Rock N Roll Marathon - Seattle

I have recently completed the Rock N Roll Seattle Marathon in the USA and would like to share some information about the race and this popular series of races. (There are 8 races in the series now and organizers promised 17 in 2010.) The race had both HM and FM distances and total registration was reached at 25,000. Online signup was really easy and included a monthly newsletter. The start was located in a suburban area and all 25,000 gathered for the so called "wave starts" with both HM (about 17,000) and FM) (about 8,000) runners all gathered together in one place. It was the largest gathering for a start I have ever seen. Wave starts began promptly on time and since I was in the 13th wave it took about 10 minutes before we could run. On course, there were plenty of water stations, but I learned from others that it was not common to have any food, like bananas, chocolate bars, etc for the runners in the USA. Two stations distributed power gels and some others had salt packets, otherwise it was just sport drink and water only all the way. Every mile, or so, there was a live band playing rock and roll music right next to the course. Some band members were very supportive, calling out race numbers and generally encouraging the runners between songs. It was really motivating to have a band for example inside one long tunnel, can you imagine!?, or at the top of a long hill. I think the location of the bands was set with this in mind to help the runners. Oddly I noticed some runners with earphones listening to other music during the race. (Classical marathoners?, rap marathoners?...) The finish line area was a restricted zone for participants only and was well stocked with water, sports drink, bananas and other food. I saw many runners go to a station to have bags of ice strapped to legs, knees and ankles. It was odd to see runners walking around with these bags of ice on their legs... but probably a good way to start recovery right away. Just outside the restricted area were the re-union areas for runners to meet up with friends/family and shuttle buses to various areas in town. I noticed something during the race... many, many women runners. Figures from the organizer bear out my observation: HM 15,610 finishers 11,389 female (73%) 4,221 male (27%) FM 5,618 finishers (only one from HK) 3,067 female (55%) 2,551 male (32%) (including one from HK) (I was perhaps the lone, but not lonely, runner from HK) Overall 21,228 finishers 14,456 female (68%) 6,772 male (32%) This is different from our races in Hong Kong. Not sure why there are so many women in these races. Perhaps they are the more numerous fans of rock and roll music? Harbour