Tiffany Woodward's Staging Area

This was my first experience with the Coast Guard race (and only the second running of the event), and I ran the half-marathon. The expo was pretty small and they had run out of safety pins for the bibs, although I was told they would have some at the start line. As someone who likes to pin my bib on well before the race begins, we had go track down some pins the night before. The starting area was fairly well-organized, although there’s probably a need for some more porta-johns, especially if the race grows. They had actual hand wash stations (which I prefer over plain old hand sanitizer), but unfortunately they ran out of paper towels well before the race began. There was a flyover just before the start and pace groups in the starting corral, and the race began right on time. The course is very flat (210 feet of elevation gain over 13.1 miles, according to Garmin), with just the slightest incline within the first half mile of the start. This year’s course ran through some neighborhoods and the Coast Guard station along the water (which was pretty cool) before heading back downtown. There are adequate aid stations throughout and a decent amount of crowd support, especially considering the size and age of the race. The after party was small, but there was free beer and food, massage, some small SWAG items, and some good photo zones. They also did a Coast Guard demo just before the awards ceremony. The race medals are nice and so are the t-shirts. Temps were close to 70 degrees on race morning with strong winds all day (gusts over 30 mph), so I baked in the sun on the airstrip on the base and had to deal with a killer headwind after mile 7 or so. If the weather had been better, I would have wound up with a great PR for this race. Still ended up placing in my age division and took home a nice award. I would definitely come back and run this again in the future.