Prerace logistics: Could have been better. The packet pickup was split between two odd times on Saturday and I think all in line would agree it was a train wreck. Not a safe crowd of people at all. Race itself: Very nice! Well laid out, good course, good course support. Simple to get to the start line and out of the post-race village. In fact, the race felt smaller than it was, which means they did a great job with logistics. read more

See all

This was our first time running this marathon which was in its 10th year. We were in for a big surprise as we expected a nice flat course. Clearly we didn't do our homework. The temperatures were in the 40s with gusty winds around 20 mph or more. It was our second marathon of the year and weekend and so we knew we wouldn't be comfortable. (The previous day Nicole and I had run in Chattanooga on Raccoon Mountain). The aid stations appeared to be about every 2 miles, which was good. There were three distinct food stations featuring orange slices, jelly beans, and Oreo cookies. To wash it down the electrolyte drink of choice was Powerade (blue, red and yellow) and of-course water. The course took you through at least three university campuses, a park system and quaint neighborhoods of Atlanta. I can't keep emphasizing the hills. They kept coming and coming! Despite the cooler weather which typically helps to increase course speed, this was not your PR course. The race swag included: a long sleeve shirt and a decent sized (although unattractive) medal 4" inches in diameter. Finishers got a lunch snack box, chocolate milk, water and a warming jacket to fend off the wind. Finishing in Centennial Olympic Park definitely was a nice touch and I felt like this marathon featured many different city segments. read more

See all

This was my first half marathon and it was great! I was really nervous and anxious leading up to the race but once I got there, there was no turning back. Leading up to the race I had a lot of support from my family, friends, and church members. I didn't think it was going to be that big of a deal, but as race day got closer, I was suddenly overcome with fear and anxiousness. No matter, I followed the Nike Run Training program on my app to complete my conditioning leading up to it. For anyone training for a race, I recommend using the Nike Run Training app. It's a good tool to help you train. It is programmed to adapt to your strengths and weaknesses based on what they call benchmark runs. These runs are scheduled strategically into your schedule to see how much you have improved or regressed since the last benchmark run. Overall the route of the race was pretty good. It reminded me of the times when my wife and I had lived in Old Fourth Ward and I had run around the neighborhood. The run was just great all around. Not too many hills. But the last three miles was brutal, it was a steady uphill until the finish line (thanks, Randy T. for warning me). Though I hated the last couple miles - thinking back on it, I'd love to go back to experience it again. Perhaps, I'll sign up for the full marathon next year! Another thing I wanted to share with the Yelp community is this scripture from the Bible that helped me during the run. My friend Chris Conway from church shared this passage with me. It's helped him finish and come out the top of his age group during his Iron Man Triathlon. "Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint." Isaiah 40:28-31 read more

See all

I'm so grateful I got to run this race with Meb pacing the 1:40 group! It was the experience of a lifetime. The course is hilly yes, but enjoyable nonetheless. Running with the pace group, through the streets, parks, and Georgia Tech campus, and ending the race at Centennial Park (where the trials the day prior also finished!) brought back so many memories for this former Georgian. My now Houstonian legs couldn't handle the hills well after about mile 9, despite some incline training I had thrown into my treadmill workouts...and I'm paying the price today with sore hamstrings, but I'd do this race again in a heartbeat! The expo was sad, but volunteer and crowd support were great. Thank you for setting up water stations on BOTH sides of the street, too! read more

This was a very well organized event, thanks to Publix for organizing the marathon and to all the volunteers for making the event such a success. My hat's off to all the participants and spectators for turning up in such huge numbers at 6 AM on a chilly morning. A shout out to Omni hotel staff as well for allowing the participants to use the restrooms and helping them keep warm in their lobby. Looking forward to the event next year! read more

This was my second time running the Publix half marathon. I have found it to be well organized, and was even better this year than last. One nice touch was that they had a volunteer outside of the exit from the Peachtree Center MARTA station that greeted me when I exited the station, and he gave me directions to get to the start point. Although I know that part of Atlanta well, it is possible to easily lose your bearings whe you exit a subway station, so I appreciated the help. The race course is very nice. It has a lot of gentle downslopes at the beginning so you build up speed, and more upslopes later on. The slopes are very gentle, though, and nothing too strenuous. It goes through some scenic parts of Atlanta, and you see some nice homes along the course. The crowds along the course are kind of on the small side, as compared to some other races I have done The number of hydration stations was fine, and the wait line for the port-a-potties before the race was not too long. The main problem is that it starts in the dark. In late March it's still dark at 7:00 AM in Atlanta. The little refreshment basket Publix gives to the participants is a little skimpy, and there's too many sugary selections in it for my tastes--like a fruit cup. read more

