Regina McWhirter's Staging Area

Pretty flat course with slight rolling hills. Cliff gels at mile 8 – 9 with as many as you want and so many flavors to choose from it was easy to find my favorite. Have you tried their lime? It tastes like key lime pie filling, what a treat!! Perfect timing too! It was a very long straight run to the finish, sorta boring, but with views of the ocean which can NEVER be a bad view. It was my first half (I’ve run many fulls) and it was F. U. N. fun!!!! Super nice surfboard medal.

Although the weather may say in the 60’s in Avalon do not let that sway your race gear attire as you start in Two Harbors and for most of the day you are way above the cloud cover. It was hot with no shade for most of the day, which is how I became sunburned and a bit overheated.
Food and fluid were plentiful. Best thing which took me by total surprise were the pieces of baked potato next to a plate of salt at mile 18 ? and the only area with ice cold water what a difference that made.
This was my first trail run and the beginning was what I expected, but then the trail turned into a wide dirt Jeep road for a long time which would not have been that bad except that there were vehicles coming at you kicking up dirt and I was too tired to hide my mouth in my shirt to keep all the dust away that kicked up.
You run the last mile down a paved road into town and you feel like a star with the crowd cheering for you in bith sides of the road. That was way cool!
I read from another reviewer that they received a picture frame at the finish…I didn’t get one. ? But the finisher’s long sleeved technical shirt was great. They did have pizza and more fluids at the end as well.
Make SURE you put your name/bib number on your bag as others had some trouble retrieving their belongings at the finish as the volunteer made them tell him exactly what was in the bag making sure that it was actually that person’s bag. Be like me and write your name on duct tape in your bag, no troubles!
During this I was telling myself “never again” and now that its been 2 days I’m thinking “perhaps again,” especially knowing now what to expect!

Enjoy the scenery of running so close to the ocean. Great aid stations at every mile. Glad that they chose some different choices this year, natural gels by Honeystinger and Nuun were provided along the course.
Nice technical shirt and I received a jacket for my 6th year of running this course! Woohoo!
It was so hot that I would have liked to have started earlier than allowed. Felt bad for all the other runners as it was around 90° when I finished at 9:30am. Also some ice on the course would have been nice (don’t know how they could have kept it from melting).
Folks in the course provided bananas and popsicles, which saved me.
Great marathon for another year in the bag!

Challenging course with freeway hills all paved roads. These last 4 miles were so difficult running alone along the riverbed. Great crowd cheering you on once you get to the fairgrounds though. Would have liked more water and fuel stations for the heat we had to deal with.
I will return and conquer this race!

Don’t let the name fool you. You start and finish near water but you run away from it most if the time. Still great weather and that makes it a great run!

I should have run more mileage prior to this race. I knew nothing about technical gear or proper fueling during the race. Course was up and over freeways with a few folks cheering along the way. I was so glad to cross the dinish line. Had trouble finding my family.