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Lake Placid Marathon Runner Comments
Back to Lake Placid Marathon Information & Reviews
Course 3.9 
Organization 4.1 
Spectators 3.5
Number of comments: 73 [displaying comments 21 to 31]
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J. S. from NJ
(6/16/2010)
"AWESOME!" (about: 2010)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Lake Placid Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 I have run upwards of 20 marathons and this ranks as one of the best - truly great people, beautiful scenery, and a great course!!! Keep up the good work! There are only great things to say and we will be back next year! | |
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B. T. from Ma.
(6/16/2010)
"Pleasantly Surprised" (about: 2010)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Lake Placid Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 2 Yes, this is in the gorgeous mountains, but most of the course follows a lake and a river, so even though it is windy, it is not so hilly. This is really a half with a small full attached. Out of the 2,500 runners, the full is capped at 600. The three turnarounds ensure that you are always on the course with other runners, no matter where your position may be in the race. This led to built-in spectators, since everyone offered encouragement going both ways. The course support stations are great and at every mile. Watch out for the mile marker placement. If you want your splits, wear a Garmin; the winding road keeps the markers from being placed at the exact place. My one gripe is that even though you pay the going rate for a marathon, this is not a certified course. I PR'ed there and lowered my BQ by a few corrals, but cannot use it due to the attention being put on the half. | |
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K. M. from Northern NJ
(6/15/2010)
"What a view!!" (about: 2010)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Lake Placid Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 There were a lot of great things about this race. To start with, the view from every location was great. I also liked the fact that this was a two-lap course. I saw people I knew along the way. I was worried about the heat and hills when I signed up for this race. The clouds seemed to help keep the heat down. The hills are best described as rolling hills with one very large hill right at the finish. I started off this race with a very even pace, which helped in the second half of the race. This was not my best time, but it was close to 3:30. Yes, I would do this race again, but next time I would stay a few extra days. Along with a really good marathon, there were other things in Lake Placid to do. | |
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A. G. from NY
(6/15/2010)
"Try it Once... But You Could Drive" (about: 2010)
4-5 previous marathons
| 1 Lake Placid Marathon
COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 I thoroughly enjoyed the Lake Placid Marathon in 2010. The organization was great, with easy registration, great volunteers, water and Gatorade everywhere on the course, great crowd support, nice medals, a free shirt, and a pretty run to top it off. I recommend that everyone do it once! However, I will do this only once... there were too many cars on the course!!! These are some things that keep me from going back: 1. The course is really not all that beautiful if you have ever done country runs or mountain runs. There are a couple nice views, but I think the so-called "beautiful" points of this race are WAY, WAY over-stated. 2. The final hill with a 50-60-degree incline... really? Pain on top of pain. It added a couple minutes to my time for sure. Not really angry, but just surprised. 3. The community seemed ambivalent at best to us. Hardly welcoming to some 2,500 runners plus family that came to spend time and money in the town. Hello?! Tourism is why this place exists - put up a sign that says, "Welcome Marathoners" instead of making us feel sub-par because we are not ironmen and ironwomen!!! 4. THERE WERE CARS ALL OVER THE COURSE!!! This last point is a major problem for me. I counted about 5 cars at 25 KM in the race, but after that it was like the race almost didn't exist. There were at least 15 cars on the course. ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS! Outside of emergency vehicles, nobody driving on that road should have been there that morning. If we can shut down major thoroughfares in large cities (SF, Tokyo, NYC, Montreal, etc.) then I think the Lake Placid organizers should be able to keep traffic off of River Road for 4-6 hours. Heck, pay each household $100 for their pain of not driving their giant trucks and SUVs on the road for 4-6 hours if that is what it takes. How can you enjoy the "beauty of the run" when 3 cars are forcing you off of the road? These cars were an insult to all runners who came to run in the race. | |
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john carboni from schenectady ny
(6/14/2010)
