Kevin Ford's Staging Area

The Course:
There’s a reason why so many BQs and OTQs come out of this race. It’s held at a pretty temperate time of year on a net downhill course. There are some small rolling hills in the first half, but they’re hardly noticeable. Every time I started worrying about my pacing, there was another gentle downhill that helped me accelerate again. As far as views are concerned it wasn’t the most beautiful course (the so-called “middle miles” mostly pass by strip malls with little or no tree cover), but there were long stretches which were pleasant to look at. Staying on course was a non-issue, since there were very few turns, which proved to be another bonus to this race.

The Competition:
This year CIM drew a huge number of sub 2:50 marathoners compared to other races of a similar size. In other races I’ve spent a lot of time in no-man’s land running at my typical marathon pace, but at CIM there were tons of people to run with and chase after. This definitely helped me reach my PR goal.

The Aid Stations:
While there were two or three notable exceptions, most of the aid stations were well-staffed by excellent volunteers. Even at the understaffed ones the volunteers did their best. They just couldn’t handle the huge waves of people (3 people can’t possibly hand out enough water).

The Support:
For a point-to-point race there was a significant amount of crowd support for this race. There were a few helpful music stations as well. I also thought it was cool that there was a fake “wall” to run through at mile 20.

The Swag:
The shirt didn’t impress me, but the medal was pretty cool. The socks aren’t bad either. I view these as more of a bonus to the race so it doesn’t impact my overall positive opinion of the race.

TL;DR:
Good weather, fast and ok-looking course, good crowd support, average swag.