Jeannine Toth's Staging Area

TL;dr: be prepared for gusts of wind, bring a hat if you run the marathon, you don’t need to be at the parking lot at 5 am– you could get there at 6 and be fine, and train hills on tired legs.
Pros: swag is awesome, course is beautiful, plenty of well-stocked aid stations along the route, small race pool means lots of good photos and more personalized finish
Cons: second half has minimal shade, rolling hills throughout (not just the beast that is mile 24), some spots dangerous with cars, they had no pizza or beer when I finished, no recognition for first time marathoners
This was my first marathon, and I picked it for the scenery and the finishers medal (hinged scallop– so cool!!). The website said to park as close to 5 am as possible; we parked at 5:45 and stood around in the dark at Easton Beach just waiting until 7:30. You could easily have parked at 6:30. Also, the open air pavilion offers little shelter from the cold, and they didn’t want people staying inside the bib tent to stay warm because it was hard for people to get their supplies. The half marathon route is beautiful, with a sizable hill right at the beginning and a tour of the gorgeous oceanic views from Ocean Drive. The entire course is rolling hills, and I think the elevation map provided makes them seem small but they were difficult for many runners. Decent elevation gain over a moderate distance. Plenty of spectators make it a very fun and encouraging race if you do the half. The last few miles running back toward Easton beach I found to be difficult because the road is not asphalt, it’s more like concrete so my knees really felt it. I’m not a huge fan of the little turnarounds but I understand the need to add on small amounts of distance. Great downhill finish for the half and the signage is very clear for the marathoners to continue on past. At this point, there are far less runners and spectators, so it is very much a mental race. Also, due to the shape of the course, it’s tough for your personal spectators to see you at multiple points (if they can bring a bicycle, I would recommend it– my cheering section saw me at the start, in between miles 11 and 12, at mile 17, and at the finish. I wish I could have seen them more, but they were walking and trying to utilize the shuttles). The roads in the first half have plenty of shade from large trees, while the second half has pretty minimal shade which I did not expect. This added to my overall fatigue and you could tell it was impacting multiple runners. Aid stations the whole time had water, gatorade/nuun, candy (sour patch kids), bananas, and gels at select location; I was able to get what I wanted from each one every time. Some of the worst parts were that roads were not totally closed, and many drivers tried to continue to drive on the course around the runners, creating dangerous situations for both other drivers as some were driving in the wrong lane and leading to cars going both directions in the same lane being stuck while runners ran in the other lane or cars trying to weave through runners and cones. There was clear signage that drivers should find alternate routes but I would like to see the roads be totally closed. This race also offered pizza and a free beer to all race participants, but when I finished they had run out of both. I think the organization could have been better there as they knew how many runners had registered and should have planned accordingly– why only bring 2000 beers for a 4000 person race? However, I think this race overall was a high energy, very positive and challenging race with beautiful views and clear communication. Would recommend running it once!