Hyannis Marathon Official Website

The "Nitty Gritty" Details (User Opinions)

Michelle D.
Canton, MA

  (03-04-2011)

"Overall it's a pleasant, flat course but there was little in the way of crowd support outside of the start/finish area. There were less than 700 10k racers - this race is dominated by the half marathoners!

The volunteers (especially at the aid station) could be better organized. The lack of mile markers drove me nuts! You'll save yourself a lot of hassle if you pick up your race packet the day before and also to scout out the parking options ahead of time because the info provided from the race organizers is skimpy at best! "

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2011

Lauren P.
Cambridge, MA

  (04-06-2010)

"I ran the Hyannis half as my first 13.1 race in February 2009. I decided to come back this year to race the course as my first ever marathon. Woops... not a good idea. Although I enjoyed running it last year as a half, the course is NOT GOOD for a full marathon. There are 2,000+ half marathon runners and under 400 marathoners. This means that there was a ton of confusion at mile 13... It seemed as though all the volunteers sort of walked away, and the crowd thinned out completely (I only saw 3-4 people cheering the marathoners for the next 13 miles). The water stops weren't manned very well, and the volunteers clumped together to gossip and didn't even cheer or point me in the right direction until I asked! What a bummer for a first full marathon.

OH! And the worst of it? They didn't hold back enough food for the marathon runners, so the half marathoners ate EVERYTHING! By the time I finished there wasn't even peanut butter for my half bagel. Apparently they'd had soup and hot chocolate, etc, but it was gone when I got there... :-("

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2010

Nina C.
Boston, MA

  (03-12-2010)

"This was my first half marathon. Because it was down on Cape Cod, not a lot of people picked up their numbers ahead of time, and therefore the expo on the morning of the race was a total mob scene. You could barely walk down the hallways of the hotel and the lines for t-shirt and packet pickup were crazy long. The start of the race was also somewhat disorganized but once we got started, the course was pretty much flat and the scenery was nice most of the way. The course was spectator friendly but not too many people were out cheering runners on. I'm a back of the packer and so I had to start contending with cars and traffic about half way through. A bunch of us almost got taken out by a tour bus at one point, even though there were lots of cops out on the course. If it was just a half, I could understand this, but there were full marathoners doing two loops so I can't imagine why they let so many cars on the course so early. "

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2010

brendan b.
Boston, MA

  (03-10-2010)

"the course was great...relatively flat and fast, easy to follow.

The biggest problem here was the lack of parking/organization which basically led to a rush to get to the start and almost missing the gun. Would have apprecaited a central lot or better communication about the sparse parking.

Afterwards they had a lot of food/drinks/etc.

"

Reviewed by a: First Time Participant for 2010