"Gold Medal Marathon" (about: 2008)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Lake Placid Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 I feel that this marathon is right up there with all of them that I have done. The course is very difficult, with never-ending hills. The scenery of the area is beautiful, with mountain streams and lakes. There are trout fisherman fishing, bicycles, and boaters all along the route, which is out-and-back times two for the marathon. The water and Gatorade and gels are plentiful all along the route. The village of Lake Placid is possibly the most beautiful spot in New York State. There are good deals on food and lodging to be had. It fills up fast, so be warned to book early. This is a tough course. It is in a mountainous area. It finishes in the Olympic skating oval with the announcer giving each runner recognition and the crowd cheering. The weather was kind to us, with the sun hiding until after the race. The race director did a great job in taking care of details and returning emails promptly, answering questions. I would like to thank everyone involved in putting on this fine event. It will only get bigger as the word gets out! | |
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F. B. from South Abington, PA
(6/13/2010)
"Great Marathon Today!" (about: 2010)
1 previous marathon
| 1 Lake Placid Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Great marathon! They kept us well fed. I wasn't dehydrated at all when I finished. I like that they had so much more than water and GU. They had oranges, bananas, Special K bars, cookies, etc. Small hills and a few pretty big hills. The last half-mile is completely uphill! But, i guess if you run 25.5 hilly miles, you might has well run the last half uphill for the course's sake! Easy check-in, and the town is adorable; it's got lots of places to eat, and it's easy to get around town before and after the race. Good job, everyone! | |
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Doesn't respect cheaters! from New Jersey
(6/18/2009)
"Perfect except for cheaters!" (about: 2009)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Lake Placid Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 This comment is being written by someone who just finished marathon #39. PROS 1. The race director was super friendly, not snobby and very helpful. 2. Beautiful course! I liked the loops because you were able to see the fast runners heading back. Very challenging. Rolling, with some steep hills. 3. Thank you for giving food early in the race! I've never been fed so well. I think I gained weight during the marathon. They never ran out of candy bars, oranges or bananas. 4. Volunteers were amazing and helpful! Very friendly. 5. Easy packet pickup. Easy start logistics. 6. Nice town to spend some time in. Lots of history; good-looking, fit people training for the ironman; good restaurants; good accommodations. 7. The massage was the best. They really spent time on each runner. This was the first marathon where they didn't rush you off the table and scurried you away. They were also smart enough to do half time on half marathoners and more time (at least 20 minutes) WITH LOTION on full marathoners. This was the first marathon where I felt really massaged and taken care of. Thank you so much for not rushing. 8. Good giveaway at the expo. Reusable bags for grocery shopping. Not over the top with wasteful things. 9. Helpful informative emails. Good tech shirt. Good weather, but that's not in their control. Great police support. 10. At the finish line, Main Street Pizza delivered 50 pies between 11:30 and 1:30, but by the time I got there, they were gone. I knew of this delivery because I went to their restaurant to eat after and spoke to the manager. CONS: 1. I can see people wanting a bigger expo. But then again, there was a running store next door to the expo and EMS on the same block. So I didn't mind. 2. Major cheating was going on. Brad, please check the people who didn't cross the mat between miles 19 and 20. I saw lots of people cut out the horse farm. I also saw a guy who was a 4:30 marathoner become a 3:30 marathoner! Who would have thought that runners could and would want to cheat at a marathon? But they were! Team in Training needs to step up and educate their team that it is totally unacceptable to cheat. You can't just cut the course because you feel like it. What if they took someone's age group win away from them? Not to mention that it's just wrong. Check the mat times from 19 and 20 to see if it matches some runners. I bet it doesn't. To be fair, I can see how a tired runner could maybe miss the direction that they were supposed to go straight passed the water stop to get in miles 18-21. They really should have had more people yelling and big signage. Some people only ran 21 miles that day with all of the cheating. I saw people coming back that I KNOW were not suddenly that fast. 3. I can see people getting annoyed that there's no year on the medal. But they need to get over that. It's economically better not the have the year. 4. Again, running out of food at the finish line for the back of the pack. Honestly, marathoners pay more money than half-marathoners, and it seems like marathoners do not get more for their money at the finish line, since people who only ran half the distance ate all the food. The first marathon to figure out that half-marathoners should not get all of the food and massage time will be the best marathon ever! Overall, it's a 4 out of 5. If you don't mind running alone sometimes and if you don't need the rock star crowds, this is a great marathon. But don't run this marathon without training on hills! You've been warned! | |
