Marquette Marathon

The bike trails isolate you from traffic but also from spectators. Spectators are almost all at road crossings or trail access points. The crossings are manned with volunteers to stop traffic, I saw no issues. The trails are mostly paved but for two sections totaling maybe 5 miles. These unpaved sections had finely crushed gravel and good footing, even where you pass under a rail trestle with iron pellets (think rabbit pellet size) littering the path. It was warm this year, and shade is less frequent on the flatter back half of the course. Plenty of aid stations help with that. Organizers might consider moving the mile 16 aid station a bit further east; proximity to hard right hand turn and spectators made this area a little difficult. A fellow runner and I ended up behind this aid station on the road in confusion. Next water stop was only a mile later so no harm done. Start area and bus to it were well organized. Race start was a little anticlimactic (Ready set go) but appropriate for a race this size. Do go back to the start line later in the day and visit the Cliff Shaft mining museum. Interesting stuff and thank you to them for letting us start there. Pace groups are provided but might not be your thing if you like to roll downhill. Back half of the race the pacers were looking rather lonely (there are a couple of out-and-back sections). Trails aren't terribly wide so if you don't want to be caught behind a group on the downhill pass them early on one of the early on-the-road sections.