xenole

I've got the Marine Corps marathon in DC this October to look forward to. Did NYC last year and the Goofy Challenge + 5km at Disney early that year.
May enter Comrades in South Africa next May and will end up doing San Francisco one year (flights always expensive at that time of year, although I'll be in SF for a day or two before or after MCM so I'll run across the bridge then). Would love to do something in Asia/Australia but not sure how I would cope with the weather / time of year being wrong.

Always make a holiday out of these as well with the further away destinations being the longer break. Good way of seeing the cities as well running around them!

dhuey

You might consider running the Emerald Nuts Across the Bay 12K on March 18, 2012: http://rhodyco.com/eab12k-2011.html

The course is extremely scenic, starting in Sausalito, across the GG Bridge, through Crissy Field, Marina Green, Fort Mason and finishing at Aquatic Park. This captures about 80% of the best scenery of the SF Marathon course.

dhuey

One more plug for Emerald Nuts Across the Bay 12K. The timing of this race in March is much better than the SF Marathon in July if you are looking for clear weather to enjoy the scenery. As someone who lives here and who will be running the SF Marathon next month, I like how the probable weather during the marathon is high 50s and heavy fog (typical summer day in SF is heavy fog overnight, clears during the day and rolls back in during the evening). But if you're coming here for the scenery, this 12K in March gives you a much better shot of having a clear morning on race day.

lalala

Mt desert island marathon was awesome. Weatherwise - started at 55 degrees and ended at 59. Windy, spitty at times, but then sunny and pleasant. Course starts out a little hilly, but then flattened out and the next set of hills was rolly. Great views and good fall foliage had just peaked, but still spectacular. This is definitely a destination marathon - not an easy place to get to and somewhere you want to enjoy for a few days. We had to leave right after the race to get to BOS for a morning flight, not great for the old and sore.

Registration open for 2012 now.

Knock yourselves out.

elf618

Not a marathon, but had the good fortune to be in Addis Ababa by surprise for the Great Ethiopian Run 10k in 2009. In 2010 I extended my trip a few days to stay and run the race. Foreigners had to pay something like 10x the entry fee but were also afforded the chance to attend a pre-race dinner with Haile Gebrselassie and other elite marathoners for the charity. Even was able to snag an autograph on my husband's running shop's singlet I happened to have along on the trip.

My husband also did the Mt. Faber 10k on a trip to Singapore. He really enjoyed this part of the trip.

AUS2008

Another one here going to be at WDW in January 2012, for the Dopey (5K, 1/2 and full). Did it the freezing year--2010---hoping for much better weather this time around. Not too hot, but not icy.
Not a very good/fast runner. I am a triathlete at heart. But working on the running to help with both sports.
Only marathons I've run were: Austin twice, WDW twice, and part of a relay in the Prince of Wales marathon in Alaska. And 7 Ironman races.

SkiAdcock

Bumping this up in hopes that if any FTers did Boston Marathon today, they'll report in that they're ok.

dfwoods

Just saw the old reports of rainy conditions. I had quite the slog last Dec (2012). I was doing my "50 at 50" first ultra by running the 50 mile North Face Endurance Challenge (trail run) in the Marin headlands on the day after my 50th birthday. The Bay area was quite soggy from several systems off the Pacific. They changed the course to a 2 loop event the day before because the Forest Service felt it was unsafe in the outer reaches. It continued to pour the entire day, leaving the trails more like a Muddy Buddy course than a real run - e.g. a downhill on a fire road that was truly a river of mud a good six inches deep. We lost about two hours due to conditions, but we made it through. Enjoyable? Not particularly. Satisfaction at completing it? Of course!

And this followed the cancellation of the NYC marathon, which was to be my other big run of the Fall season.

SkiAdcock

Congrats on finishing!

Cheers.

dfwoods

May not be a "destination" marathon in the sense of the OP, but is anyone else from FT doing New York this Sunday? If so, what color/wave/corral? I am green/2/36.

The _Banking_Scot

Hi,

I'm doing the Las Vegas Half marathon on 17th Nov then spending a week in Las Vegas.

I'm thinking of doing a mileage run from the UK to Kona, Hawaii in June and do the Kona half marathon.

Good luck to those running this weekend in New York!^

Regards

TBS

iztok

While one is not a destination one I did two halves on back to back weekend. Rocktoberfest in Charlotte, NC followed by Myrtle Beach Mini in MB, SC. 2 weeks away from Charlotte Thunder Road Nov 16th.

dfwoods

So this year's "destination" factor amps up with each marathon -- something to keep me motivated through training for three races.

- Akron (Ohio) for the Gay Games in August
- St. George (Utah) in October
- Istanbul in November

Since I grew up in the Cleveland area, going to Akron hardly counts as a destination, especially since we will drive (shudder!) there. But St. George will be gorgeous and I've loved Istanbul in the past.

First time doing three marathons in one season, so that will be a new challenge. Really looking forward to seeing Istanbul from a different perspective than before. And something of a delayed honeymoon for my husband and me since we just got married a week ago after nearly 28 years

aztimm

I've worked running races into trips to visit family, does that count?

http://www.steamtownmarathon.com/
http://stlukeshalfmarathon.com/

I highly recommend both races. Although they're not far from each other, each a bit different. The half is mostly in a park, so most people you see are cheering on other runners.

Steamtown is the ultimate in getting locals involved. I grew up in the area, and heard about some of these small towns on the news once in a while... Each town had a delegate lining the route through.



If there's any swimmers out there, I did this swim 2 years ago, and it was simply incredible:
http://www.nycswim.org/Event/Event.aspx?Event_ID=2404

Few people can get views of the Statue of Liberty like those who swim around her. Plus getting cheers from passengers on the Staten Island Ferry (and multiple news helicopters) was awesome ^

SkiAdcock

Cool!

VickiSoCal is a swimmer; maybe something she'd do (although she's training for a race right now I think).

Cheers.