seriousness, listen to Mark and conserve your energy at the beginning. I found the winds on the bridge to be both physically and mentally draining.

I thought it was perfect for me (Richmond). I thought Baltimore was tougher and had some serious uphills.

great course, slow and challenging for me as first marathoner.

Fast

While there are both up and downhill stretches, there is no on-your-toes uphill or braking downhill. Thank you race director!

A course I have to pay attention to; must do hill work to be prepared. Would not call it a fast course.

More hills than I thought there would be, but about even overall. Going through the park is probably the hilliest part, as there were three or four in about 2 miles.

Fairly fast, but challenging.

Overall, relatively flat, but a lot hillier than I'd been lead to expect. Significant downhills mainly, especially the brutal last .25 mile straight downhill.

Fast overall.

Moderately challenging.

It seemed fast to me... not too many hills.

Nice mix to vary demands on legs. Final blocks are extreme downhill which jammed my toes.

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

Food tent was so close to the finish line that runners weren't encouraged to walk after hours or running. Next time, I would leave the food area and keep walking for ten minutes to properly cool down rather than crashing.

Didn't care for the graphics on the shirt.

Great everything - expo, shirt, medal, crowd support was all great! I would recommend this marathon and would run it again.

I recommend this race.

Wish there were more port-a-potties in the early miles. Wait for one cost almost 2 minutes.

Shirt is great this year! Medal really nice. Crowds were really good.

Has a home-town feel - junior high cheerleaders; yuppies with their dogs, coffee, and cell phones; crowds making an effort; and the full gamut of musical styles. And what about the Asian dancers! Full stop [almost] to watch. Is it too picky to want Gatorade rather than blue stuff?

My wife [she ran the half] is a huge Amby Burfoot fan so chatting with him at the expo was great. He knows Cynthia and Mark so that six-degree thing we all do was fun. I thoroughly enjoyed the bands. There was a terrific sax player somewhere mid race - He was honking! The best thing by far is fellow runners. Everything else pales in comparison.

Didn't see the expo in Richmond. The Baltimore expo was respectable but the stuff was overpriced. I guess I was much more used to the Lincoln half/full marathon. Their expo is fantastic ... very organized and lots of great bargains.

Baltimore had TONS of great eats - really tough hills. Richmond was the opposite (i.e. fewer hills and less snacks at the end). Note to self: NEVER eat gummy bears during race again ... I did it both times and felt sick both times. Silly me. No more gummies!!

Good support of slower runners. Even at the 6 hour finishing mark there was plenty of food left, folks were still encouraging, and bands were still playing.

Expo would've been better had it not been pouring rain to get into it. Humorous signs along the course really kept me energized and going because it was something novel.

Impressive! The Expo was fun and had some great deals and creative merch. I loved the bag check (especially it being moved to the finish line) and the ample water stations along the route. Plenty of food at the end and the music along the course was motivating.

There were crowds everywhere along with music which definitely helped. Had to smile at the lady passing out shots of whiskey at mile 9 and stare at those brave (stupid?) enough to take it! Shirt is high quality and soft and the medal is a nice piece of bling in case you're in need of some extra style :o)

packet pickup access and parking was difficult

Beautiful course. Just enough hills to keep it from being boring. Lee Bridge was painful--long, steady, gradual incline into the wind. Great crowd support and organization. Started right on time. Water/powerade stops were well organized.

The city of Richmond does a great job with this marathon. I was very impressed.

Did not go to the expo. Shirt was great. Medal was a bit lame Crowd support was great in certain areas, especially the last mile.

Extremely well organized. Website has good information; shuttles ran from the Omni to the expo; expo was well organized. Ample water / powerade on the course; ample gus at the stops listed; plentiful portapotties.

Crowd support was just terrific. And the bands / music - lots of fun. I can't say how fantastic that was. Definitely a very runner friendly race. Organizationally I found things to be very well run, soup to nuts. I would recommend this race to anyone, first timer or repeat runner.