Scott Ceniza-Levine's Staging Area

We had a ton of rain this year, so that was not fun, but the race went off without a hitch. Surprisingly thorough expo – picked up a few items. Staged at the Aspire Hotel, which was really important given the rainy weather. Plenty of space to assemble inside right next to the start/finish area. 2 loop course, which I generally don’t like, but given the beautiful scenery of this race, it was fine. Water stops were fully stocked with great volunteers. Roads were not closed generally, but race is almost entirely on quiet country roads, so not a problem. Hilly, but mostly gently rolling hills – any steep hills were short. Not as difficult as other hilly races. Overall great experience.

The organization of this race was great. Expo is really good, wave start was well done with waves leaving every few minutes, water stops were plentiful with great and enthusiastic volunteers, and the music/entertainment was better than other similar sized races I’ve run.

I thought the first half of the course was very scenic and nice, but the 2nd half a bit boring. In the 2nd half, there were 2 sections along the boardwalk on the water, about 2 miles each, but it was really tough to run into the wind at miles 23-25, and the wind wasn’t too bad – can’t imagine if it was a really windy day!

Race was extremely flat, but there was a bridge to cross in the 2nd half which was pretty steep. Wasn’t a problem at 16 miles on the way out, but at 22 miles on the way back, it was killer.

Post race party was ehh – yes, you get 4 beer tickets, but food options were a bit sparse, and there were few, if any, places to sit in the tent, and walking on the sand wasn’t exactly easy after finishing the marathon.

Enjoyed the race, would definitely do it again.