The annual Prince Edward Island Marathon supports the Canadian Mental Health Association of PEI. The Full Marathon starts inside the National Park, Brackley Beach Entrance and ends in downtown Charlottetown with breath taking scenery during the entire route. The Full Marathon is a Boston Qualifier. PEI Marathon weekend is a …
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The annual Prince Edward Island Marathon supports the Canadian Mental Health Association of PEI. The Full Marathon starts inside the National Park, Brackley Beach Entrance and ends in downtown Charlottetown with breath taking scenery during the entire route. The Full Marathon is a Boston Qualifier.
PEI Marathon weekend is a two-day event that includes categories for every runner or walker in the family! Saturday offers the 10K Run/Walk, 5K Run/Walk, 2K Wheelchair, and Free Kids Fox Trot categories. While Sunday hosts the Marathon, Team Relay, Half Marathon Run/Walk, and 16K Run/Walk.
The Marathon is a double looped course, that will start and finish in front of the Province House on Great George Street and Grafton. The participants will pass through, Victoria Park following the Park Road along Charlottetown Harbour. After leaving Victoria Park, participants continue onto Queen Elizabeth Drive and follow the shore of the North River through the distinguished Charlottetown neighbourhood of Brighton. The route continues through residential neighbourhoods until meeting up to Belvedere Avenue. The route then takes runners along Belvedere Avenue and up to the University of Prince Edward Island where participants will turn on to the Confederation Trail and follow it to Royalty Junction Road where participants will turn left. After one more left turn participants will run a straight path along the Malpeque Road leaving a straight path to the finish at the Historic Province House.
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Best of the Maritime Provinces
Now that I have finished the 50 states, I am currently working on running a half marathon in all 10 Canadian Provinces. Prince Edward Island was the last of the … MORE
Now that I have finished the 50 states, I am currently working on running a half marathon in all 10 Canadian Provinces. Prince Edward Island was the last of the Eastern Provinces for me. Of note if you decide to run the provinces, it is logistically so much easier if you live in New England and can drive to most of the Eastern ones. I believe this is the only half/full marathon for Prince Edward Island so if you want to run the provinces you are stuck with this one but luckily, it’s a pretty good one. There was good pre-race communication with everything you need to know in an athlete’s guide. There is the option of shorter races on Saturday with the half or full on Sunday. However I didn’t want to take Friday off and it was too long of a drive to make after work on Friday so I opted to just do the half marathons. In terms of travel logistics, PEI is about a 9-hour drive from where I live. I work on the Massachusetts North Shore on Fridays so I drove about 3 hours from work to Bangor, ME on Friday to break up the trip and then drove from Bangor to Charlottetown, PE Saturday morning in the early to mid-afternoon. The first stop is the expo which is at the host hotel in downtown Charlottetown. The host hotel is right by the start and finish. I opted to stay at a Holiday Inn Express a few miles away since I’m an IHG member but if you aren’t tied to a particular hotel brand the host hotel would be very convenient. Expo was small but had bibs and a few things for purchase and the typical running products to buy. For probably the first time in Canada I was very happy with the swag. The swag included a really nice, long-sleeved tech shirt, a drawstring bag and a pair of gloves. After the expo we had time to explore the town a bit and go to the art museum near the expo. It is a nice area and if I had unlimited vacation days would have loved an extra day or 2 here. Race day was pretty easy. There was free parking downtown. They did put no parking signs on some of the parking spots and said you’d be at risk of being towed but a lot of runners parked in those spots so I don’t think they towed you. However I did not want to have my car towed as I really wanted to leave right after the race so I parked in the part of downtown that was not on the race route. Weather today was not the best. It was drizzly and a bit cold and windy. Nothing terrible but not ideal. Luckily you could wait inside the hotel near the start to stay out of the rain. The course setup is my favorite for half marathons where the half marathon is one loop and there is a marathon with two loops. The marathon starts an hour earlier than the half but this means there is a super long time limit and I wouldn’t have to worry about being forced to the side walk or running out of aid as everything would be open for the marathon. There is even a walker division so this is a very back of the pack friendly race. The half has about 600 participants. There was a mass start. There were pacers but only for fast paces. I started near the back but not at the end knowing there were walkers. It is a mostly nice course. I particularly enjoyed the