Lia Gagliardi's Staging Area

This was my second world major marathon, so I was able to compared this day to the Berlin marathon of 2024, for reference. I enjoyed the early start time of this race, since i had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted after i finished. I found the pre-race area to be extremely organized. It was clear where everything was located, from the bag drop-off, to the corral/wave assignments. The pre race area would’ve been better if there were more bathrooms, but the lines moved quickly enough. The course is fast and flat, with amazing crowds through the entirety of the course. You can definitely omit the headphones for this race. Even though there were 55k+ people in this race, it seemed like everyone had enough space to run their race at their desired pace. I loved running through the various neighborhoods here. We had pretty good weather (50–55 degrees F and sunny). There were more aids stations than I’ve ever seen at any of my other races. I came away with a 4 min PB, so I was thrilled. The only con about this race is the placement of the expo center. It is much further away from downtown, and there isn’t a direct subway route to get there, so you have to either go on a bus, that stops a million times over the course of 3-4 miles, take a car, or go on the subway, and have to walk a lot from the closest station. I hope I can come back for this race one day!

The first 4 miles are beautiful and are along the coastline, as the name of the marathon alludes to! After those 4 miles, the majority of the course is run along 2 long roads that are open to traffic, with absolutely nothing to look at in regards to scenery. At mile 18, you finally cross back over the main road and head back towards the coastline, where it is scenic compared to what your scenery was during miles 5-17. There is a “sandy” part of the course that you are on for about 0.5 miles or so, which made it interesting. The course itself had a small, gradual incline from miles 5-12 or so, with the occasional rolling hill. From miles 12-21, it it fairly flat, with an occasional small hill. At miles 21 and 24 respectively, there are larger hills (not large in the grand scheme of things, but a hill nonetheless late in the race). After that last hill, it is smooth sailing to the finish. Although the weather was kind of lousy, there was still a great crowd, as small local races are concerned (low 50s and drizzling/raining/windy)! There were a lot of water and gatorade stations, that also had Ucan gels. Plenty of bathrooms as well. One thing I was disappointed about were the lack of specific pacers that the website said would be available. They did not have the 3:35 and 3:40 pacers, but they did have the 3:30 and 3:50, which were as close to what I was looking for.

The race pick-up was at the park where the finish line is. It was fairly quick, and had a couple of small vendors. There were designated parking areas that you signed up for, and then got shuttled to the start line. They were punctual this year, which was not the case back in 2023 when I did the half marathon, and we started right at 7:30am as we were supposed to. The finish line had a lot of food/drinks and beer given out, as well as live music. If the weather were better, I would’ve stayed there longer to enjoy it.

I’ve done this race 2x, once this past March, and once in 2023. Both days had completely different weather. This year, the weather was in the mid 60s and sunny. In 2023 when I did it, it was in the low 40s with rain and high winds. Would keep that in mind when debating on whether or not to do it. Bib and shirt pick up is the morning of the race. The course itself is relatively flat for the first and last 4 miles. Everything in between is more or less rolling hills, with the steepest/longest one after crossing the mile 8 marker. Not much scenery to take in when going up the hills either, as you are going in between neighborhoods. Most roads are open to traffic. The last 2-3 miles are right along the water, which I enjoyed, but it can certainly get windy. I would do this race again, as it is local to me, but I would not expect to get a PR if I were to do it again.

This was the 1st marathon I’ve ever done, and I really enjoyed it. Logistically speaking, we picked up our packets the day before the race. They didn’t have a large expo – they just had a few smaller vendors at the bib pick up and at the start/finish line of the race. I really enjoyed the scenery – you got to weave through the pretty neighborhoods and run along the water. This is also a good course for spectators because the runners would pass by specific spots more than 1x. The course itself was listed as “moderately hilly” but I didn’t think it was that bad (of note, I am able to train on hills during most of my runs). Small hills here and there from what I recall, but the hardest hill was at mile 23. They are mostly short and easy to get through though. I got extremely lucky with the weather that day, as it was cloudy with temps in the mid-high 40s. There were plenty of aid stations along the course. I would definitely do this course again!