Great New York State Marathon

This marathon has a lot of potential for improvement, but the people who took it over from 2021 really don't understand what's needed for proper support of runners in a marathon, and frankly, they really screwed things up in 2022. Here are the issues that they need to address: 1) Irregularly spaced water stations - especially in the middle miles, this was awful. Water stations also slightly off the course in places, so if you wanted water you had to cross the road and run longer. 2) Mile markers wildly out of place in the middle miles. (Some runners count on these! Don't take them so lightly!) 3) A course with almost half of it run on highly graded roads, meaning roughly 12 miles of running along a diagonal slope. (Kiss your IT bands goodbye!) 4) Not enough (read ZERO) support with cars on these long road sections. Meaning cars jutting into the course as they made turns off of side streets (some respectful, others not.) And a long section in the high teens that was run on an open road (two-way traffic) with cones in the middle, and ZERO volunteer help to direct cars. (I saw pickups charging runners' backs and threatening them to get them to move over. God awful!!!) 5) Lots of support and direction in the opening miles and almost none in the late miles. Believe me, if they don't get their act together, you will basically be running this thing alone from mile 17 on--which is the crucial period when you most need support. When I did see support after that point, it was too often in the form of a bike or a buggy rushing at me at high speed on a narrow path. Not pleasant after mile 20! The worst of Point 5 for me: at mile 25, I followed some runners over a bridge, knowing that there was a bridge back, but it turned out that this was the WRONG bridge, and we ultimately had to run 26.7 to finish the race. Imagine not having a human being on site to point the way through a series of turns at mile 25! Are you kidding me??? This is months of training for a race wasted because you couldn't make clearer signs and put some people at this confusing position. (I mentioned this to others at the finish, and some also saw or heard about people who were confused, stopped or ran the wrong way at this point.) Utterly unforgivable! If you're running this race, prepare to be entirely on your own! Bring your own gels, because none were offered on the course, before or after. Bring your own safety pins, because the only thing in the swag bag was a shirt and a number. Bring your own fluids if you don't want to wait. Bring your own recovery food if you want more than an apple, a banana or a milk. It is run for charity, so consider at least half of your $100 fee a donation. Positives: There are nice views on the course, especially in the late miles. Why they don't take advantage of the beautiful lake more, I don't know. The street miles were unpleasant. I would much rather have looped the lake twice than be sent out for harassment by cars while running on the shoulders of roads with steep grades. I won't run this again until I see improvements.

Probably on your list, but in my browser the scroll-down text is illegible. Is it white-on-white??