The Run Hard Marathon in Columbia, SC is back! This spring race event is fun for all ages. The Run Hard Marathon provides course support, fluids/nutrition, shirts, medals and awards. From 5K to Marathon, we’ve got the race you need at a price you’ll love! So, save the date and …
MORE
The Run Hard Marathon in Columbia, SC is back! This spring race event is fun for all ages. The Run Hard Marathon provides course support, fluids/nutrition, shirts, medals and awards. From 5K to Marathon, we’ve got the race you need at a price you’ll love! So, save the date and we’ll see you in March. Our course is fully certified from the USATF.
The Run Hard Columbia Marathon is 26.2 miles of awesomeness. Can you think of any better way to spend a Saturday? It’s the perfect track! A little hot? Take a dip in Lake Katherine (just don’t get caught). Interested in politics? No problem. The course ends at the SC State House. We think you’ll like it so much that you’ll run it twice. As a matter of fact, you probably should run it twice because it’s a double loop track!
The Run Hard Columbia Half Marathon is an amazing run through ‘famously hot’ Columbia, SC. But we’ll save the heat for the summer and let you enjoy the cool March weather as you wind you’re way through the beautiful downtown of the capital city.
The Run Hard Columbia Marathon Relay is the perfect way to build camaraderie with those three friends you’ve been competing with since middle school. This is your big chance to get some bragging rights (not that it’s a competition). In fact, I’m so confident in your abilities, I’m making you anchor. Congratulations!
The Chick-fil-A 5K is a fun 3-mile loop in downtown Columbia. You’ll start on Sumter Street and work your way through Columbia passing by the Columbia Museum of Art. But this is no time to stop and enjoy a masterpiece, you still have four more blocks to go. So, finish strong and make every step count!
The Run Hard Columbia Marathon was founded by Jesse Harmon, CEO of Crossover Athletics and Run Hard Running Teams. Run Hard teaches kids how to lead and live an active, healthy and wholesome lifestyle. We do this by focusing on nine core areas: Peer Pressure, Perseverance, Wise Choices, Work Ethic, Leadership, Teamwork, Honesty, Respect and Honor.
LESS
Challenging Course... Not Much Else!
Kudos to the police who were out in full force to make it a safe and fun event for all of us to run hard and enjoy through their coordination … MORE
Kudos to the police who were out in full force to make it a safe and fun event for all of us to run hard and enjoy through their coordination and safety in directing traffic through intersections and other neighborhood streets. Big thank you to you ALL!!! Honestly, if you were not able to coordinate it, I do not know how this race would function or survive without just shutting down allthe streets.
Hard to get excited for a recap of a race that did not have much of the logistics figured out during race day with the volunteers (ie bag drop, pickup, food, etc). It is a challenging course with a new downhill for the first half (rolling hills) and then a new uphill and two nice climbs around mile 10 & 11 (and more rolling hills). If you are training for Boston, or another hillier race in the spring/summer, this course may be the right fit for you since it is an early March race, but if you want a fast and fun race… this is not for you. It reads closer to a 500-600+ ft gain vs. 300 that they promote.
The email and digital communication leading up to race was great, timely and very accurate, but everything outside of it just did not seem to be correct or up to the standards of what their website and email communications were.
It is an easy and convenient race that if you are a local (you can show up and literally park a block away from starting line), should definitely look into and participate, but for out of towners and to travel in for this race, I would only do this if convenient for you.
Main street is a great street downtown to end on, but with a huge market happening on that Saturday with like 100+ vendors, you think they would take advantage of that and all the fans/students, but it was so quiet and no one was cheering on the runners as they were finishing… just not ideal, not fun and kind of disappointing.
Challenging
This is a very well organized race. There are a lot of hills, so take that in mind while training. Good post race food. The weather has been perfect both … MORE
This is a very well organized race. There are a lot of hills, so take that in mind while training. Good post race food. The weather has been perfect both times I’ve run it. I will definitely do it again next year. They also give you a free picture of yourself running!
Didn't like a thing
The race is small (which I like) but it is not well marked. Running with a recovering injury my time was much slower and often had really no idea where … MORE
The race is small (which I like) but it is not well marked. Running with a recovering injury my time was much slower and often had really no idea where to go next. The traffic directors were busy on their phones or eating and a few people almost got hit. The course is hilly and nothing exciting. At the end of the half marathon (a marathon was still being ran) the only thing for food was a quarter of an orange, quarter of a stale bagel, half of a banana and your choice of either a water bottle or bottle of store brand electrolyte.
Run Hard or Hard Run?
I know, it seems like a minor detail, but Run Hard is something I make myself do, and Hard Run is something the course imposes on me...anyway... I'm not sure … MORE
I know, it seems like a minor detail, but Run Hard is something I make myself do, and Hard Run is something the course imposes on me…anyway…
I’m not sure there was ever a more beautiful day for running, 38 degrees to start, and mid 50’s to end, with very little wind. Sunny day, and the course had a lot of shade…in short, great running weather.
Packet pick up was a breeze, lots of good hotels in the area, parked right next to the courthouse on race morning (meter parking is free on the weekends here), and was able to walk to the start line in 5 minutes.
The race was small, 275 marathon runners, about the same for half marathon, and 400 and some odd 5k runners…which was nice for a city run. The race started with no issues, and there was adequate police presence at intersections. Parts of this course were open to traffic, and some residential folks were not to happy we were there, but I’ve come to expect this in any city. The scenery was ok, some really nice southern homes, and other residential areas. All in all no major course issues.
Probably the biggest challenge of the course was the hills. I was running a great PR run until I got to the last few miles (which I knew were coming since this was the second loop), which are some massive hills, I can see how this would upset some folks, but for me it was just another training run for an upcoming 50 miler, so I just walked the hills and took an average finish time.
No real fanfare at the finish line, get your medal, get a bottle of water, get in the car, get a shower at the hotel, drive 10 hours home.
The swag was ok, but not the best ever.
At the end of the day, South Carolina was crossed off of the list, but if I had to do it over again, I would probably choose a different race. There was just nothing that really stood out about this one. It was kind of like running at home…you enjoy it because you’re out running, but not really something you would pay money to see and do.
Too many hills
It starts out at the State House but after that, the only scenery are houses and houses and more houses. Not much of a scenery. And there were a LOT … MORE
It starts out at the State House but after that, the only scenery are houses and houses and more houses. Not much of a scenery. And there were a LOT of hills, up and down, up and down. It seemed never-ending. The last 0.5 miles was running through a Farmer’s Market which felt weird as you could smell all the delicious food being sold and swarms of people around, but you had to keep going as the Finish line was in sight. Only to be rewarded by a medal that was so-so. I will not be repeating this race next year.