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Fort4fitness Marathon Reviews
Fort4fitness Marathon
5.0 Stars from
2 Runners
Fun fun fun
By Gary from Toledo about 2018
Review
222 Marathon runners for the third running of the Marathon. With the 6:30 start, an hour later you can hear the cannon start for the 10k no matter where you were on the race course. Unless you're running a Boston Pace, you will meet up with the 10kers. At the two hour mark of the marathon, you'll hear the cannon again as the half marathoners start. If you want to avoid some 3000 runners, your first lap of the two loop coarse, better be under 2 hours. Or, just take your time and enjoy the race. I loved this marathon!
Courtyard or Hilton on Calhoun are perfect! .2 to.4 away from expo and finish. Start is one more thing city block.
5 /
5 Stars
2017 Fort4Fitness
By Peter Kapeluck about 2017
Review
I ran the full and my wife ran the half. I really enjoyed the staggered starts. The marathoners did not have fight the crowd when starting. Other races should take note of this. The race is also on Saturday morning. It is nice not having to rush to get home if traveling from out of town. However, I was by myself at times running, do to the smaller size of the marathon. It seemed flat. My garmin said 251 feet of elevation gain. Strava said around 450 feet of elevation gain. The course is mostly asphalt with some concrete here and there. The crowd support was pretty good. Especially when you get into the older neighborhoods. There were multiple school teams and cheerleaders on the course giving support. Lots of support written in chalk on the roads. There seemed to be enough water stations. Possibly one more could have been added. The water stations used actual gatorade cups for the gatorade and regular for the water. That help distinguish between the two. I did not pay attention to see if there was any nutrition on the course. I carried my own. Pretty big expo and the finish was awesome at the ball park. This race is small enough to get a good PR or BQ.
The course appeared to be well marked. However, for the marathoners, the first loop was taken the wrong way by the course leaders. This caused all the mile markers to be off. This also caused us to get caught with the 10k start, which was started early. I wasn’t until the halfway point I was told the course would be changing at the end. My garmin gave me a distance of 26.48. I was told after that this mix up should have added .2 to the distance. The extra time added by the mix up was not taken off as of the time of this posting The course was mostly closed to traffic. However there were some cars that I saw come out on Calhoun Street and in the back near mile 9 or 10 in the half marathon race, according to my wife. Do to the small size of the marathon, there were limited pacers. I did not think there were enough porta potties at the start. This was not an issue for me do to staying at the hotel. They had plenty of corrals for the races. The marathon did not need corrals do to around 200 runners. My wife said the corrals for the half were not enforced. No one checked her bib when she lined up in her corral.
All in all, I would definitely recommend this race. It is only the second year for the full and I am sure it will only get better. I am possibly going to run again next year. Just because of the small size and the hotel close to the start.
Race Tips
The weather was perfect. Started out in the mid 40's. Stayed cool for most of the race.
We stayed at the Courtyard. It is literally 150 yards from the start. It was nice to have your own bathroom and stay room before the start. It is also right next to the finish and the packet pick up. We booked early to guarantee a room. They gave a late check out at 1 pm. The parking garage for the Courtyard was not blocked in by the race. We were able to leave with no issues. The Courtyard also gave a race discount. Packet pick up was smooth. It got busy in the evening hours, but still no issue.
