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Dec 23, 2024

Omaha Marathon Runner Comments

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Course 3.3

Organization 3.7

Spectators 2.9

Number of comments: 183 [displaying comments 1 to 11]

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B. B. from Pittsburgh, Pa (5/3/2022) "Decent Race" (about: 2021) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Omaha Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 3 Maybe because my expectations were low given past complaints on this site, but I was pleased with the race. The course was not very exciting but it was fair with some undulating hills and a mixture of urban and country. It was a hot day, but the organizers were prepared with adequate aid stations, after being "black flagged" at another Omaha marathon two years earlier, I'm pleased that the racers were allowed to choose for themselves whether they continued. The medal and shirt were very nice with no ads on the shirt. Stop at Infusion Brewing for carb loading.
J. S. from KC, MO (9/28/2020) "Do not register for this event!!" (about: 2020) 6-10 previous marathons \| 4-5 Omaha Marathons COURSE: 1 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 3 Since taking over this event in 2013, HITS Endurance (the organization from NY who purchased it from the previous race director) has literally managed to 'run' it into the ground. Almost 6000 people participated in it when the Omaha Running Club was involved and they ensured it was well organized, doing all of the work for the paid race director/previous owner. I ran the half and 10K several times before moving to KC. Participation has declined since as the new owners have declined assistance and ignored advice from the local running community experts. In 2020, 'almost 800' were registered (according to one of the news stories) and just over 600 finished the events. Comments on social media regarding the marathon being long (anywhere from 26.8 to 27.2 miles) have been brushed off by event staff, saying 'the course was USATF certified'. That does not mean the course was marked correctly by the organizers! Results not available during the race (in 2018, the last time I ran it, the results were not published for 3 days after the event), inadequately marked course, limited aid stations, poor quality shirts, and medals and neck ribbons without the event date have been a common complaint since 2014. HITS has had opportunities to correct all of these but has failed! Avoid this event at all costs. I gave them another shot in 2020 because I believe in 2nd chances. Call me silly. Never again. I would recommend the Heartland Marathon which was established by the Omaha Running Club after HITS told them that they did not need their assistance and expertise!!
D. G. from RI (9/19/2019) "I Would Give This Race A Zero If I Could" (about: 2019) 50+ previous marathons COURSE: 1 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 1 I don't usually write many reviews, but I feel that I really need to write a review for this one. I am a 50 state runner and chose this race because it fit my schedule, and because it is the 2nd largest Nebraska race in terms of marathon runners. PLEASE read the reviews from 2018...I wish I had! NOTHING HAS CHANGED!!! I know that race directors deal with a lot of logistics so I generally try to be understanding about issues. However, I have run hundreds of races of all different kinds and distances, and this was BY FAR THE WORST RACE ORGANIZATION I HAVE EVER SEEN!!! From the beginning... The race description from 2011 above the comments is WRONG. There is NO MUSIC AND ENTERTAINMENT EITHER ON COURSE OR AFTER THE RACE! THE COURSE DOES NOT GO THROUGH OLD MARKET AND DOES NOT GO ANYWHERE NEAR THE DOORLY ZOO, CONAGRA CAMPUS, OR ROSENBLATT STADIUM!! The "Fitness Expo"...basically non existent...a few tents in a parking lot. The shirt...generic garbage...throw it in your bin of rags or better yet the recycle bin. Parking...The race starts/and finishes at TD Ameritrade Park, a baseball stadium where they hold the College Baseball World Series. The stadium is surrounded by surface parking lots. While there was plenty of free on street parking, a fact that is not mentioned in the athlete guide (Omaha gives you a free day on Sunday...thanks Omaha!), runners were charged $8 if they chose to park in the lots that were not being used for any events and were otherwise empty. The course...awful and boring and does absolutely zero to showcase anything that the city of Omaha has to offer...but that is strictly an opinion. Many of the mile markers were off...I was hitting a mile marker 1/3 of a mile after my watch had me hitting that particular mile. This was confirmed by a pacer I spoke to after the race. The total race distance however was correctly measured. Spectator support...virtually non existent...however the handful of people out there did cheer you on. Post race...this is where this race company totally dropped the ball. The post race food was deplorable...bananas, oranges, bite size candies, some kind of sandwiches that I didn't even bother to check what they were, bagels that were covered with flies, and jars of peanut