Joe Verellen's Staging Area

Expo was smooth but parking was kind of chaotic. Glad we had good weather that day. We had to walk a little to get there. People inside were energetic and helpful. Lots of exhibits and stuff to purchase.
The area around Monterey was full of energy. Especially down by the water. The trail heading south is much more scenic.
Now for race day…
Really easy getting on the bus to head to the start line. We got there very smoothly. Unfortunately, it was lightly raining the whole time as we waited for the race. I saw some really good ideas from others for other races that are point to point and ya need to wait. I saw a couple people bring mats to lay down on. Others had ponchos (I had one of these). One person had a thin sleeping bag even. There were a lot of porta pots. The lines were not too bad. There were two guys trying to camp out in the last two. One got the hint and left. The other just remained inside after several people knocking. The energy at the start was pretty good. The announcer kept the mood light and fun.

The race itself had a few bummers for me. Without all the rain we were getting the scenery was not as exciting. I personally enjoyed the redwoods more than the cliffs. The hills were 100% expected. Tough. Long. Down hills were fast and turny. The most unexpected thing I never read about is how slated the roads are pretty much the entire way. Makes sense looking back on it to limit unwanted erosion but unexpected. Some points later in the race are so slanted I couldn’t keep myself from running toward the bottom and passing people on the left.
The hill in the last mile was just mean:).

The finish area was great. Lots of volunteers that are nice and helpful. Lots of food options, free drinks,etc. Only thing that would have helped me would have been a toilet before the food area. I didn’t want to gather food and then enter a toilet. They were nice enough to grab me items but wouldn’t let me back in the food area.

Because gear check has to take a different route to get to the start, it was slow getting stuff back. I am really glad it stopped raining during the race and I had someone there with some clothes waiting for me.

Overall, it is a great production. Weather and slanted roads killed my thrill a bit. But great in comparison to a lot of other marathons.

Packet pickup was outside at a stadium. There was a line for number assignment, another one for shirt, a yet another one for a gear check bag.
There are a lot of toilets at the start and throughout the course. Very well organized event.
The course rolls pretty well. Only one significant uphill that I can remember. The down hill for the last mile was great however the last .1 or so has a really steep downhill. Be careful heading down it.

The hills will bite ya if you go out too fast. Nice people. Nice volunteers. Good course management. Only real negatives would be not enough bathrooms at the start and the course could use some extra markings (especially where the half turns around and the full keeps going). Even delayed the start of the race 7 extra minutes because the lines were long. Very nice top prizes (no cash). Nice finish area stuff like coffee and massages.

Easy taking train from and to the airport. Expo is well organized and there are a lot of places to eat. The start and finish area was very well organized including warming tents for before the race. A few more portapots would be nice especially for the last second got to goes.