Allie Bee's Staging Area

I signed up for this race about a month out from the event date, so paid a bit more, as is usual for me 🙁 If I had signed up at an earlier time, I would have found the “value” better.
OVERALL: it’s a nice, smaller-sized race with great volunteers, but you have to be ok with the double loop (for the marathon), which I’m never crazy about and 4 fairly steep bridge crossings. As all other reviews will say, weather can be dicey; this year was no exception. It was my first time running it, but I did read the reviews..this year it was extremely windy.

Pros:
– They offer bib pickup on race day, which is normally my go to option for smaller races that allow for it.
– I arrived about 30 minutes prior to the race start (610AM!) and was able to find free street parking along the water, about a 3 minute walk from the start. There were also some grassy lots adjacent to the street that looked like you could park there as well, so parking was very easy for me.
– Good number of hydration stations, especially for a smaller race
– Marathon started ahead of the shorter distance races, which is always hepful
– Temperature was not too hot, and it was *mostly* cloudy, but there were definitely periods of sun
– Finish line had pretty good food options (pizza, some donuts, beer, gatorade, water, Coke, Regular and Sugar-free Redbull – my fav!, and orange juice). Although, as with ALL multi-distance races, there is usually slim pickings for marathoners – even those on the faster than average side.
– Awards were nice, and you got a little jar of honey as well if you placed in your age group

AREAS of IMPROVEMENT:
– More porta-potties at the start, please! The lines were very long, both at the porta-potties and the park restrooms. I almost missed the start of the race!
**Pro-tip – just on the other side of the road from the start, there is a Wawa – I would recommend runners take advantage of it if they face long bathroom lines
– The last bridge placement is a pain – I realize this is just part of the race, but it is literally the last mile of the race, and it’s steep.
– Energy gels were only offered one time on the course (that I could tell), and if you didn’t pay close enough attention, as only one person at the station was handing them out and not exactly advertising them either, you would easily miss it. My gripe here is not that they were offered only once, but rather, it seemed like the organizers didn’t want to make runners aware that they were even being offered at the one aid station…
– As I mentioned earlier, finish line drink/food got picked over by a lot of the half-marathoners/10k/5k/etc
– It’s a double loop course; these are easily my least favorite as I don’t want to see the same “views” twice, and I especially don’t want to deal with those 2 bridges twice

I can’t put this as a “con”, because weather can’t be helped, but the wind this year made it hard to PR. The last bridge crossing, when the wind was coming directly at you at 30+MPH, was diabolical, especially given that it was in the last mile of the race too. So beware the weather in this race!