butter...THATS IT! Oh..there were a couple of food trucks where you could BUY food. I have had MUCH MUCH BETTER post race food at many 5K's. Health and safety: the race is advertised as having an average start time temp of 50. This year it was almost 70 at the start and climbed well into the 80s by the finish. The post race area is held in a concrete parking lot. There were no extra tents put up for shade, there were a bunch of chairs for runners sitting in the middle of the parking lot under the blazing sun, they did not hand out any ice bags to runners as they finished (although I did see them in the med tent), they had no hoses or misting station set up so runners could cool off...in other words, although they knew it was going to be extremely warm, they did NOTHING extra to prepare and to help the runners. Results...same problem as people reviewed in 2018. The marathon/half marathon started at 7 a.m. followed by a later 10K, 5K, and friends and family Mile Run. By allowing people to sign up for a race up to 1/2 an hour before the start and allowing people to change races that morning, it completely messed with the timing system (I was personally told this by the timer)...or maybe it was the same "glitch" as 2018. As a result, at 12:00, five hours after the start the marathon, I could not get the overall or age group results. Totally unprofessionally run in this age of computers and timing chips. Age group awards...made in China plastic with a piece of paper in it. I'm guessing it's the same as 2018 The medal...again, I'm guessing it's the same deal as 2018...piece of generic garbage with no date on it, just Omaha Marathon. I guess it's good business...they can pass out the leftover ones next year and put more money in their pockets! There is NO difference (not even the ribbon) between the marathon/half marathon/10K/5K/Friends and Family Mile...everyone earns the same. To me, that is cheap and unacceptable but again, that one is just an opinion. The race is put on by a company called HITS Endurance...maybe they should change their name to MISSES Endurance. All in all, for a race that starts with an "early bird" fee of $85 and goes up to a race day fee of $140, I would say if you're looking to run a marathon in Nebraska...LOOK SOMEWHERE ELSE! To me, this race amounted to legalized stealing. They don't give a sh*t about the runners. This race should have its permit revoked as long as HitsEndurance is running it...ITS THAT BAD!!
R. R. from Kansas City (9/17/2019) "Disappointing" (about: 2019) 11-50 previous marathons COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 1 Omaha is a really neat city and the marathon course seemed to avoid most of it. I know course design is hard but this almost seemed to try to minimize showing off the city. Despite being the home of the College World Series we didn't get to run in the stadium, just the parking lot and streets outside it. No downtown, or old town, or zoo, and only a few blocks through the Creighton campus, then just an out and back course that tracked long based on GPS and seemed to go through some less than desirable neighborhoods. Several miles of concrete path along the river through an industrial area that had no shade and some really bad 'industrial' smells. It was very hot, but no sponges or towels and zero medical support at the end. Crowd was non existent except for the volunteers. Sports drink -Heed(?)- was really bad or not mixed right, or both, as you could barely distinguish it from water, so not sure how much if any it helped considering the heat. While volunteers were doing their best, some aid stations were either over staffed or understaffed, meaning some were essentially self service, while others had 5 or 6 folks standing in the street waiting for 1 or 2 runners. The packet pick up and post race were limited to say the least. Packet pick up was bib and shirt (which is nothing to brag about) pickup (oh and a coozie) and that was it. I think there were three vendor tents and one of those was packing up (I know sometime folks have a problem with running the gauntlet of vendors to get their packets, but this was the complete opposite). Post race was a water and chocolate milk and then pretzels, fruit and cut bagels with a couple of family size jars of Jif with a knife stuck in it. I understand putting a race on requires an amazing amount of effort and I hate leaving a bad review, but I've also seen it done really well lots of times and for the effort and cost required to run a marathon, I expected more. I did this to check NE off my 50 states list, so won't be back, and would suggest others look elsewhere to satisfy your NE fix.
