Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Guide to Marathons

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

...now it is seriously out-of-date. It reviews the 1998 and 1999 calendar years. Without an update by the authors it is, for all intents and purposes, useless.

I really do hope the authors get someone to publish an update, because it was (as the authors rightfully state) the ultimate guide back in 1997 - 1999. A shame.

This book provides useful information to those new to the marathon game. While it is not a training guide, it does provide a comparative listing of the most popular marathons in the U.S. and Canada, including course descriptions, logistics, local hotels, and area attractions. Particularly useful is the 1 - 10+ rating system which includes Course Beauty, Difficulty, Race Organization, Crowd Support, and Appropriateness for First Timers. While this system is purely an objective one based on the opinions of the authors, I have found them to be "dead on". My only complaint is that while this book claims the be the "Ultimate Guide", it omits most of the smaller marathons, concentrating on the bigger and more popular races. Overall, this guide is well worth the price.

"The Ultimate Guide to Marathons" is an excellent marathon resource for runners. This second edition was published in 1998 with information current up through 2000. A runner using this book as a guide needs to know that in five years a lot can change for a given marathon. A good example of this is the poorly managed Lakeshore Marathon in Chicago which recently had an issue of the course being measured incorrectly and being a mile too long. Information like this would be critical in any new edition of "The Ultimate Guide to Marathons". However, if you are able to accept this potential shortcoming of slightly out of date information and use this book as exactly what the title says, a "guide", then any runner can find a lot of value in this book.

This book ranks 110 marathons from across the United States and bases the rankings on such categories as fan support, race organization, course beauty, course difficulty, and how appropriate the race is for a first time marathon runner. The description of each of the 110 marathons includes sections on the history of the race, the race course itself, what sort of awards and accommodations there are, and other details about the race. This is excellent information. While every major marathon in the country is included in these rankings (as of 1998), there are also quite a few small marathons that make the list. As a Minnesotan I was pleased to see that all four Minnesota Marathons were included (Twin Cities, Grandma's, Med City, Walker North Country) and was surprised by Med City and Walker North Country because these are small marathons. W.N.C. in particular is a trail marathon and trail races are included and ranked right along with the big ones like Boston and New York City.

There is also a listing of approximately another 50 marathons that are typically smaller than the ones included in the ranking, and are "destination marathons", but as one that I recognized (Marathon to Marathon in Iowa) is not really a destination most people would want to go to, my guess is that these are just marathons that the authors were not able to fit into their ranking and that they ran out of time to get them included. I may be wrong about that, though. Either way, it is nice to see such a listing of marathons. I am aware of other regional marathons that were not included, but I do not know when these marathons were founded.

While the information provided in this book is several years out of date, the rankings and descriptions can be used as a guide to see if this is a marathon you are interested in running. If so, I would then recommend looking online at the race's website or perhaps finding another online marathon guide to see if there are any changes or significant drops in runner participation. But this book can be used as an excellent guide to get marathon ideas and if most major marathons are not changing their course or management you can expect that the rankings would stay fairly consistent overall. That makes me happy because Minnesota had the number 2 (Twin Cities, behind only Big Sur) and the number 13 (Grandma's) marathons according to these rankings.

-Joe Sherry

This was a very useful book when I bought it in 1999 to pick a marathon for 2000. Now, given how many marathons have changed their routes, increased their support, cancelled, etc., it's become outdated. I don't think there's a new edition out yet--I wish there was.

Anyone not wanting to run the same local marathon over and over again needs this book. Since training for the marathon is so demanding, it's nice to be able to pick a 'target' marathon that you can feel good about training for. This book helps me plan ALL my vacations! I wouldn't be without it.

For a fairly new member of the sport, The Ultimate Marthon provides an excellent basis for selecting your next marathon. You get great comparisons of all the races. They provide descriptions and ratings of course difficulty, the number of racers, scenery, crowd support, and aide stations. Everything you need to select your next run.

I found the book to be a good reference, but I wish I had a later revision.

I bought this book while I was training for my first marathon (Honolulu) 2 years ago. I have since run LA and NYC, and plan on running as many more as my body will allow.

This book has been the backbone of inspiration for me. I keep it by my bedside and read it constantly. I have numerous pages folded down of marathons I would never have known of, but now plan on running, thanks to this book.

The authors have done an incredible job detailing so many marathons - you absolutely will not be disappointed if you purchase this book!!!

Looking to qualify for the Boston Marathon? Want a small race? Need lots of crowd support? Trying to find a scenic course? This book has it all - everything you need to know about virtually every U.S. marathon.