Wildwood Crest 5 Mile Beach Half Marathon, 10K & 5K
Wildwood Crest, NJ
- Half Marathon, 15K Challenge (5K + 10K), 10K, 5K
- Road (Paved)
- Official race website
Run down the boardwalk in Wildwood Crest, New Jersey and enjoy five miles of beautiful beaches. This race features a little of everything: spectacular ocean views, amazing BLING, and tasty post race food. We’ve designed this course as a fast, flat course – perfect to achieve a new PR. After … MORE
Local Historical Weather (Nov 01):
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | |
| H (°F) | 60 | 77 | 50 | 68 | 61 |
| L (°F) | 45 | 61 | 43 | 59 | 44 |
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A personal best race
Being the first person to review this race, I'll provide a ton of detail-sorry for the long review! I needed to re-run NJ so I picked this race as I … MORE
Being the first person to review this race, I’ll provide a ton of detail-sorry for the long review!
I needed to re-run NJ so I picked this race as I live in Maryland so not horribly far to get to. I also got to bring my pup along to enjoy the beach so a huge bonus.
Let me start by saying this a very small race with 3 distances-5k, 10k, half marathon. I think there was less than 100 people in the half marathon distance. I like a great small race so had no clue what to expect but was not disappointed.
Leading up to the event, you will start to get emails from the race director with race specifics-super helpful he keeps replying to the same email so you can keep the trail without having to search for emails you read but not sure which one.
Pros-
-Race is super small
-There is an open start-meaning you can start anytime from 7am until 8am. Not knowing the course, I started closer to 8 just so I had someone to trail
-Only a couple inclines & declines as you got on and off the boardwalk. All super short
-This is a fast course-I ran a PR by 8 minutes and took first in my age group
-Off season rates for Wildwood and Cape May are amazing. I rented a 2 bedroom airbnb less than .3 from the start/finish for less than $200 all in for 2 nights
-The course-running the boardwalk when everything is closed plus an unobstructed view of the ocean made the time fly by. Plus you can run on the boards of the boardwalk which have more give than cement.
-The volunteers and everyone running were so so kind and friendly. My pup was there and they even gave him a medal for being the best spectator. Constantly giving him water and petting him. He was in his heaven!
-The medal-really pretty medal-nice size as well.
-Weather was outstanding! Mid 50s, not a cloud in the sky.
Cons
-for the half marathon, you run the same course twice. There is no one out there guiding you in turning around, no mat or anything. Total honor system. Bit confusing as well as the 5k, 10k were just tied around a power pole. You often question if you missed a turn.
-Swag-it’s a plain tshirt with an ironed on logo and a pair of socks that say “I love running”. I honestly hate running.
-Course support-pretty minimal-most water stations (that you see 4 times) were not manned. Cups were poured but no one there refilling them. Very limited gatorade and no gus or energy.
-Finish line was confusing-I finished and almost forgot to get my medal and needed to search out water.
-Awards-since I started early, when they told me I was first in my age group, I was thinking I might not be as what if someone started later and had a better time, they just hadnt finished yet. Luckily that wasn’t the case but felt premature to hand out plagues.
-No photos-Having my dog there and having such a great finish, really was hoping someone would have been there to capture my dog running in with me. There was also no announcer-you just kind of finished and that was that.
I really think this race has a ton of potential-just needs some support behind it. I really hope they keep doing this race-fix the course support and the course so maybe it’s not 2 full laps (boardwalk was under construction so might not have been the original intent). I think this is a worth it race especially if you can spend some time in the Cape May area.