K. K. from Eau Claire, Wisconsin (9/22/2018) "Poor race management, cheaply done." (about: 2018) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Omaha Marathon COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 2 I ran the half marathon course in 2018, not the full, but still wanted to share my thoughts. Pros: * The medal was great, large, and nicely designed. However, I received the exact same medal as the full marathoners. There wasn't even a different ribbon to indicate that I didn't complete the full. Flat course (337 ft elevation gain) Good amount of porta-pottys (race start and along the course). Side roads were actually taped off between street signs (think "crime scene" tape) which I'd never seen before but I thought was a good idea and seemed to work well. I of course can only speak to the half marathon portion of the course. Cons: This course has a very high percentage of concrete! HEED was the sports drink. Just my personal opinion that I didn't like it very much. It was confusing having a clear sports drink rather than a colored one and it was easy to get the wrong type of drink. Packet Pick-up was a non-event. There was one tent for picking up your shirt and bib. No race bag or any other items were given. The volunteers working the T-shirt tent were VERY rude. I have never been to a race packet pick up where I felt like I was annoying the workers. When we asked about road closures on race morning to plan how we would drive to the race start the response was "you'll be fine". They seemed annoyed that we were asking about it, didn't know the answer, and didn't offer to get an answer for us. There were only 3 tents of vendors in the parking lot. I was shocked to see such a bare bones, unwelcoming, and seemingly un-informed packet pick up. The long sleeved race shirt was very cheap and plain with one screen print on the chest. There was a pasta dinner that was apparently planned some time after we registered. (We are 50 staters so we plan far out and register early). A pasta dinner was not an option when we were registering. We got an email close to race day (FYI, the ONE email communication from the race) letting us know that attending this pasta dinner was free IF you RSVP'd by a certain date. This email was sent AFTER the RSVP date! So although we signed up very early, we would have had to pay for the pasta dinner so we did not attend. Awards. The awards ceremony was delayed over an hour because of a "glitch" in the timing, they said, due to hot temperatures. Runners were sitting on the ground on hot pavement with no shade waiting for the awards. Finally the announcer started flying through age group awards with no times. This should have been a red flag. Race Results. There were no printed race results to view after the race because of the "glitch". We waited for online results for over 72 hours. There were many people posting on the Omaha Marathon's facebook page during this time asking about results without any response from HITS Endurance. As they weren't responding to facebook, I emailed them on Tuesday asking about results and was told they would be up by the end of Tuesday (race was Sunday), but they weren't posted by then. The local news even released an article on Wednesday about runners still waiting for results and the local news couldn't get a response from HITS Endurance. Finally, Wednesday afternoon, results were posted. They were wrong. Many people's times were off by an hour. My father's time was an hour off and we realized he received the wrong award after the race. When my dad reached HITS Endurance Wednesday, they told him some people's chips defaulted to Eastern Time Zone (HITS Endurance who manages the Omaha Marathon is out of New York). As of a week later, HITS Endurance as still not answered my father regarding if they will be sending him the correct age group aware. *HITS Endurance. So first of all, if something goes wrong, honesty would be good. Don't make up an excuse of heat when that isn't the issue. Don't give time frames of when results will go up if you aren't going to follow through. And just because people are upset that results aren't posted, DON'T POST WRONG RESULTS! Communicate with the runners to tell them what is happening. I think HITS Endurance did an absolutely terrible job with this race. Why is a company based out of New York organizing this Nebraska marathon? They are clearly not invested in the marathon, did everything as cheap as possible, and were horrible communicators. I have never been so disappointed in a race and I've ran many! Omaha is a lovely city that deserves to be showcased. This race needs someone local who is actually invested in the race and the city and who cares about managing a running race well. I would strongly advise choosing a different Nebraska marathon if HITS Endurance continues to be the organizers of this race.
R. H. from Milwaukee, WI (9/18/2018) "Fun City to Visit!" (about: 2018) 11-50 previous marathons COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 2 I made the decision to run Omaha as my Nebraska state in my quest for 50. Got injured several times throughout the summer and had to downgrade to the half. The expo was very small and in the parking lot of the TD Ameritrade Park. We were handed a bib and a long sleeve tech t-shirt and that was it. I stayed at the Hilton across from the park which was a very nice hotel and obviously, very convenient. The race itself had no organized corrals but everyone seemed to line up accordingly. The course was very limited on scenery and spectators but was a good mix of flat terrain and rolling hills. The half was mostly shaded as well. The finish was pretty cool as you made a lap around the warning track inside TD prior to crossing the line. Post race food was limited and there was no entertainment. Medal was average but the half received the same medal as the full marathoners? A good event overall. Hitting the Old Market downtown for drinks and food post race was a lot of fun...Very neat city! I'll probably come back next year to take down the full and cross Nebraska off the list.
