Erin Gale's Staging Area

Packet pickup is at the Margaritaville parking garage. Very small and low key. They only had race merch for sale, but there was a decent selection. Included with your registration is a T-shirt and a drawstring bag. The half ends at a local baseball stadium, which has plenty of hotels/ air bnb’s within walking distance. You can also catch the bus to the start lines here. The race starts at 7 am and buses ran from 5-6:10 am. I left around 5:30 and had plenty of time to warm up and use the facilities. The bus drops you off at the aquarium. There were several portapotties outside, but the transit center next to the aquarium was also open. There were indoor restrooms to use there and chairs to sit inside and wait. I’m not sure if this happens every year, so I wouldn’t count on this to always be open.

Temperatures were in the 50s with a high in the mid 60s. It was overcast which was nice. The wind didn’t really pick up until about mile 9, but I read enough reviews to know wind was basically guaranteed. You are right along the beach which is nice and a lot of the beach houses have holiday decorations up. The course was a straight shot on route 90 for about 11.5 miles, then the course went up a ramp to the expressway which was the only incline the whole race. The ramp was curved and the roadway was slanted for maybe half a mile. You run a short ways on the expressway before the half does a u-turn and you hit the downhill of the ramp. Make three left turns and you’re at the baseball stadium for a finish on the field.

Attached to your race bib are food/drink tickets. There are local beer options and some pretty interesting post race food options. I didn’t really picture gumbo as a good idea after running, but it was delicious. They also had the typical post race banana and pulled pork sandwiches. Race merch was available to purchase in the stadium.

Race organizers emailed a participant guide a week or two before race weekend. It had all the information you needed regarding packet pickup, start/finish areas, and shuttles. My one complaint is that it stated there was gear check, but the runner had to bring the bag and mark it with their number. Normally the race provides this, and since I am from out of state, I did not bring a bag for gear check. Since it wasn’t going to be cold, I managed to get away without needing gear check, however at the start line, I did see that they had bags to hand out and mark with your number. If I had known this, I probably would have brought some things with me to the start and utilized the bag check.

All in all, it was a good race experience. I don’t think I would run this again since I’m so far away, but it is a good race to check Mississippi off your list.

This is my 3rd time running the half marathon. The course is relatively flat, with one small hill during mile 2. The temperature this year was perfect for running. The fall foliage is pretty in this area this time of year.

Packet pickup is at the Corning Museum of Glass. I have always gone on Saturday afternoon to pick up my race packet and it’s always crowded. The line to get your bib is fairly smooth (don’t forget your ID!) and you can have someone else pick up your race packet if you can’t make it. The SWAG includes a quarter zip long sleeve that is good quality, however it is the same every year with the exception of the color. Different colors for mens/womens/ half/ full. You get a drawstring bag, clear bag for bag drop, and small bottle of Champagne. Plenty of race gear to buy at the expo and finish line.
Race logistics: you must take a shuttle to the start line. Shuttles run from 5am-6:30 for a 7:45 start. There is a school where you can wait inside and stay warm, but the hallways are pretty crowded by the time 6:30 rolls around. In the past they have allowed you to use the bathrooms inside, but they were locked this year, forcing you to go outside to the porta-potties. Don’t wait until 7 to use them… line is very long. There are a few porta-potties by the start line if you get there early enough.
Plenty of water stops on the course. Not a ton of crowd support along the first half of the course since it’s all country roads, but the last half is decent for a small town race.
This is a great half to run if you are looking for a NY race, or a PR.

I think this is a fine local race, but not one I would travel to. I don’t think it’s logistically at the point where it can handle 2000 runners for the half.

The 5k and half were both on Saturday. They have different start lines. There were 4 different locations for runners to park at in the morning and get shuttled to the start. Traffic was a nightmare for the buses, and not all the bus drivers knew what start line was which. The bus I was on told us we were getting off at the half start and it ended up being the 5k. The race ended up starting 20 minutes late because buses were still dropping runners off at the start.

The course along the ocean was pretty. It was mostly flat, maybe 2 noticeable hills. The water stops seemed fairly random and weren’t as frequent as most other races. I don’t remember seeing nutrition at any of them, but I could have missed it. Porta potty stops seemed infrequent. I think most along the coast were meant for construction workers.

