Tom Watkins's Staging Area

I picked this race due to it being at the end of January in FL, which is generally in the 50s (or nice). I live in Orlando. Unfortunately, as the race drew near…it was forecasted for record highs. In fact, the race organizers emailed runners and encouraged them to run the half vs a full (for safety purposes). But, I had trained for months and wanted to run the full and I did. There was nearly 3000 people at the beginning of the race and so you have to navigate around folks. But at the 12 mile mark (where full continues and half split off to finish), all of a sudden I was alone. The total full marathoners I think was around 400 and seeing other runners was no longer common. The volenteers were great, but after the 12 mile mark, I didn’t know if I was running the correct way, and sometimes had to assume I was on the correct path because volenteers became a smaller group than earlier with the half marathoners (i think the AM excited may have worn off for teens standing in the heat). But, the areas like the main street and highschool, were full of friendly volunteers and students. There were some points between the high school and the finish, where I really wish there were some water stations and/or port o pottys, but I know you can only do so much. As far as the neighborhoods…there were a few cheering folks, but no waters, etc. offered. One person had a table with pickle juice, one with orange slices, and one with chocolate candies. Didn’t see any water tables, etc. There’s areas where you need to run around ponds, over zig zag boardwalks, through appartment complex parking lots, and a few over grass and curbs. I started my garmin at the exact starting line, ran the exact route told, and stopped my garmin at the finish line…my watch shows exactly 26.54 miles. Something I had read on here before and wanted to check for myself. When I was finished, they give you a card to go to food vendors and sample food. Unfortunately, by the time I, and other marathon runners finished, much of the food was long gone from the 2500 half runners who finished before us. The swag: Yes, awesome fleece blanket. Tshirt isn’t a runners shirt but more of a soft cotton basic tee. We received bib clips in our bags, which is nice. The Medal was huge and heavy. Overall, I ran this as my first full and I really don’t know if I need to run another. But if I did, I’d watch the weather and only run if it’s comfortable and not in the 80s outside. The people were friendly and the traffic cops did a great job. Overall, yes – I’d definetely recommend.