Seacoast Half Marathon

This is a half marathon that is located in Portsmouth NH at the seacoast. It prides itself on raising money for local charities so it’s a race you can feel good about running and supporting but that does come at the cost of some production elements and swag. The race has race day packet pick-up or the option at a local running store the day before. Since I drove Saturday from Rochester I opted for race day packet pick-up. I stayed at my parents house in Concord which is about an hour drive so cannot comment on lodging. The race starts at a high school and packet pick-up is inside. The shirt is a nice tech shirt. It is also warm inside and there are real bathrooms. There were also some porta potties outside with pretty much no lines. There is a walker start at 8am and a runner start at 8:30 am. The start is on a street and was a little congested because only the side street was closed so we had to stay on the side street until right before the race. It was chip timed at start and finish so the kind of awkward start area was fine and again since this is raising money for charity I understand not spending money closing down a lot of streets. They had pacers but one critique that can be fixed is I would love slower pacers. The slowest pacer was a 10:30 pace which is too fast for me even when I’m healthy. I would have liked a 2:45 pacer since I think I should be able to run 2:45 now if I am strategic. Unfortunately without a pacer I ended up going off too fast and lost momentum at the end. The course is really nice. It has both lovely fall foliage views through quiet streets and neighborhoods along with beautiful coastal views. I loved the varied scenery. The start was mostly through neighborhoods and had easy rolling hills. The next few miles along the seacoast were the most scenic and flat. The end was back more through roads and trees and was the hilliest part. Not super hilly but it was a bit rough that the end was hillier and more uphill than the first half. As I said I went out to fast and had to walk a lot of the last few miles. It’s a pretty quiet course but there are a few pockets with lots of spectators. There was around 700ish runners so a nice number for it to not be too crowded but also always with people. There were 5 aid stations. Volunteers were great. The first had just water the rest water and gatorade. I generally like more than 5 aid stations so I carried water. The course is well marked but open to traffic most of the roads are quiet and had large shoulders there were coned off areas on some of the narrower and busier roads though none of the roads were super busy or had really fast drivers. I prefer closed roads but again understand wanting to keep costs low. Also a lot of the drivers cheered the runners on which was great. The finish line is at the school and the runners are announced and get their medal. I didn’t meet my reach goal of 2:45 but was well under my secondary goal of 3 hours. There is a 3 hour time limit but it does not appear strict. I left while people were finishing after 3 hours and they were still getting cheered on, timed and a medal so as long as you finish close to 3 hours you will be fine and if you are much slower than 3 hours there is the walker option. The medal was kind of small. My medal yesterday at the 5K was nicer but again I understand wanting to cut down on costs. There was food in the high school. Very impressed with the selection of post race food lots of snacks and hot food including a ton of vegetarian and multiple vegan items that were all labeled. Overall this was a nice and very scenic charity race. It doesn’t have all the bells & whistles (or medals) of a larger race but you know a lot of the money goes to a good cause. If you prefer smaller races or actively seek out races that raise money for charity this is a good choice for NH but if you need the big race atmosphere and the huge medal it might not be the best choice for you. This is one I would consider doing again depending on my schedule and if I want to visit NH the weekend of the race.