The mile markers seemed pretty accurate until mile 13. It was off by maybe .1 (not a big deal). But then from the mile marker to the finish was another quarter mile… wouldn’t have kicked so early if I had known!

I think the half and 5k got the same medal. Some differentiation would be nice. The race shirt was a hooded long sleeve shirt.

I didn’t stick around for anything at the finish due to the late start and having to be shuttled back to the parking lots. They did have a bag drop, however when you picked up the bag at the finish, they were all just randomly spread out on the lawn. No order, so you had to hope to come across your number with hundreds of other bags to sift through.

Most of the negatives are things that can be fixed, and hopefully they will be if the race director wants this to be a huge race. As of now I wouldn’t recommend this race to anyone that has to travel to it (50 staters), however it’s a fine, small local race.

If you have done a vacation race before, the expo is the same as all the others. There’s a lot of good race merchandise to buy.
As far as race morning goes, I was not a huge fan of how we had to get to the start line. They did not allow runner drop offs and you had to take a shuttle to the start. The last shuttle left an hour before race start. We arrived at the start line, which was at the side of a road. We were left sitting in the cold for too long in my opinion. They do have a bag drop off, so definitely overdress and utilize that. It was in the upper 30s-low 40s.
The course was beautiful. The hill was not as bad as I was anticipating. They advertised a 5 mile uphill, but the first mile was mostly flat- slightly downhill. The next 4 miles were all uphill so by mile 5 there was a very nice downhill. You can make up a lot of time on the downhill!
There were no spectators on the course other than people at the aid stations. I do love vacation races though and I would definitely do this again.

Race expo was huge and had a good variety of vendors. Be ready to pay for parking wherever you go. Race morning was in corrals which was nice, however I don’t think anyone was checking bibs to confirm corrals. My one big complaint was that the 2 hour pacer for the half went out way too fast. I made the decision to try to start slower knowing that the hills were coming in the middle of the race, but the pacer went out at 8:30 pace for the first 3 miles. Needless to say I completely died during the hills. I do love the pig theme and would do this race again so I can improve on this course. Cincinnati is a really nice city!

All in all, I thought this was a good race. I deferred my registration from 2020 when it was canceled. There was not a whole lot of communication from the race director prior to the race. I found myself checking the facebook page and the website constantly just to make sure it was still on. I liked that they gave you options for what color shirt/ size you wanted when you signed up, however the women’s shirts were very small and they did not have enough of the women’s long sleeves to exchange. Packet pickup went smooth and they had quality race apparel to purchase. I would advise getting there 45 min-an hour early to find parking on Rehoboth Ave. It was fairly chilly before the race, but I just kept my layers on until 10 minutes before the start and I was fine. It was a perfect race temperature (45-50). I was surprised at how narrow the start area was for the amount of people racing. I think if they had started the half and full 5 minutes apart, it would have helped this issue. I did enjoy the course. It is very flat and I was pleasantly surprised with the crowd support. There is about 4-5 miles worth of gravel/ dirt trail between miles 7-12. I didn’t care for it, but that’s mostly because I don’t train a lot on trails. It was still flat and tolerable. I really liked the medal at the finish and I like that the ribbon is different for the half and full. The food was excellent at the end and there were plenty of options. You get 3 free beers after the race as well. All in all, I think this was a good race and I would run it again.

*packet pickup was smooth. Very small expo. Pasta dinner included
*race morning was cloudy and maybe in the 70s, but super humid. It may as well have been raining. Luckily the sun didn’t come out!
*took a bus to the start line. Takes about 30 min. Only 5 porta potties at the start. Lucky it was a small race
*lots of aid stations along the way! Lots of short hills, one huge hill just after mile 10. The river road course goes along the river and you cross over a suspended bridge, which was pretty cool.
*almost no cheering along the course. Still a good race theme throughout the weekend
*Medal is pretty cool. Shirt was ok, soft cotton. Not much for post-race food- they had Gatorades and cold towels at the finish and fruit in another tent.
*For as small as the race was, I think they did a good job and would recommend it. Hopefully this race gets more popular and they can fix some of the minor hiccups. I would run this again.