J. R. from USA (9/18/2018) "Worst run race ever" (about: 2018) 4-5 previous marathons \| 2 Omaha Marathons COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 2 Do not run this race if run by HITS. I ran the FULL this year. They are clueless on running a race. Over 48 hours later and still do not have race results. They only used start and finish overhead chip readers. No live tracking, no splits, nothing. The course is long, they had us go out exactly 13.1 and back to the start but we still had the ball field to run, so about .2 over. Signage was awful. I got confused as others I talked to. I never saw gels, were they hidden? Volunteers tried but aren't informed what to do. It's messy with water in trashbag lined trashcans. After was make your own PB & J, it was nasty and picked over. Just pitiful and weird. They had 10k runs start who ran head on into us coming into the Ball field. No signs, no one telling me where to go, It was so confusing. The announcer was monotone and there was no excitement in the ball field. No finish sign, no start sign. No vendors after the full. Chocolate milk at least thank you Hiland! They hand out HEED, which nobody seems to like or gets confused it's weird water. No bottled electroltye drinks after. Age group is cheap plastic frame with a printout stuck in it. They don't even put sponsors on the shirt. Medal has no exact date. Bibs have no date or name. Just awful. HITS is terrible. Do not run Omaha while they are in charge. Omaha is the only run they do now, everything else they tried failed for Road racing. I ran the half in 2014 with them and it had issues but this was worse. I ran back when Omaha Running Club ran it in 2008 and it way better.
N. M. from MI (9/18/2018) "Terrible Mistake" (about: 2018) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Omaha Marathon COURSE: 1 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 2 I ran this to complete my Nebraska Marathon for my 50 States. Non existant expo, little course support. Very Hot 90 degree day and still let people run in dangerous conditions. Now waiting for results just wondering if they will post them as I need them to check off a state.
T. A. from Southern CA (9/18/2018) "Could be better" (about: 2018) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Omaha Marathon COURSE: 2 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 2 They have been running this for 43 years & still missed the mark. Good: 1.Super easy getting to the start. Lots of hotels close and lots of easy parking. 2. Plenty on Porta-potties at the start and on the course if you need those 3. Lots of water stations all with oranges and bananas 4. Sponges - awesome to have a sponge dipped in ice water on a hot day like we had The Bad 1. Poorly marked course in several locations. Saw people taking wrong turns. There is really no excuse for this to happen. 2. Poor traffic controls in the residential neighborhood. Just had caution tape up and people drove right through it. 3. Awful crowd control at the end. Coming down the last stretch there were pedestrians walking right down the middle of the course, across the course. Coming around the last corner there were no signs, no one directing runners where to go. Several of us ran all the way down to the start line before realizing the finish wasn't there. The problem was there were no barricades to keep the crowds off the course. It was a real mess. I was pretty pissed off. I have run a ton of races big and small and this was by far the worst in terms of signage, and crowd control.
R. V. from CA (9/17/2018) "Almost good for a 27 mile run" (about: 2018) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Omaha Marathon COURSE: 3 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 4 Super easy in term of logistics - plenty of hotels within walking distance. seemed to be easy parking, the run went off on time. Great water stations, fruit and cold sponges (awesome) fantastic volunteers. My frustration was the lack of course markings or direction at several key points. The finish was a mess, nothing telling you where to turn literally needed to stop and ask which way to go. Nothing and no one directing runners to enter the stadium. There were spectators blocking the stadium entrance so I totally missed it, when I got to the end of the road I had to turn back and fight through the spectators to get in to the stadium. Also no markings in the park at mile 15 - 16ish so several of us ran off course before someone pointed us back the right way. Ended up running over 27 miles. The course didn't do a great job of showcasing Omaha - there are so many more nice areas to see along the river, downtown, parks, etc. Thinking the event organizer (HITS) should stick with what they know 'horse shows' and leave running events to others who know running.

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