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A. K. from PA
(6/16/2009)
"It's about the scenery, not the race" (about: 2009)
4-5 previous marathons
| 1 Lake Placid Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 4 Lake Placid is a beautiful place to visit and a great place to run. Starting off around Mirror Lake was gorgeous, and most of the course was very scenic. The course needed to be closed off better, because there were no lanes to speak of - just runners going both directions with the occasional car driving either way up the middle. If runners are going to be going both ways on a road, it really needs to be closed off to traffic and divided so that the runners have lanes to stay in - people were weaving between oncoming runners and traffic like crazy! It didn't seem too dangerous - no one drove past me at more than 10 miles an hour, just barely faster than the runners, but it was a huge headache and another thing to worry about, especially during the second half of the race when people were still on their first loops around and it was even more crowded. I wasn't really crazy about doing two out-and-backs along the same road - one would have been plenty. Perhaps it could have gone a different way for one of the loops and been less repetitive. The last hill was cruel and unusual punishment, after a marathon that is almost entirely made up of small, rolling hills with no major climbs, to have the only steep, long hill in the entire race right at the finish. My only other gripe was that while some of the aid stations had paper cups, many had only plastic. When you run with a cup and try to drink out of it, it splashes unless you squeeze the top shut around the end. If you try that with a plastic cup, it cracks in half. A lot of runners use this technique to not have to stop at aid stations to be able to drink - it saves a lot of time when the stops are added up. Please just use paper cups! Other than that, it was a fun race, and Lake Placid is a beautiful place. My family will definitely be back - perhaps for an ironman at some point in the distant future, perhaps for the marathon, but certainly for the lakes and the mountains!! | |
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M. F. from Vermont
(7/5/2008)
"Good, small race" (about: 2008)
1 previous marathon
| 1 Lake Placid Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 4 I've only run one other marathon, London, so I knew this would be different - and it was, in all kinds of good ways. Aid station plentiful and well-stocked - sponges were great, oranges were welcome. I couldn't imagine suddenly having a craving for a cookie or pretzels, but, maybe that's just me. The out-and-back allowed for lots of support to and from other runners, those of us running the full marathon got to see each other several times and the encouragement was very welcome and heartfelt. Nice on a small course, with not a ton of spectators. I had expected the hills, from knowing the area and from other reviews I'd seen, but I live in Vermont, and, you know what... the hills weren't so bad. So, if you live somewhere even a bit hilly and train outside, you'll be just fine. I hate to end on a negative note, but I have to say - there was absolutely no food left when I crossed the finish line. I'm not fast, but I did a 4:30, so I was by no means the last person to finish - and not only was there no food (which had been talked up big-time as we started), there was no apology or even acknowledgment from the people in the empty food tent until I asked, beseechingly, "Is there anything left?" and someone said, "We've gone across the road to pick up some pizza, so it should be here soon...." I left without food or a massage, since I needed something in my stomach. I hated ending that way, and I'd like to do the race again, since the time and location are good for me, but thought you should know. | |
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Francine Robinson from Grand Rapids, Michigan
(6/25/2008)
"Well-organized, great volunteers, beautiful course" (about: 2008)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Lake Placid Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 I highly recommend this race (my 45th marathon). The course was breathtaking, with views of the high peaks of the Adirondacks, the Olympic ski jump, and the lake. There were many aid stations with eager and friendly volunteers, offering water, Gatorade (sometimes ice), and snacks such as oranges, bananas, pretzels, and cookies; also cool, wet sponges available at some aid stations to help runners cool down as the temperatures climbed into the high 70s. The finish line volunteers were great too, especially the race director, Brad Konkler, who personally placed the finisher's medal around my neck. I showed him the sign I wore on my race shirt, dedicating this Father's Day race to my Dad who passed away in January, and also as support for my ex-husband who was recently diagnosed with cancer. Moments later I began to cry from a flood of emotions and from the fatigue of running a marathon only one day after my fiance and I had spent almost nine hours climbing Mt. Marcy. Brad saw me crying and came over to offer me comfort and support. I will always cherish that moment. Lastly, kudos to ASI Photo for many photos with beautiful scenery in the background. |
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