Reviews

What are people saying about the New England Green River Marathon?

FindMyMarathon.com lists our marathon as the 17th fastest course in the nation and the fastest in New England!

“The views on the course were absolutely breathtaking, the volunteers were friendly, and the race was very well organized! I loved the whole vibe of the event down to the live music at the post race festivities to the eco-friendly medals and awards. Thank you for a unique and fun marathon experience.”
– Yuki Minami Chorney, from Facebook

“I loved this race! The course was spectacular. The amount of aid was perfect for me. I loved the focus on the local food and drink at the end of the race. Beer is the perfect recovery drink, after all 🙂 How you got the midsummer weather to co-operate, I don’t know, but that made it even better! Thanks to the crew for putting on a really fun event. I hope to be back.”
– John Kemp, from Facebook

“Amazing, unique, beautiful, supportive, great cause… this is a GREAT Marathon!”
– Jeff Hanson, from Facebook

“Well-organized, beautiful, downhill scenic course. great course support/ volunteers.”
– Amy Lok, from Facebook

“This was my first marathon but I’ve done several dozen races of other distances. Green River was among the best organized races I’ve participated in. I was very impressed by the committee’s responsiveness to questions in the months preceding the event. During the race, I thought it was wonderful and generous for the community to come out to cheer us on. I was really moved to have an applauding crowd at the covered bridge and other stops along the way, which lifted my spirits. The volunteers at the aid stations were kind and well prepared. The signage was excellent throughout (though did someone steal mile marker 22 or 23?), and I loved the trivia questions along the way though at some point in the race my mind was too far gone to think about much at all.
The course is beautiful. Much of it is a shaded path, so even if the weather hadn’t been so temperate, it would have been cool enough. I’d been worried about those last few miles in town, but the weather cooperated. While I don’t have a frame of reference from other marathons, I can say the course did not feel easy to me. (I don’t know it’s accurate that 90 of 350 participants didn’t finish, as somebody said, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were.) The race organizers quite rightly pointed out that the route is best described as a rolling course with a net downhill, with the biggest drop, of more than 200 feet, being in the first mile. Where I live isn’t conducive to hill running, so I hadn’t trained well for the bigger drops, and it’s going to take my quads some time to recover. I guess I might have liked to see a couple of timing mats along the way, but I know that I did the first half way faster than the second. The non-metal race medals were awesome — this is one I’m keeping! The race organizers’ meticulous planning was a model of selflessness and hard work. I’m just so grateful that they made this happen; I can’t think of a better first marathon experience. Thank you so much, and I hope you’re willing to do this again next year.”
– Len VMorse, from Facebook

“The people who organized this race on did an amazing job. They put so much time and effort into the race as a whole, as well as the website and contacting the runners and keeping us up to date in the months and weeks leading up to the big day. The website has a section that describes the course, and the amount of detail is unreal. It goes into incredible detail about almost every mile of the course, including describing a sharp downhill section, when and where the path changes from packed dirt and gravel to pavement and vise-versa, where the hills are, how much of an incline each hill has, where to keep a close eye out for traffic, etc. It also has a wide variety of course maps, which I was really happy about. It’s a net-downhill race, which was big draw, but they made sure to mention that runners should take the three main hills very seriously (they were not kidding). I felt extremely prepared for this race just from reading the course description. The first 20 miles are shady and cool, as they run along a little road next to the Green River. The final 5 miles are a brutal dash to the finish on hot, unshaded pavement. In all fairness, the website did warn us about it, but dang are those last five miles hot and miserable One of the best things NEGRM did, which I have never seen before, was to name the aid stations in alphabetical order. Each station was named after a local animal, which was relevant to the course purpose and very cool. The names made it really easy to figure out how many stations were left during the run, as long as you could remember that the last station was K for Kestrel. This was SO HELPFUL. I wish every single race did this. The volunteers at each station were so enthusiastic and kind and helpful, and the woman at the end handing out the medals was the happiest and most enthusiastic person in the entire world and she made me feel so proud to be crossing the finish that I wanted to cry a little. Every single person involved in this race was so clearly excited about it and heavily invested in making sure it was a wonderful experience, and they were 100% successful. I will absolutely be back to run this race again. I’m also glad that they want to keep this race pretty small (2018 was capped at 350 runners). If you want to run this course, keep an eagle eye out for sign ups because they will go FAST.”
– CD, from FindMyMarathon

“This was Marathon #61 and I was coming off a tough, slow, hot, hilly race in Vermont in July. This was just what the doctor ordered. It was the first year of the race but hopefully they’ll put it on again next year! First, it’s very small. Good pics of the course on Facebook. This race does something unusual (that I love, personally): they mail your bib and some race info ahead of time and there is no expo. Not being a fan of expos, I was happy with that! The pre-race situation is easy. Park at Greenfield Community College in MA (plenty of parking) and ride the bus up to Marlboro Community College in VT. They recognized that they need more portojohns so I’ll leave that alone. I had no issue. The start line was very pretty and quiet; there was a trio from the college playing Zydeco music on guitar, violin, and accordion which was cool.
The start went off without a hitch. You run through the woods on a dirt/gravel path most of the race. It was a great surface and the trees made it shady and soooo refreshingly cool. You’re by the river the majority of the time and it’s just beautiful!! I didn’t take many pictures since I was feeling so good (and set a PR by a few seconds) but it’s gorgeous. It was a semi-warm day overall at the end but I didn’t feel it until the last four or five miles out in the open and even then, not anything compared to Virginia!
There were a handful of aid stations and cheering spectators, but don’t run this race for crowds. It’s a beautiful run on a nice surface through the woods, not a city race. The RD was blowing a funny horn at the finish as runners crossed the finish line and the medal you receive is a really pretty wooden medallion which fits the theme. The shirt is really good too, a nice forest green tech with the logo. Overall opinion is this is a great event. Well marked and well organized, I’d do it again. The weather really cooperated, having been rainy prior to the race week (and washing out part of a bridge that they still somehow managed to finagle getting runners across!). Just an overall well done event put on by runners, for runners. Great race!”
– Anonymous, from Race Raves