The course is flat and shaded for the first 18 miles, but the unprotected last 8 miles amplified the effects of the sunny 72 degrees. I was very disappointed to check my times after they posted the updated times only to learn the times were more messed up than the original. Medal is OUTSTANDING!

Last year this event was cancelled due to a freak snow storm, but this year Mother Nature made up for it with great weather. New course is really good; it was nice running through the old Myrtle Beach Air Force base and the impressive memorial. The volunteers, police and EMTs are all first-class; and water stops and food were all over.

On the Ocean Blvd. part of the course, a lot of people visiting Myrtle Beach came out to cheer us on.

There seems to be a problem with the timing, but I will not blame them for this - stuff happens. For those who stayed away because of last year, you missed a great marathon.

This was my fourth marathon. I thought everything went great - great course (very good for PR), and great weather this year (although a bit warm for my preference with running, with 60s at the start climbing to low 70s, it was great for the beach after)! Very well organized. Great after-race party - no complaints at all. Highly recommended!

Huge increase in registry over prior years. I had to register at the expo because I missed the online cutoff 10 days before the race. They were at 2,300 Friday morning, but I don't think they hit the 2,750 cutoff. Good, mid-sized expo, and I was happy to get 25% off of my favorite running shoe. I thought it was a bit tacky to charge $3 for parking at the convention center, but there was an open parking area south of the Office Depot across the street that I and others took advantage of. Broadway on the Beach was an excellent place to hang out at after perusing the expo, and finding a hotel to stay at is not a problem in this town.

There appeared to be plenty of porta-lets at the race start, and what I really appreciated was smart utilization of the divided highway the course started on: halfers on the south lane and marathoners on the north lane. By the time we merged together on the first left turn into mile 1, there was no congestion. I wish other race directors would get a clue and split off halfers.

Though the course was essentially a race oval, there were usually enough interesting things to look at or other runners around to chat with that the time went by quickly. Spectators were enthusiastic and spread around the course. Nice medal and I really liked the design of the tech shirt. The beach blanket they give is really heavy duty. I really liked how the set up the final stretch for the finish. Food was adequate and they appeared to have enough therapists for complementary massages, though I had to hunt a little to find the tent. Parking at the SW corner of Broadway on the Beach was plentiful and convenient.

Very fast course with just a few very minor inclines. You don't get to see much of the beach but I am usually focused so much on the run that I don't care what I see. It turned out to be 56-64 degrees with 10-15 mile per hour winds, which got a little hot in the second half of the race. Glad the race started at 6:30 a.m. All the aid stations were well staffed with nice volunteers. The post-race care was excellent. Missed breaking 3 hours by one minute and 44 seconds and I am usually in the three-hour-plus-seven-to-10-minute range. Will come back again next year and try to go under three again. I'll hope for no porta-potty break next year.

As advertised, the course was flat. For me, maybe a bit too flat. I think I needed some more hills to break up the repetative nature of running the exact same terrain for 26.2 miles. The spectators were minimal, but considering the size of the field, this is to be expected. I was impressed with how well staffed the water stations were and how many there were. Also the volunteers and police were super nice. With that said, the race organizers may want to shift some of those volunteers to the start and finish lines. I needed water at the start and was amazed that I could not find a water table. At the finish, water was WAY far from the finish line. In addition, bag pickup was not organized at all. The bags were in unorganized piles. There was only one volunteer and she told me (nicely) that I would have to find the bag myself. Asking a half-dazed marathon finisher to sort through piles of bags makes no sense. These issues were not major, but considering how simple they are to solve, I would think the organizers could copy some of the tried and true techniques used at other races.

First off, many thanks to all the volunteers that helped make this event happen. You guys were great!

The good: The course is fast and mostly shaded (early start and buildings along ocean area) allowing for fast times/PR. Great volunteers and traffic control. Nice medal and post-race activities.

The bad: New timing system fiasco... did not capture splits and provided inaccurate results. Race director decided to go with a cheaper less accurate system instead of using a the more reliable '"Chronotrack" system provided by RMS Sports. This new system was being touted as better alternative, but turned out to be quite the opposite.

After reading what had happened last year with the canceling the marathon because of the threat of snow, I wasn't sure I wanted to run this one. But I'm glad I did.

The race was well organized and the volunteers were numerous and helpful. They did not close the roads but traffic was light and well controlled.

The course was not run through a "rundown" part of town (as many city marathons do). Some of the other runners told me that this was a "new" course. I thought they did a good job of picking the route. It was not too flat but it didn't really have hills just slight ups and downs - just enough change to keep the legs from hurting.

My wife crews me and she told me some of the traffic control could have been better but we could not see that from the runners perspective.

I expected a little more from the expo but they more than made up for it in the after-race care they had for the runners. Plenty of food and drinks. I especially liked the chicken soup and cold beer.

We did not stay for the post-race party but the locals said they were looking forward to it.

Great weather.
Great course.
Great volunteers.
Do not miss.

I came from the Rocky Mountains to run in the South. Many airlines had already canceled flights, so it was hard to get here to begin with. I never dreamed they even might cancel this event for three inches of snow. What was reported late Friday afternoon was that up to six inches of snow could be accommodated without affecting the running of the race, but anything beyond that would need to be revisited before start time. That at least sounded like a reasonable course of action.

I was in bed by 9:00 p.m., so I did not find out about the cancellation until I was on my way to catch the shuttle to the starting line. What a disappointment. What was later reported by the media was that at 10:00 p.m. the race officials were still "go" for the marathon. At 10:30 Friday night, city officials took the decision away from the race director and forced cancellation of the race. They were wrong for doing that, and should have at least waited until daybreak to decide. Even the weather forecasters said the snow would be finished falling by midnight. The shrubs and grass areas accumulated snow, but most of what fell on the warmer pavement areas melted nearly as fast as it fell. So it was wet, though some slush remained in shady spots. And many of us have run in snow, ice, and rain. So we would have got wet feet during the course. Big deal. By mid-morning the weather was great for running outside - partly sunny and mid-40's, with light and variable winds.

Then many runners ran the course anyway. It was much more dangerous and hazardous for those runners to be out there with no support or protection trying to run the course - and people got lost! I was out there too and saw more than one person nearly get hit by a turning vehicle.

Myrtle Beach politicians got this one wrong. But in the past they have offended other sport groups too, who have come to town to spend their money. And locals are all too willing to talk about it and let you know what they think. The potential remains for a repeat performance by the City next time (whether it is snow or something else). I do not intend to come back - next year or beyond.