Suzanne Meinig's Staging Area

The part of the race that’s in town is the best. Though it’s a little hilly, there’s enough space for everyone and lots to look at for 8 miles. After that you’re by the river, with some out and backs, but still it was going okay. Around mile 17, the course passed by the finish line and after party, which I didn’t love to see when we had so far to still go. Between 17 and 18, there was a bottleneck at a corner where there are runners going both directions on a very narrow sidewalk, with a fence on one side and a street on the other with regular pedestrians along with cars. Part of the problem was that the people running towards us were at mile 26, so they were sprinting for a strong finish. A guy ran right into me because he didn’t see that it was two-way until it was too late. I was running all the way to the right and there were pedestrians just past the curb and another runner to my left coming towards me, so I couldn’t swerve to avoid him. I’m sure this was a startling way to finish the race, and it made me get pretty frustrated and in my head for a while. Then the race had a loop that runners had to do twice, which included some narrow dirt trail with roots and rocks at miles ~21 and ~25. I feel like this was a weird choice to have people navigate that terrain, plus a double loop, so far into the race. I would have gladly repeated a chunk of the downtown part instead, even if it was hilly. This was my first marathon. Overall I’m glad I did it and will pay close attention to the course of the next race I sign up for.

A+ for the pickle juice! Holy moly that was good.