Christine Varanelli's Staging Area

Very well produced for a small marathon. Packet pickup day before was easy, great option for hotel right at start/finish line, strong support at plentiful aid stations (with gel, blocks, and waffles), and enthusiastic crowd and volunteers. I chose this because they were working with SWIM and the support of veterans is very close to my heart. My father is a Viet Nam vet and my cousin died in service this past year. They sent you a bracelet with the name of a fallen soldier and had poster and images on the stadium Jumbotron on the course – it was very moving for me and my son.

Many of the volunteers were teens and they took their job seriously and were so encouraging and enthusiastic. I recently ran a similar race and was sent in the wrong direction so I was worried about that but didn’t need to – it was very well marked and volunteers were excellent.

Shirt is one of my favorites and the medal is enormous. I enjoyed passing the finish line a few times because it made it easy for family staying at the hotel to come out and cheer us on. I enjoyed the hills – not nearly as bad as I had thought and the leaves looked beautiful this time of year. We lucked out with the weather – rain before and after but for the race it was cool and overcast (my favorite running weather).

Small things that could make it better – not enough food at the end for marathoners and the last half out and back on the rail trail was a bit of a mental challenge as it is very monotonous.

Overall a great small race with amazing people behind the scenes and volunteering.

This course is challenging in a wonderful way – very hilly. Charlottesville is a great city with so much scenery to offer. Unfortunately, the race doesn’t capitalize on this. Course only marked every 5 miles and occasional arrows on the footpaths. Volunteers tried to help but at one point I was sent in the wrong direction and finished a mile short of a marathon – I had to take a DNF for the first time to no fault of my own. A little bit of extra support and mile markings every mile would have avoided this. Plus there was a lot of little out and back loops through neighborhoods that could have been marked better. Roads were not closed and presented a danger. All that being said, the volunteers were kind and the police helpful.

Ran this with my teenage son. The course was challenging – very steep first five miles but the view was so worth it. Everything about the race was beautiful and well organized. We stayed at the host hotel (which was good logistically but very overpriced for a loud and rundown room experience). Food is hard to find in the area but the race and the park are amazing.