beginning few miles downtown and through some neighborhoods with some views of the water and of the iconic lighthouse and some beautiful fall foliage. You then go past Prince Edward Island University and onto a dirt path for a few miles. I think this part would normally be nice but I didn’t love it in the rain as it was a bit slippery. I didn’t hold it against the race as it was very non-technical and normally I like a little non-technical trail to give my joints a break. The scenery on the trail gets a bit redundant but lots of foliage. The end is not as nice as you just run along a main road and see a lot of gas stations and chain restaurants but it’s a nice ending downtown. The course isn’t too difficult but it wasn’t quite as flat as advertised. There were some smaller hills and inclines with about 400 feet of elevation gain. I wouldn’t call it flat but I also wouldn’t call it hilly. Spectator support was a bit sparse though I appreciated everyone out there. My guess is there were less spectators than usual in the rain. Race was very well produced. There were well stocked aid stations with water and gatorade every 3km or so. There were no gels for the half marathon but there was an aid station right after you start the second loop so there were gels for the marathon. There was an aid station with fruit and other snacks for the half. Course was well marked and had km markers every km. The roads were either closed off or coned off. The busy main road you end on obviously couldn’t be shut down for 6-7 hours but there was a good running lane coned off so it was never hard to pass anyone (or be passed which was mostly the case for me with fast marathoners catching up). Absolutely no issues with being more at the back of the pack. I thought this was between a 4 and 5 sneaker race and rounded up to 5 because of this. I wanted to take this race pretty easy as the prior 2 weekends I had to push myself. I also didn’t feel like strategizing pace which I spent a lot of time doing the last 4 races since they all had time limits I had to meet so decided to run comfortably fast. I told my mom who was on this trip I was going to run comfortably fast but not push myself and I would probably finish in 3:03. My prediction was pretty good as I finished just under 3:03 with barely checking my Garmin for my pace. While it wasn’t my fastest race I was happy that this is now my not push myself very hard finishing time which used to be about 20 minutes longer. The medal is actually quite nice and has scenes in PEI and is my largest Canadian medal. There was decent post race food at least for Canada with granola bars, fruit snacks, fruit and other typical food plus some miniature Halloween candy. I took the candy that was Canadian. And there was Tim Horton’s to drink. This was a better spread than a lot of Canadian races. Overall I thought this was a really nice race. If you are doing the Provinces you will have to do it but even if you are not and are looking for a different place for a short race-cation this is one to check out. Even though I enjoyed the race a lot it’s probably a one and done as it is a long drive and my favorite local race (New England Half) is the same weekend.
Fantastic, Flat, Foliage, Fun!
This race is held with great fall color and temps (45-55F). The course is 35% gravel trail with shade and no traffic, the rest is paved on some residential roads … MORE
This race is held with great fall color and temps (45-55F). The course is 35% gravel trail with shade and no traffic, the rest is paved on some residential roads and mostly 2 lanes where you run towards the shoulder with cones separating traffic. Good police and volunteer presence at most intersections. 400′ elevation gain.
Water stops were about every 2 miles, well maned and many locals and groups out to cheer near the beginning/end mostly. Marathon starts an hour before half and 16/K, good traffic flow and no crowing or bunching.
Race start needed more porta potties, but there was also a real bathroom at the host hotel too. Many places to stay within walking, and also plenty of parking on the street or the garage.
Shirt was ok, medal was nice. Spoke with several people on the running committee all nice and welcoming. 95% of the runners were locals to PEI or NS. I flew into Halifax and drove up 3 hours to Charlottetown was cheaper and faster than flying into PEI direct. Post race food was decent, many snacks to choose from. I did not find any water tho…. 4 blocks back to the place i stayed Slaymaker and Nichols….for the best breakfast and coffee!
Beautiful East Coast Event
A small, quaint late fall run on the Island of PEI. A beautifully supported point to point course, finishing you in downtown. Your family has many opportunities to cheer you … MORE
A small, quaint late fall run on the Island of PEI. A beautifully supported point to point course, finishing you in downtown. Your family has many opportunities to cheer you on, even though the roads are closed. There are three challenging hills at the end, so don’t forget your hill training. The medal is so,so. Pressed for time to check out of our airbnb, we did not stop for the post race food. With the unpredictable weather, I’m not sure I would do this event again in Oct.