Katy Riley's Staging Area

This course was lightning fast and super scenic! Saw a moose within the first two miles. Course support was great, and finish line was wonderful. My only complaint was race morning – it was a disaster. The area where you catch the shuttle to the start line had maybe 10 porta potties for thousands of runners. I arrives 45 minutes before the cutoff and waited in line for the bathroom for almost a half hour. Then I had to get in line to board the buses, which took another 20 minutes at least as the line wrapped all the way around the parking area (which was huge). There were still people in line when I boarded the bus, which was after the official cut off time. Then when we got to the start line, even more chaos and confusion. The gear busses were pulling away as people were just throwing their bags on the back, hoping they made it. There was nowhere to stand and wait, the lines for the bathrooms were again ridiculously long, and you couldn’t hear any announcements from organizers. I waited in line for the bathrooms for another 30 minutes and then started walking towards the start line (which was probably a quarter mile to a third of a mile away) and realized they had already started the race? So I basically just ran right out of the porta potty and into the race. Not ideal, but whatever. The course itself was beautiful and I can’t complain about anything else, but not the ideal start to race morning!

To start, the number of porta potties at the start was shockingly low. I stood in line for probably 20 minutes and just made it to the start line in time.

While the course was scenic, they didn’t stop traffic at all so we basically ran right alongside traffic moving at 45 mph+. And just as I was coming up on mile 10, I was passed by a speeding SUV and a bunch of cop cars. The SUV ended up crashing about a quarter mile in front of the finish line – I can’t believe no one was hit! While that was obviously unexpected and unpredictable, I do feel like having us run right alongside traffic on the highway was risky.

It was hot and humid, so the beer at the afterparty was a welcome relief. Maybe I missed it, but all I saw for food was granola bars and bananas, cut in half and already brown.

All in all, not my favorite race but I’m glad I checked off Florida

The course was very scenic, and the weather was perfect this year! But the organization was severely lacking….the start line was kind of a mess, no staggered start with the different race distances. And when we crossed the finish line, they had people handing out slips of paper that said our medals are on the way. No communication about them from anyone at the expo the day before, or at the race itself.

Updated to note I emailed them and received my medal in the mail a couple weeks after the race.