This course was much more difficult than I expected. The first 3 miles are flat on the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. Miles 3-6 are on the highway adjacent to the airport, which is quite hilly. Miles 6-7/8 are where things take a turn for the worse. They send you down a grass/dirt trail, which was not at all expected. I kind of felt like this did a disservice to the participants. Either be a road race or a trail race. Not both. This was particularly annoying considering the rain, which made for poor traction and more importantly, easily a minute or two off my anticipated finish time. I'm also not a fan of races that send you up and back along the same route. Anchorage is a pretty good size city. There's no reason to see the same thing twice. There's also no reason they shouldn't be able to do same day packet pick up. There really aren't enough runners to justify it. read more

Mayor's Midnight Sun Marathon & Half Marathon - Races & Competitions Near Me

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First time in Alaska. Wow, ain't it pretty. Anchorage is a pretty swank city. Bears, glaciers, wildlife, oh my! I finished the Mayor's midnight marathon in Anchorage, AK on 6/22/2011. It was my first time here in Alaska and it was definitely not my last! I doubt that, if it wasn't for the marathon, I probably wouldn't have came here, but with chance, came opportunity! Thankful that this 50 States marathon journey has taken me to do many places in the United States so far! It was my 21st lifetime marathon and 15th state in a bid to run 50 marathons in 50 states from Hawaii. It was also the summer solstice in Anchorage, so the days were extremely long. You'd need to use the hotel curtains to darken the room to get any sleep! They get like 22 hours of daylight in the summer time, but their summers are like 2-3 months, then it's all winter all the time. The marathon takes place in the prime of summer in Anchorage, AK, so no winter wear required. You probably wouldn't know it, but running this marathon would seem like you were not in Alaska. While there are glimpses of Mount McKinley at mile 18 or so, I couldn't tell I was in Alaska while on the course. The Mayors midnight marathon is a small town race that attracts runners from all 50 states, a lot of 50 states marathon choose either AK or HI as their finishing state. The first half of the race was alright, although from mile 6 to 11 or so is the infamous "tank trail". Large rocks that's really hard to run on, or risk breaking something, so I had to fastly tip toe around that. It was very much scenic on the 1st half of the course, but we were still close to Anchorage and not outside where the real beauty of Alaska is (Denali, etc). The course is pretty flat for most of it, except for some hills in certain places. There was shuttle buses from the downtown hotels for the runners. In addition to the marathon, there is the half marathon that would appeal to anyone who wants to run it and feels good afterwards - instead of slaving away at the 26.2 miles. Still, the Mayor's marathon is one of the good things you can do while an excuse to see Anchorage up close in person. The Mayor's midnight marathon expo and packet pick up was held at the Sheraton Anchorage hotel, in one of their large conference rooms. It was generally small with a dozen or so vendors. It's weird how some marathon expos rent large commercial spaces, but use so little of it. The start line was at a local high school and ended up on the western side of the city of Anchorage, finishing at another local school there. The course support was minimal, but adequate. The aid stations were 2 miles apart, stocked with the usual water and Gatorade to help every participant on race day. To be able to run in Alaska was a dream and I can't wait to go back and see more of Alaska. The finisher medal was pretty bad ass and quite large. Definitely loved the design on it. I was glad that there was a first aid station at the finish line, since I had bouts of a bloody nose a few times along the course. Probably it was me not used to being so high up there or something! The Mayor's midnight marathon is held usually on the 3rd Sunday in June. Whatever your reason for running the marathon in Alaska would be a good one. Mixing in a vacation destination with a race is always a great excuse to experience Alaska in its entirety. While it was an in and out weekend for me, I wished that I did more sightseeing in Alaska after the race, but there's always next time for sure. There's a handful of marathons in AK from June through September, but the popular ones are Mayor's Midnight marathon and the race formerly known as Humpty's. For Mayor's midnight marathon, it was simply a matter of touch and go. I love Alaska and the race made it happen for me. I would recommend running this one, if you are looking for one in splendid Alaska. Definitely take in a tour outside of Anchorage to complete your trip. I'm sure seeing glaciers for the first time in person is pretty amazing. Checking off Alaska was a great weekend and hope to be back someday soon. Run more! Support local! A read more

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This is def not on the list of my favorite marathons. Course is brutal in the middle (some parts are flat out single track dirt trail and the hills are pretty dramatic). You also get almost no scenery that is uniquely Alaska along the run. Race is well supported, but there is virtually no crowd participation on the course. Huge finishers medal (somebody told me that they got feedback from prior participants that the medals were too small, not sure if that is true or not but if it was, these felt like a massive overcorrection.) Finishers also got a fairly generic tech long sleeve t shirt at the finish. Although I didn't love the race, Anchorage and other great places in Alaska within driving distance (i.e., Denali) are definitely worth visiting, so this could be part of a more comprehensive Alaskan trip (just do not expect to set any PRs and be ready for a challenging course). Note: This review is based upon the 2014 race. read more

I really enjoyed my trip to Alaska...I had never been there and it's beautiful! The race itself is fun but if you are hoping to set a PR this is not the place to do it. When I ran this marathon there was a section of the course that was a tank trail....lots of loose rocks. I watched people try to run through it, twist their ankles and get carried out. I wound up walking that section. Everyone's times were inflated because of this part of the course. So keep this in mind if you are serious about your time (which I am not). Definitely stay after the race and do some traveling....it's a long way away and there is lots to see and do! read more

I just got home from running this Half Marathon. I have run about a dozen halves over the last 6 years. I really enjoyed this race! I went into it not expecting much (after reading other reviews) but ended up with a PR (I dropped about 5 minutes off my time from February). I only came to Anchorage for this race and it was a fun time from the expo, to the AirBnB experience, to sight seeing and obviously, the race. Pros: It was beautiful. It was cool out (I am from TX, where it is quite toasty this time of year). It was well organized (they had tables with bug spray, sunscreen, vaseline, bandaids, hand sanitizer, tissues, etc.. as well as great post race food and attractions). The majoriy of the runners were serious. People don't fly all the way out there to walk around in your way during the race. Cons: There was a mile in the race through the woods that was very unsafe. I dropped from my 8:30 pace to 10:20 so I wouldn't fall. It was poorly chopped down, slippery, steep, mosquito-y. The biggest con--- the course distance wasn't right. I hit the 13 mile marker and my GPS watch was right on. A few moments later I hit the 26 mile marker (for the marathoners that joined us)... and then we all finished together. If the marathoners had .2 to go and we had .1 to go (plus, our sign was before the 26)... then how did we only do 13.1? We didn't. My watch said 13.26 and I believe it to be true. I know we did at least .2 at the end. This seems like I am making something out of nothing, but my time was 2:00:19 officially... and my GPS watch calculated my half marathon time at 1:58:52 which is a big deal to me to finish under 2 hours. Oh well. These 2 cons are why the race lost a star for me. Thanks for reading. Overall, it was a great race and I would do it again. Take the trolly tour- it was great. We also went to Seward and met the Iditarod dogs. If you like animals, we did a tour of the Wild Life Conservation Center and the SeaLife Center. The Alyeska hotel was really neat and we ate ontop of a mountain and hiked through the trails. read more