Marshall University Marathon Race Report

Time: 4:15:44 (Boston qualifying time)
Overall place: 175/342 total runners
Age group place: 3rd
Place among all females: 40/127

Weather conditions:
90% humidity at race start
Approx 48-50 degrees at start (the website shows 42 at start, not sure how they came up with that since the Weather Channel in our hotel showed 46 degrees for Huntington 2 hours before race start).
It warmed up very quickly, bright sun, probably around 70 by the end of the race

Cons:
*"Free" pasta dinner the night before had a lengthy line (they ran out of spaghetti and had to cook more). It was just ok - paper plate with small portion of spaghetti w/ sauce (no meat in sauce), slice of bread and small lettuce salad
*Since we registered late we weren't eligible for the choice of fleece or technical shirt. We got a long-sleeve cotton T-shirt. All the shirts were missing the date of the marathon. (The race director sent out an e-mail informing us of that)
*The roads were not great - lots of potholes, slanted roads and rough railroad track crossings
*Very few spectators along the course, but it was a small marathon so I was not surprised
*No timing mat at the start - I started back by Diana (I often will run with her for the first bit to warm up) and then realized I had just lost 30-40 seconds due to no mat at the start line
*No clocks or timing mats on the course except at Mile 13 (that was odd, because it wasn't at 13.1 as you would expect)
*Course was a little confusing in a couple of places with arrows on the ground to direct you
*No extras along the course, except for pretzels (no bananas, oranges, gummie bears, or gels of any kind)
*Very steep ramp into the stadium (so steep it really wasn't runable at all)
*Finish line had pizza (didn't look appealing because it was hot outside, the pizza looked greasy), cookies, bagels, but nothing salty like chips

Pros:
*Plenty of fluids on the course
*Running on the crushed limestone path in the park was nice and offered shade - nice relief as miles 13-20 were in the open and very sunny
*Portions of the course where you could see other runners (ahead or behind of you) were nice
*During last mile, they handed out flowers in memory of plane crash victims which you could place in the memorial fountain
*Running the football into the end zone was really cool!
*The awards for age groups were beautiful! I received a handblown Blenko glass buffalo (Thundering Herd)
*Very cool medal - similar to Flying Pig medal with the 3-D effect (front of buffalo and then the back of the buffalo with his tail)
*There truly weren't any hills to speak of, so even though this was in West Virginia, hills were not a factor