General Info
Price: $135 (that's the 2022 price, it may vary depending on the date you register)
Date I ran it: 11/11/18
Participants: 1,072 (2018)
Weather: in the 40s and overcast (2018)
Overall Opinion:
It’s a nice small and peaceful marathon in a great city with beautiful scenery. It was a cheap low stress trip for me. There are some medium sized hills that will slow you down slightly. There are a lot of fast runners, so if you are on the slower side, expect to be in the back of the pack without a whole lot of other runners around you. It’s quiet and there aren’t a lot of spectators. There aren’t the bells and whistles of bigger city marathons but it has what you need.
Pros
- It’s a lot cheaper than other marathons such as Chicago, NYC, Boston, etc. Hotels aren’t expensive either.
- Parking is easy and close to the start line.
- Madison in November is beautiful. The course has views of the downtown, the lake, and the University of Wisconsin. There are also some nice stretches of nature, I saw some wild turkeys.
- It generally has good running weather.
- It had a nice peaceful vibe.
- It wasn’t crowded, I didn’t have to zig zag through the crowd like I did in the Chicago Marathon.
- The people in Madison are friendly.
- If you arrive a few days early, Madison is a great city to explore for a day or two.
Cons
- It’s hilly. I wouldn’t say don’t do it because of the hills, but it’s not a “fast” course compared to totally flat marathons like Chicago or Indianapolis. If I had to guess I would say that I would have run a flat marathon 5 to 10 minutes faster if the weather was the same.
- I don’t know if this is necessarily a con but it seemed to be very competitive. It attracts mostly experienced runners.
- There weren’t a lot of spectators compared to other marathons. It’s not a big city and it’s usually chilly out. It wasn’t a very exciting atmosphere for the most part.
- They didn’t have the amenities or extras that bigger marathons like Chicago and Indianapolis have. For example, they didn’t have a biofreeze station or as many on-course food options as Chicago. Indianapolis had a heated building to wait in before the race and pizza afterwards. It felt more minimalistic, but they had the basics covered.