This was not only my first time running this event, it was my first half marathon, period. As a whole, I had a good experience. It was a nice, HILLY, scenic course through the different neighborhoods in Atlanta. Plenty of hydration stations. Lots of water bottles and chocolate milk to go around after the race. Lots of finisher photo booths set up. Some things could be improved upon, however. -Clear signs in Centennial Olympic Park indicating where the start line is. We didn't realize we were in the wrong spot till we noticed the crowd gravitating towards one part of the park. At that point, it was three minutes till the start and we were nowhere near our corrals. We had to squeeze through a random opening someone made in the barrier to get in. -Wider pathways to access the corrals. It was a huge clusterf*ck. Just way too many people and we couldn't move at all. -Hydration stations at every mile marker. This was what we were led to believe, but not every mile marker had one. Sometimes the hydration station was located half a mile past the mile marker. It would be better for consistency's sake to just keep it at the mile marker. -Better food stations, if that continues. We got jelly beans and M&Ms on the half marathon course. I realize the choice of snacks was probably due to the fact that they are easy to consume, but how about something more substantial? Fruit slices, maybe? I skipped both those stations and stuck with my Shot Bloks for a sugar boost. -Better food totes with better snacks. The totes themselves were rather cheap and flimsy. They were basically mini versions of the reusable shopping totes you find at Publix. I thought they would be actual lunch totes. Silly me. The food was also underwhelming. I got a chewy chocolate chip granola bar, pineapple fruit cup, banana, mini bag of pretzels and a mini bag of vanilla sandwich cookies. Would have been nice to at least have an energy or protein bar thrown in there, at the very least. Not everyone got the same things, either. I know it sounds like I'm really dogging on them, especially about the food. Pardon my bitching. Mainly, I care about the first three bullets. The last two would just be a bonus. I can understand that an event of that magnitude is very hard to pull together. I can't imagine what it took to close down all those roads. In the end, very glad I did this race just to say I did it. read more

This review is for the full marathon. I am writing this review exactly 7 months after the event. This was my first marathon, ran it on 3/17/13- a date I will never forget. While I don't live in Atlanta anymore, it's still home for me so I didn't have to think twice about running my first marathon there. It was important for me to run through familiar streets (including my Alma Mater Georgia State University), and also have my family and friends there to cheer me on since it was my first marathon. PROS: - Communication with the race organizers from registration up until race day was excellent. We were kept abreast of everything including race day details, parking info, visitors info, bib #s, etc. Even though I live in San Francisco, I didn't feel out of the loop. - Race expo: I'd ran 4 Half Marathons prior to this race but boyyyyy I've never seen a race expo this great. It was held at the Georgia World Congress Center. I went to the expo straight from the airport on the Friday before the race on Sunday. There were lots of people and vendors but it did not feel crowded. There was a photo booth at the entrance with some really cool props, I took some photos and they were printed out and put in a cardboard frame at no charge. There was virtually no line for bib pickup, I picked up my bib, tech t-shirt, and other goodies. The vendors were not pushy at all. Ohhh.....and the food....boyyyyy I pretty much had my lunch there. Publix is a big chain grocery store so they had many sample offerings of various healthy snacks, dips, chips, drinks, etc. I think I spent almost 3 hours at the expo, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Race day: The corrals were nicely spread out, and there was no bottlenecking at the start. There were plenty of signs to direct people where to go. CONS: - Crowd support: Boy-oh-boy....this area needs a LOT of work. I don't know if it's due to poor advertisement or the people of Atlanta are just lazy but part of running a marathon is depending on that crowd support to carry you through the rough points. There were a few spectators here and there but some looked bored and others seemed to be watching out of curiosity. Big thanks to my family for following me the entire route via train, I was able to see them 4 times on the course. I don't know how I would have made it without them. - Hills: I knew what I was getting myself into but damn it was hilly! Mind you- I live in San Francisco and run on hills all the time but this one was crazy! There was one big one around Mile 22, I actually broke down and started crying when I saw my family there.....it was so painful. - Course: Maybe I'm spoiled or something because I'm used to running more scenic races but this course was downright boring. We spent most of time running through neighborhoods and million dollar homes, nothing exciting and inspiring about that. - Post race: There's really nothing worthwhile mentioning about this because there was nothing memorable about it. It was nice that the announcer had called out my full name as I approached and crossed the finish line. I took the official finish photo and got my medal, that was it......no parties, no celebration...nothing. The food bag they gave had one bottle of chocolate milk and a few snacks that are the size of the ones they give you on the plane. Really?? That's all I get for running 26.2 miles?? They've got to do better. There was also a half marathon, I feel like the marathoners were neglected after the excitement of the half marathoners finishing wore off. Well, I guess that's to be expected when you have 6500 half marathoners and only 1500 full marathoners. But jeeezzz....... This race has a long way to go in terms of comparing it to other races but I have high hopes for it. I'm currently training for my 2nd marathon here in California coming up in about 8 weeks. While the Publix Georgia Marathon is nothing close to perfect, I learned a lot from it since it was my first. Will I ever run it again? NOPE! But I'll continue to run marathons for as long as I can for the rest of my life. Word of advise to would-be marathoners- don't make this race your first marathon, you may be turned off by the lack of energy, crowd support, enormous hills, and uninspiring course. read more

This was my 2nd half-marathon, the first being the thanksgiving day Atlanta Marathon. This is as hilly as the Atlanta marathon. This is a very well organized marathon/half-marathon - plenty of water/powerade/sports beans stations, porta potties all along the route. Crowd support was pretty good and so was the route. The only let down was less than adequate recovery pack from Publix - a banana and a granola bar ! read more