Marine Corps Marathon

Pros: Marine Efficiency. "Marathon of the monuments". Spectacular in every way.
Cons: Lottery registration system.

I’ve completed the Marine Corps Marathon twice. The first time in 2001 and then again during 2002. What’s notable about both these races is they followed fairly tragic events that spurned rumors of canceling the race. 2001, obviously because of September ...

Pros: Fairly flat and easy course.
Cons: The weather can fluctuate from year to year, ours was 75 degrees and hot.

My buddies that ran Cross Country with me in college pick a marathon to run every year as a sort of mandatory annual reunion. We started in 1997 with the Columbus Marathon (only 2 of us showed up). Then, we missed a few years until 2000 when we ran...

Pros: Great scenery, well-run race
Cons: Many, many, many runners

So this marathon was billed as the 4th largest in the United States, behind Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. While there are many, many people running, I give this marathon five stars for being extremely scenic and well operated. If you can’t take ...

Pros: well organized, good time of year (October), great one for beginners
Cons: Pentagon parking lot and bad weather

Yeah, we beat Al Gore in the Marine Corps Marathon. Kicked his and his secret service guys sorry behinds! But hundreds of people beat us since we finished in 4 hours and 30 minutes. Ouch.

It was my husband's idea to run a marathon. He is...

Pros: Well organized, what a way to see Washington's memorials!
Cons: It's a long, long way to run!

So you want to run a marathon? If you do, I highly recommend this race to first-time marathoners.

A LITTLE HISTORY OF THE MARINE CORPS MARATHON'S BEGINNINGS: How and why it got started.

When the Vietnam War ended, recruitment of...

Pros: Good support (crowds and Marines). Weather
Cons: Course (location and too crowded), organization, cost

Whelp, I finished the 2007 marine marathon. I've done it a few times over the last 15 years and done about 20 marathons total. I haven’t run the marine corps in about 5 years (even though I'm local). My comments: The good: - Good crowds (it was a ...