So I have finally narrowed down my race choices for 2013. Not counting local stuff, I am most interested in running:
1) Portland, Oregon October 6th
2) Newport, Rhode Island October 12th
3) Portland, Maine October 6th
4) Baltimore, Maryland October 12th
All are small with left coast Portland the largest at 10,000. All have pretty courses that involve water in some way. Most importantly, all have reasonable non-stop flights from Chicago. But only Newport has mansions!
Back up plan is something local (two fall marathons in the burbs) or Cal International Marathon in Sacramento in December.
Any recommendations? Any volunteers to join me?
No inside information about any of these, just a couple of thoughts. I tend to like my marathons a bit later in the season, to allow time for a few more long training runs in the Fall (when the weather is better for such things), and I would possibly rule out Baltimore, as likely to be too hot. Marine Corps is usually two weeks later, and is often inthe 70s.
ReplyDeleteMCM is long closed. (Welcome to the DC race scene.) I think Max enjoyed CIM last year. Philadelphia is also reputed to be a good race, and pretty fast.
ReplyDeleteI ran Baltimore in 2007. It is a nice tour of that city and there is good crowd support. Taken with the entire "running festival," it's a little bit of a madhouse. My memory is spotty, but I believe the course has a fair amount of hills.
ReplyDeleteAs Damon says, a plug for Sacramento, which is supposed to have perfect weather most years (though not last year) and is indeed the easiest course I have ever run.
I know MCM is full. I was just using it as a reference point for the heat (ugh!) one could anticipate in Baltimore in even earlier October. I ran Philadelphia in 2008, and may run it this year. It's pretty high on my list. It is not without hills (a steep short one at the half and a moderate (but badly placed) heartbreaker at 20), but nothing earth shattering and mostly flat.
ReplyDeleteIt is comparable in size to Dublin, and it's right before Thanksgiving. Maximizing the time I'll have to recover from Tri-season. When I ran it in 2008, it was 28 degrees at the start, and some of the water stops were icy. I think that was unusual, and I prefer that to anything above 60 degrees.
CIM is December 8. That's even later. Hmm. . . tempting.