Kitten Marie's Staging Area

I should preface this of course to keep in mind we are in COVID times and I do understand that some planning elements were forced to happen last minute… however, I think that there are many things that should be considered for future races. Parking was rough with long lines due to people not being prepared with their cash or credit to pay. I don’t see that much could be done differently here. Bathrooms were ample and lines were not too long which was pleasantly surprising however participant capacity helped. Start was supposed to be at 7. Everyone was lined up in the gun by then with no explanation as to why we didn’t start until 7:20. Aid stations were ok but at the finish, there were mini bottles of water, bananas and chips. Water was not chilled or cold, etc which in my experience has been standard at races. Never saw the pancakes, must have run out with the Powerade they had and had also run out of when many people hadn’t even finished their races yet. Poor planning. If you know that you have a participant count of X you would think you have at least one item for everyone? Today was a gruesomely hot and humid day and it really felt like that was an oversight. Aid stations overall were ok but needed more trash cans available. Volunteers were good but this race needs way more. Which brings me to my real pain point of this post. The course. Very poorly designed and communicated in my opinion. The map and guide outlined for participants online was confusing, the signage was lacking at the turnarounds and having to do a circle a million times (which I understand many people missed at least one rotation of) was nonsensical. If you’re going to have a “tricky” course layout you need to either have half and full marathoners running separate directions or need something more definite so people know where they’re going. I wonder how many chip times are skewed because people shaved off a mile or two by not running the proper route. Shame because the rest of the course was fine. Anyway, I will probably not run this one again unless it’s the only option. Sorry and thank you anyway.