LONG ISLAND MARATHON FESTIVAL

I have ran this race over 20 times (half/full). The course was recently changed. Not a spectator friendly course at all. Race consisted of up and back routes, bank lines and obscure roads to nowhere. Mitchell Field and N.C. College are great examples. No water stations at every mile. No clocks at all on the course. The worst race that this marathon/half marathon has ever had. A very small turnout. This used to be THE race on Long Island for many years, but not with this racing group that heads it and made the course changes. Need to put people in charge that have some imagination for a racing course, even if if means reinstating a previous course.

I ran the half instead of the full. I registered for the full but missed a turn at some point and went the wrong way.

This was only my third marathon but I have run the Long Island Half the previous two years. I signed up for this race because they changed the course to limit the amount of time/miles on a parkway. Course wise, I thought it was a good challenging course, with some hills and flat areas. Unfortunately it rained so there were a lot of puddles at the beginning that caused some runners to slow down and cause a traffic jam.....Other than that little spat, the course itself was good up until the 6 to 7 miles on the parkway. Though it was limited compared to previous years, 6 miles is still a lot of parkway nothingness... For the most part, the organization was pretty good, though I know there were complaints about the 10K and that some marathoners missed the sign for the Half.Full split but those are kinks that can be worked out. My disappointment was that they ran out of shirts, which always is weird to me if you sign up and put your size down, then they should have a shirt for you but they didn't. The after party would have been awesome had it not been for the rain.... The rain caused a lot of spectators to not turn out which is always a downer... Overall, I was pleased with this marathon and I did have a PR so that was cool.