GO! St. Louis Marathon

This used to be a 'must run' for me. Cute, featured the city, host hotel, a historic train station, could spend one night, walk to the start and from finish, and the course included great sites, churches, and campuses that loved to come out and make the course fun. NOT ANYMORE. First, no dedicated run expo - tacked it on to an outdoor festival. I pity the first time racer who thinks this is how expos treat Runners. Then lets change to a point to point race to make it extra inconvenient for runners and spectators. To show more of the city? Not at all. Such a heinous course remodel. It's not really the Go! anymore - just a race that happens to take place in St. louis. No churches singing, no brewery, no college campuses, last year they forgot THE ARCH. They took away all the hills that made the course challenging and unique. The second half on the river walk is flat, sunny, boring, and smells like cadavers then finishes straight uphill to a lackluster finish line with no fanfare - to go find your car you paid $23 to park 5 hours ago to catch an overheated shuttle nearly late for the start. I do it every year in the hope it'll be the race it was.

I'm doing states and am very, very glad I chose St. Louis as my Missouri marathon. I particularly look for great organization and this one fit the bill. Outstanding volunteer support, plenty of aid stations. The one improvement that could be made is a greater number of portopotties on the course (thus 4 stars). There were people standing in lines for them, and I added a few minutes to my time waiting for one at the 6 mile point. Plenty in the start area. The course is scenic, starting in Forest Park, through a beautiful college campus, and around areas of town. The half finishes, the full marathon runners go out & back on a bike trail that parallels the Missippi river. There is some industrial stuff (shipping activities, after all), but eventually gets more scenic. Very short uphill to finish, but not bad. Good finish area, this was a surprisingly fast course. Nice size too. Recommended race (this was my 47th).

I have been waiting for the construction at the arch to be completed before running the race. The arch was completely open for 2019 and then the race organizers completely re-design the course. The double river crossing and Budweiser brewery were removed and now there are a series of out and backs to take up the 26.2 miles along with visiting 2 parks. They also removed the finish at the arch due to the recent rains. The expo was pretty small for a race this size. My only plus for this race was the food and beer at the end along with the ease of transportation to the start or from the finish. I hope the organizers go back to the old course and hit the highlights of the city.