BOISE, Idaho — Runners enjoyed the Boise Marathon where they had a choice of running a 5K, a 10K, a half-marathon and a full marathon that is a qualifier for the Boston Marathon.
"It’s a great feeling, it is my first half marathon," said Matthew, a Boise State student from South Africa. "I will try and convince people to run the marathon next year, we got to one up ourselves so we will definitely be back next year."
That's a good thing to hear because last year the races did not go well with runners getting lost on the course because of poor signage, runners didn't get their finishing medals and aid stations were abandoned.
Go Agency runs the Boise Marathon and none of those things happened this year according to what we saw and first hand accounts from the runners, we didn't get a chance to talk with any of the marathon runners, but we did talk with people from every other race.
"There was good directions, there were people turning guys around making sure no one over ran or under ran," said Matthew. "So overall from what I’ve heard, it was a better experience than last year overall."
Race organizers did a good job of spacing out the different races and the runners, we talked to a husband and wife from Fruitland, Ruth Ortega had to run her first 10K because the 5K sold out as race organizers capped the number of people for each race, the 5K, the 10K and the half-marathon all sold out.
"I feel really good, I'm really excited," said Ruth. "It was emotional, I said is she going to make it? She said I'm ready, but I didn't believe her but she did it," responded her husband Luis.
Runners at the finish line were elated to receive their medals as spectators cheered them on, there was a really good atmosphere at the race this year.
"Yeah we had a group of friends running together, my wife and I trained together and I think it was really fun to do it with a group," said Matthew. "We were cracking jokes in the beginning than every one went quiet in the end, but it was a lot of fun."
The only problems we saw were both of the aid stations we visited ran out of water cups, but there were organizers out on the course driving carts and they sent people to the store to buy more.
It would be easier to organize the race on city streets, there are a lot of challenges when it comes to organizing the marathon along the Greenbelt, but it also creates a good environment for the runners and the weather was a lot better than last year when it rained the entire time.
