Richard Ebert's Staging Area

The race loops through the capital city, with lots of great views of capital buildings, courthouses, convention center and churches, of different historical architectural perspectives.
It’s a generally hilly course, balanced between long rises and long descents that can work out if managed properly.
This race felt in it’s infancy this year for event management, with some good and bad attributes.
The check-in the day before was well staffed and efficient, no standing around to check in. The race jersey did not have much customization to remember this race, yet a nice long sleeve active wear black shirt. The finisher medals were not available on race day so we now are promised mailing to our homes. That’s an expensive thought for the race management team.
The race venue was a massive affair at their Memorial Stadium, a large location for this size marathon/half marathon, etc. race. On the start morning it was a puzzle on arrival to determine where to park, with no active help and much of the parking gates closed off, it was a trial and error process.
The stadium venue was scenic and equipped with the running tracking electronics, start/finish gate/corral. The Port-o-lets quantity looked very small for this race, (less than 10 I recall) but was glad to find stadium restrooms and locker rooms available to help with this. There were very minimal Port-o-lets available on the course.
The start seemed disorganized with time slipping beyond the planned start. The actual marathon started 14 minutes late, not too bad. For us in the corral, the audio was not acceptable for the back half of the corral, just waiting for it all to get going.
For the marathon, the race was two loops with some surprise changes in the 2nd loop that added stress to the remaining finish energy. Some of the long new additions did not have electronics ensuring all finished the whole course, the honor system was in play.
The course could have been marked better with some areas missing the painted road arrows to direct our course. Paint is cheap, come on, use more. I found myself off-course for a half a block before called back onto course by personnel that were not ensuring we knew our way. It was at about 11 miles in the course for me and my mind could not clearly choose the route.
For the later marathon finishers, most recovery food options were gone except for water.
Overall it was an interesting and challenging race, with great downtown dining venues for pre-race and post-race enjoyment. It seems to be a race and area in transition, working to make a good go of it. Weather was perfect, upper 50’s for most of the race.

Typical of this race, the weather is often quite cold, so good clothing options and a plan are important. This year it was 30ish, but light winds, and warmed up quickly so a shedding clothing plan was important. The course winds through a large area of Baton Rouge, LSU Campus, City Lakes, and amazing neighborhoods. The local citizenry come out in droves across the city wide running celebration with many running fuel options to help with the endurance. Port-o-lets are bunched up and staged throughout the route to support the large flow of runners throughout the morning.
The biggest snafu this year was the packet pickup expo, that seemed poorly planned for smooth entry into the convention center. It was all jammed up, waiting in line for over 20 minutes just to get in the door. The actual expo was not much for the quality of the race, but oh well.
The race finish celebration was very nice and well supported, even for 5:30 marathon finishers, still plenty to eat, great music and a well laid out event.
The Louisiana Marathon does an excellent job of race photos per runner, a few or several good photos and finish, all for free this year. Unusual and great.

Many of us live to run, regardless of summer temps and humidity. This is for those runners willing to test their mettle against the July heat, minus the sun’s input.
This race is also about joyful RaceMD supporters, participating in something bigger than themselves to fundraise for medical research.
This race is less about personal timing and more about shared extreme run endurance with other adventurous crazed runners. If running and advancing to your new limits is your obsession, and supporting a good cause, this race is for you.
We all were given a nice race/running t-shirt to represent our participation, a non-timed race bib, and a well designed, memorable finisher medal.
There was a large race digital clock to made note of your time.
Of course many of us time ourselves anyhow.
Each 2 mile lap check in was a community experience to make a lap markup, near your name, on the whiteboard, looking for 13 laps.
They maintained three large containers of Gatorade, Spring Water, and Water, all ice cold to refresh and refill for the next lap. A generous table to snacks, cookies, pretzels, m&ms was available as needed.
It was easy to have a personal stash of running fuel right in the area to grab on lap check-ins.
In summary, this overnight adventure felt like a fair/organized, personal running challenge with the added MD fundraiser element, running the night together with lots of like minded people. A very fun event, each person participating to their next personal best, whether one lap, several laps, or 13 laps. A grand group of caring people to be around for a night.

It’s amazing the community effort that is put into this race to organize and clear 26 miles of beach hwy. through several communities. Just the active numbers of school busses used to stage the racers at the two starts is a large logistical effort. I’ve been running this race for 5 years and each year they put on a well supported effort with a well stocked finish celebration.

The race finish times/website are first rate, easy to navigate and promptly available. They are generous in their finish info that they even provide several finish photos for each runner, sorted to their bib number, for free. That’s not normal and much appreciated.

This area of northern Georgia is beautiful, scenic, hilly, mountainous so I was expecting a challenging course. I was shocked to find an enjoyable, flat, gentle long rising-descending course.
The Civil War history across this course calls for early scouting and probably late touring of the monuments and scenery in the area.
The course runs through well maintained wooded roadways and wide trails that can keep your camera busy while running.
The production of this race shows the experience and efforts of the local group to make this a great event.

This is a very well organized event from packet Pickup through race day. The event has large amounts of volunteers helping the participants through the process. Running into the Superdome is stupendous and a great joy. The after party is also well organized, spread out, and nice recovery food selections that rival longer races. Stage entertainment was great before and after the race. The after race jambalaya was New Orleans quality, amazing for the large amounts provided. Overall an NFL worthy event.

This race was certainly well organized from check-in through the race, through the end. The swag at check-in was interesting, unique and generous.
The race started downtown, with professional production, good build-up, corral and launch into a scenic city course.
This race weekend was a sweet first time in Hattiesburg, leaving a yearning to go back again and run this one in the future.

This race has been a December, Christmas tradition for us for about 4 years. I’ve run it has marathon once and half marathon three times. They do a good job of packet pickup and additional clothing available for purchase
On race day this race expertly organizes two flows of busses to the marathon and half marathon start points. This race then starts each group at different locations running back to Biloxi, starting at the same time. Both distances are a joy to run along the beach in the morning, ending in Biloxi in the stadium.
This race coincides with the large Christmas light display in Gulfport, making this race weekend a fun time to be in the area.
This is a large well run race, one to attend when available.

The generosity started with the race check-in given a first class, advanced fabric shirt and a generous bag of goodies. Tables with goodies were available for selection as you walked the check in Tia. The day of the race was very well stocked with many generous food items to select. None of those things are expected, but we’re sure amazing to participate in. The entire race experience felt very well respected and cherished by the community. Noticed lots of participation by families at all various distances with lots of little kids, running the 1 mile race. A joy to see.