Andy Johns at the Fresno Two Cities Marathon
If you’re looking for a flat and fast course then the Fresno Two Cities Marathon is a good choice. It’s a Boston Qualifier that usually brings out quite a few great runners. The race is well organized with refreshment locations at a 2 mile frequency, so you can expect 12-14 fueling stations throughout the race!
The weather is just about ideal as well. Typical start time weather for the Two Cities Marathon is around 45-50 degrees Fahrenheit with a high reaching into the low 70′s. Unfortunately a storm had blown through the night before the 2008 race which brought with it some consistent 5-10 mph winds so the racers were headlong into wind for quite a few miles.
Nonetheless the race was beautiful. Both the full marathon and half marathon start near Woodward Park and take you south into the heart of northwest Fresno. After 12.5 miles the half marathoners and full marathoners part. For those running the full Fresno marathon you head out further West, taking you into isolated country roads and out towards Friant damn. The views outside of the city throughout the remainder of the race are pretty amazing. To the West you can see the base of the Yosemite mountains, offering up a typical mountainous hue expectant of seasonal weather change. Coming into the finish line you enter Woodward Park to the cheers of thousands of spectators in a flat, scenic and forgiving Woodward Park reservoir.
The crowd is great, race organization excellent, the course is flat and fast, and the finisher medals are pretty sweet too 
I wouldn’t recommend this race to a first time marathon since it isn’t the most exciting atmosphere despite the great race organization and scenery. For someone who is looking to improve their time from previous marathons, this is the ideal race. You can expect this to be an on-going tradition in Fresno running considering the success of this year’s first inaugural Fresno Two Cities Marathon and Half Marathon.
Did you run this race too? Leave some comments about what you liked and didn’t like about it. Thinking about running it next year? Feel free to ask questions about it!
Cheers,
Andy Johns
PS: Check out my race review of the Florence Italy Marathon and the San Jose Rock and Roll Half Marathon if you’re interested in running those races.
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Thanks for the positive comments Andy! We have worked extremely hard to improve the full marathon course from our inaugural year. The scenic value has increased triple fold and we are able to eliminate all hills in the last 2 miles of the course as well. I just posted our new course map at http://www.RunFresno.com. If you liked the amenities offered last year, we have improved on them for our second year! Our finisher’s sweatshirts are now zippered and hooded! Hope to see you again this year!
Mike
Sure thing, Mike! It was a great race. I was able to bring my family out there to cheer me on, which made it pretty special. Great news about the race gear. I would recommend looking into shirts and/or hats that are mesh/wicking. I know many runners who don’t pick up race gear when it’s 100% cotton simply because synthetic material is better for running. I’m one of those runners who LOVES picking up post-race gear that is mesh since I’ll head out the next day for a training run and test the gear out. Can’t really do that with a cotton sweater