Julie Kohorst Phillips's Staging Area

This was my 14th marathon and it was a fantastic event. A friend and I flew down from Toronto to run this marathon $99 hotel, $64 car rental from Norfolk, expo in hotel, easy peasy.
Our Tokyo marathon was cancelled so we rushed to find a replacement, so glad we can here instead of Napa Valley! Superb organization with Expo in the host hotel, shuttles to and from the start/finish areas, warm buses at the start**, real toilets in the ranger station plus portos, fast bag check, warm tents at the finish, make your own granola, free toiletries, hot chocolate and food trucks, stand up tables, outdoor heaters, oh, and TWO free beer! The volunteers at the expo, the start, on course, everywhere were just incredible. Even saw our favorite expo volunteer at the finish for a hug. The weather was cool -2’c to +4’c, sunny, minimal wind and beautiful course thorough parks, waterfront, historic neighborhoods, downtown, it had it all. There was also just the right amount of turns and elevation to keep your legs awake and no long stretches that didn’t end. The permanent mile markers was also helpful and bang on. I stuck with the 3:30 pace bunny and had a 9 min PB at 45yrs old! 1st in my AG. For only having 3000 runners they had top notch attractions. I will be back for another girls racing weekend and will bring them all!! This is my favorite non-major marathon! If you are looking to BQ this course is it (better than Erie) and it felt almost downhill for most of it.
Only downfall was it was the first time I placed in my age group but they didn’t have those medals/award there and will be mailed out. It would have meant so much more to be able to pick it up at the end than getting it in the mail sometime in the future. Regardless I rate this race 99.9/100.