Laura Roth's Staging Area

I would recommend this race to all marathon runners – it is well run and was such a great time. Packet pick up was smooth at the Belfry high school and they had a pasta dinner for $10, which we had. The morning of the race we parked in Williamson, WV and were bused about 2 miles to the Belfry high school in Kentucky. We sang the national anthem and the race started right on time. I just loved this course. It was mostly on back roads and on some rail trails. So beautiful that I just enjoyed my surroundings and didn’t listen to any music. There are 26 aid stations!!! So much great food – every station had water, gatorade and bananas and various others had watermelon, oranges, chips, pickle juice, candy, cold sponges, ice, suncreen, vasoline, and one had freeze pops and another a misting station. There were enough port-o-pots at the start and throughout the course. Very cool medal. I highly recommend this marathon and will definitely be running it again.

Very tough race for me. The altitude really got to me as well as the downhill. I did not enjoy running on the side of a two lane highway with trucks flying and the cant of the road caused left knee pain which led to my knee locking up around mile 20. The course was pretty with the mountains. This was very well organized and everything was planned well. They let me take an earlier bus since I showed up early which I really appreciated because it got hotter and hotter as the morning went on. Nice lunch at the end but I missed having a beer.

Overall this was a great race weekend! We hit up the expo on Friday and they had craft beer samples. The shirt is a soft short sleeve shirt that is super comfortable. I’ve worn it running and just around. They also gave out a nice reusable bag. On to the actual race. Plenty of port o’pots at the start (I didn’t even wait in line) although I wish they had more along the course as I had to stop and wait during the race itself. Free coffee while waiting. The race started right on time, which I loved. Course was mostly flat and really nice. It went around a beautiful lake. Plenty of aid stations and some spectators also were giving out candy, water, & Rice Krispie treats. Afterwards they have an amazing party. You have 6 tickets & there are multiple food vendors handing out Jambalaya, Gumbo, King Cake, etc, and also a craft beer tent. Best post race food I’ve ever had! This race is a hidden gem.

This was my 9th marathon and probably the “easiest” (is any marathon really easy?) course I’ve run so far. The course was really beautiful – some earlier miles we ran through a state park and later miles were on a trail which was very nice for my aching legs. The race started right on time at 7am. The volunteers were amazing! Cheering everyone on and helped me get water to refill my bottle. They were all upbeat and smiling and I was so appreciative of that. They handed out Gu at 3 different spots and around mile 21 they had gummy bears and M&M’s. Not much crowd support if you need that but I really don’t. After the race they had a party for the runners at Grotto Pizza with unlimited Pizza, salad, pasta, chicken fingers and 3 beers! It was so much fun! The weather started off mid 50’s and misting but cleared up and was mostly overcast and 60. I loved everything about this race and I highly recommend it!

I loved this race. Weather started out cool and was perfect. There were a lot of spectators and the half ran through some great neighborhoods. There was chocolate milk at the finish along with other snacks and free hoagies. The only problem was with the bag drop pick-up. It was chaotic and even though I waited in line, people that came up from the finish were pushing to the front of the line so it took me an hour to get my bag. It has deterred me from bag drops for bigger races.