Charles Hanson's Staging Area

Bottom Line Up Front: A great overall race that’s well organized and I would recommend to anyone. You can PR but you probably won’t run your fastest possible race. I PR’ed but didn’t hit my time goal. One year I’ll have to come back to run the half and just enjoy all the free booze on offer from spectators.

Difficulty: Its hilly. There’s no getting around that. I live and train in a hilly area and I was still surprised how hilly it was. My biggest takeaway from this race was to never rely on race provided topography maps again. The scale is so distorted on those. I studied it well and got by ok, but afterwards looked at Garmin/Strava and got a much better read and it would have changed my strategy a little. Be smart and let the uphills slow you a bit and accelerate down the back.
Production: Very well organized and professional race. Corrals at the start were good. No wait at the expo. The medals did get stuck at port (not the race’s fault). I was also blown away by the fan support but like every marathon I’ve done it was a lot heavier on the front half where the half marathoners were and died off in the back. Understandable I guess since you have 1/10th of the amount of people to cheer for. Aid stations were well placed and well stocked. My only complaint there was that many of the stations didn’t seem to be handing the cups out and since they were so tightly placed on the table I had to come to a dead stop and carefully pick some up less I knock over a ton of them. I skipped the center of the universe detour, but walked past it on my way back to the hotel. It appeared underwhelming. I did wish there was a bit more music on the course. Particularly something in the final miles of the marathon to push you a long when the fan support is next to none would have been great. The finish line itself was great but by then you don’t really need support. There was some good local beer at the finish included free as well as free race photos. The race photos seem very low resolution though. Good enough for a social media post but pixelated quickly if you try to zoom in. Kind of a bummer since there doesn’t seem to be away to even buy a better quality version.
Scenary: I loved the course overall. Winded through some great neighborhoods, along the river, towntown, etc. Basically a tour of the city. I live a few hours away and have visited the town before but saw way more on this run than I ever have and it totally changed my opinion and interest level in visiting again. Like other marathons I’ve done though things got kinda quiet and less interesting after the half marathon split. Not terrible, but certainly some more commercial areas of less appeal, but still plenty of hills.
Swag: This is the only race I’ve ever run that didn’t give me a t-shirt. Yes, marathoners got a nice quarter zip pullover but I’ve run multiple other events where such items were in addition to the basic tech shirt. Maybe the quality is better, but to be honest I’ll rarely use it as I have a different combo I use for cold weather that works well for me. A tech t-shirt on the other hand would have been in my regular rotation. While the medal hasn’t arrived yet I was also really bummed by the design. It looks like a million other race medals. Past years had a really awesome, unique hood ornament type look I was excited about getting. Other things that elevated the SWAG would be FREE race photos (even if the resolution is poor) and free craft beer at the finish versus the mass produced typical free beer at finish lines. While bummed by the medal design and lack of a tech shirt it’s still above average swag.
Weather: I guess people’s opinion on the weather is specific to them. It was low 50s at the start and warmed up to the mid to high 50s by the finish. Wind was constant 10mph with some gusts in the 20s. For me the wind was brutal and it was about 10 degrees higher temp than my optimal at the start. I was hot and took my shirt off around mid way. Others kept sleeves on the whole time.