marathon routes: your favorite?

OC Marathon 2011

My husband and I were talking this afternoon about the merits of various marathon routes. He and I both prefer a single loop. The point-to-point courses are okay, but I'm never excited about the super early wake-up time in order to shuttle to the race start. Loops like the above are okay, too. I don't mind some doubling back; seeing those in front of and behind me don't bother me. The (mentally) tough part of the OC Marathon will be around mile 12 for me. All the runners start together and it is at this point that the half marathon runners take a left while the rest of us continue on. That'll be tough but I suspect it'll be forgotten by mile 15.

A friend is considering the Palos Verde Marathon and I did, too, until I looked carefully at the course. The entire race is run on the peninsula which is breathtakingly gorgeous but it's really a half marathon route that the marathoners run twice. I would be done mentally after the first loop.

What about you? Your favorite marathon routes? And what do you make of these races that cater to the half marathon runners? Although Palos Verde has been running since time began, asking the marathon runners to run two loops of the half marathon is absurd to me. Maybe I just need to pick marathons that don't have a half marathon race event -- OR a "quarter marathon" route (Hippie Chick in Oregon). What the heck is up with that??