Beverly Nestor's Staging Area

If you like large finisher’s medals, this is the race for you! The longer the distance, the bigger the medal. Do a challenge (a race Saturday AND Sunday) for an extra medal.

The course was mostly flat, with a roughly 2 mile incline past the halfway point. There was another steep, but fairly short, totally annoying hill around mile 25.

There were quite a few spectators, with some handing out beads. Tater tots and mimosas at mile 16 was very welcome!

I chose to get up at 2 am to drive the 2.5 hours to this race. The course for the half marathon was quite flat and was mostly through neighborhoods. There wasn’t really much opportunity to see the ocean from the course due to the sand dunes. The medal was pretty big and the t-shirt was a nice soft blend.

While on vacation, my husband I found this event. There were several in Florida under the “Holiday” name and we chose the one most convenient to where we were staying.

The course is an out and back run in a park, with a different number of repetitions based on the race length (once for 5k, 2x for 10k, 4x for half). The turn around for the half was a little bit further along the trail to make up the correct distance.

The weekend we ran it, it was warm and sunny, so sunglasses and sunscreen (at least for those going longer) are a must.

The finisher’s medal featured a running Santa.

I reviewed this race last year, so I will add just a couple of points this year.

Runners who complete 5 years of this race get a customized vest. Runners who complete 10 years of this race get a customized camp chair.

The finishers’s medal is good sized and unique each year. Finishers also receive a hand-made piece of pottery.

The camaraderie at this race is absolutely fantastic.

Close to 12,000 runners completed the half and full marathons. I definitely enjoyed this race, especially looking at the monuments, memorials and general architecture of the area. The course was very flat, with plenty of running room. Finishers received a medal appropriate for their distance and a beanie, which the color corresponded to the shirt (green for the 5k, red for the half, navy blue for the full).

There were many things that this race did right. The expo was good size. There are plenty of hotels within walking distance of the start/finish. Porta potties were scattered around the start area/corrals, so there weren’t huge lines in a single location. Water stops were plentiful, though not all of them had electrolytes. Gels were offered just past 8 miles, with them being handed out AHEAD of the water stop, so you weren’t trying to eat the gel and grab water at the same time. Kudos for this. The course was fantastic, going past several war/military monuments/memorials. The full marathon rejoined the half marathon course just past mile 10 of the half. Another big kudos here…the half and full each had a designated lane, so that the faster full marathon runners did not have to dodge around the half marathon runners.

Post race offerings included a variety of snacks, hot pizza and cold beer. A cool feature was an electronic sign that would display your finisher’s time so you could a photo.

I would count this as one of my favorite half marathons to date.

A few of us ran this half as the first race of a double weekend, with the Yeti Endurance half being the second on Sunday.

Salina is a small town but they offered up a HUGE welcome to the runners. Course support was great, with plenty of water stops and a surprisingly frequent offering of gels.

The prettiest part of the course was in the middle, going up, up, up a long hill to the country club. It was fun going back down. The rest of the course was pretty flat, running on the streets of the town and through a couple of parks.

The weather was rainy and miserable but they did have heaters in the start/finish area to gather around.

Many, many people were able to register for free, or only $5 as the race received a large grant. All 50 states and several countries were represented.

I would run this again (if I were local/close).

Two things that I normally do for a marathon but did NOT do for this one:

1. I normally listen to music to keep my cadence up. The crowds were so loud that it would have been impossible to hear my anything in my headphones. That’s okay!! The crowds were what really made this my new favorite marathon. At the last minute, almost literally, I wrote my first name on a piece of duct tape and stuck it to my shirt. BEST decision ever! The spectators love to shout out name and it is so motivating.

2. I also normally run/walk (4 minutes run/1 minute walk. I did not do this initially, even though I had planned to. The adrenaline from the crowds carried be almost halfway before I started the run/walk. I even ran through the aid stations! My legs were not happy with me for waiting so long to give them a break.

I tried to get in on lottery for my first Chicago Marathon, but I didn’t get in. Since I had a friend get in on legacy (she has run Chicago several times), it was an easy decision to run for a charity. I chose ALZ Stars (Alzheimer’s Association) and am so glad I did. I got a discounted rate at the Congress Plaza Hotel, which was right at the start/finish area. They provided a light breakfast the day of the race, along with a room to gather in pre-race.

Overall, this was such a positive and amazing experience for me, I have already committed to fundraising for ALZ Stars for the 2025 Chicago Marathon, without even taking a chance on getting in on the lottery.

This is a small race which includes a cotton blend t-shirt but no finisher’s medal. The top 3 male and female earn a medal along with the top age group finisher (10-year age groups). The course includes a few hills and for the most part is not closed to traffic. I am a repeat runner because I like to support local businesses (the running club and timing company).

Race specific: The course for the half was a sort of convoluted out and back on sidewalk/greenway in a small park, repeated 10 times for the half.

Mainly Marathons: Awesome people. Amazing runners. Distances offered: 5k, 10k, 50k, half marathon, full marathon. No time limit. Medals shaped like the state. All the medals from the series can connect together. Extra medal if you run every state of the series. The series are great ways to get races in multiple states in short amounts of time, covering all 50 states in a year.

As most others have said, the first 5 miles are up…up…up. There’s another climb late in the race. The views at the top of the course are worth the effort.

This race was cupless and I would like to see more races do this, though I imagine it would be more difficult at larger races.

We stayed in nearby Browning, MT for the race but moved to a campground and hiked in Glacier National park for several days after the race. We stayed on the east side for 3 days then the west side for 3 days. If I were to do it over, I’d stay longer on the east side as there seemed to be better and more hiking options there.

The race offers half marathon and 10k distance, with both being out and back. The start is steep downhill, therefore the finish is steep uphill. A small portion of the courses are paved road, the rest is gravel bridal trail. The t-shirt is a soft blend. Only the half marathon finishers received a medal.

I enjoyed this half marathon, which was flat and ran along the ocean for the first few miles. Getting to the start involved catching a shuttle at one of several places. There were shuttles to take you back also.

There was beer, pizza and ice cream for the finisher’s, along with a decent medal. Registrants also received a long sleeve hooded t-shirt. Packet pickup was at the park where the finish line was located.

Water stops were adequate with good crowd support along the course.

As I have reviewed this race before, I’ll just add a couple of comments.

The course was changed very slightly this year to include a short section on the “boardwalk”, which was really just a concrete path. The course exited before what I would consider an actual boardwalk.

This year was very overcast and foggy, so the ocean views weren’t as great as they could be.

I will run this again.