Kevin Scannell's Staging Area

This is a fun race. On the day I ran, there was a one hour delay due to thunderstorms. I arrived at the regular time and had no problem parking at Fort Williams Park. There are busses that take you out to the starting area, so we were left standing in the rain with no shelter for almost two hours. Fortunately the rain stopped just before the start of the race. Unfortunately, this meant because we were an hour late, the finish would be a lot hotter. Like most big races, the starting area had designated pace markings and runners are expected to self seed. Once the starting gun went off, it became obvious that about 50% of the folks in front of me were unable to run at the pace they lined up for so the first two miles of my race were an exhausting dodging and weaving just trying to keep pace. I lined up towards the back end of the 9:00 grouping and within the first two miles I had to get around hundreds of people just to maintain a 9:45. The worst ones were the groups of 5 or 6 people plodding along side by side at almost walking pace taking up the whole road while having a chat. The last four miles were pretty nice running with beautiful views of the ocean. There is a lot of great support from the community and plenty of water stops. Save some steam for the last mile because there are a couple of nasty little hills before the finish. I don’t know if it was all the weaving or if my Garmin was wrong, but I clocked the distance at 6.3 miles. Wonderful post race set up with Joan Benoit, Meb Keflezghi and Frank Shorter at the finish line greeting runners. Also a terrific and very well staffed food and water setup at the end of the cool down tunnel. Nice beer tent and post race ceremony as well. If medals are your thing, you’ll have to wait until 2028 because they only do them every five years. Take some time to enjoy Fort Williams park and the lighthouse. All in all, an enjoyable race. My one criticism is that other than the signs indicating expected pace, there is very little attention given to making sure people are realistic about their abilities. Large races like this often attract runners who have not trained and pay no attention to seeding. Also, the roads are very narrow. This race would benefit from a properly corralled wave start instead of just letting the elites go and then five minutes later setting loose the other eight thousand people all at once.

Overall a well run race but I would avoid the Sunday 5K option. Other than the Flagler Ave beachfront start / finish area, the course is pretty awful. I counted no less than 16 turns winding through the very boring neighborhoods of NSB. They have a Saturday afternoon 5K that looks like a little nicer course over on Canal Street near the harbor and the half seems like it might be okay too. Normally, this is a great time of year to race in Florida but it was a bit cooler than usual on this day with a 38 degree starting temp. So needless to say, the free beer you get with your entry was not something that seemed welcome at 8 AM when the temp had only barely risen above 40. Nice medal though and they also give you a 16 oz beer glass and a nice shirt. Plenty of snacks and water at the finish too. If not for the twists and turns, this would be a great race.