This race had the best food and drink I have ever had in a marathon: Two pastas, bean soup, various sweets, and beer on tap. Highly recommended! The only problem was with the computerized results. Everyone who finished with a time between 5:37 and 6:34 was omitted from the results. Hopefully, the organizers can recover those results!

Kiawah Island is a fast, flat course. The start is very congested with the marathoners mixed with the half. The narrow bike path toward the end of the first half slowed my pacing down because it got congested again with half marathoners. Also, there was a water station on this narrow portion!! It's a beautiful course. A very low-key event with a limited field of 1,000 marathoners. The post-race party was classy.

This was my second marathon (did Philly in '07). We (my family came with me) found it well organized, with friendly volunteers, and the shuttles worked great (IF you got there on time from off-island). The start was fine, and the mile markers were not at drink stops. Biggest complaint? Ditch the bike path running please. It's crowded, bumpy, winding, and hard to maintain a pace on path like that. This was the first race I've run of any distance on bike paths. Other than that, well done indeed - very good post-run food, beer, etc. See you next year. Let's all hope for better weather. :-)

This is an amazing race! Great organization, excited and helpful volunteers, beautiful scenery, and it was easy for family to get around to cheer you on.

The medal this year was interesting and unique. It is glass - not sure if I like it, as I am sure it can broken very easily. The shirt is great! Long-sleeve, blue t-shirt with a great logo. This is a shirt I actually wear from a race. They had a nice family room for the family to wait out of the cold.

Loved the post-race hot chocolate!! I was beyond impressed with this race.

One note: the start is very crowded but not really that bad. Really clears up by mile 3. I had no issues running around people to get on pace, which was 8:35. I did notice a few people weaving around trying to get on pace. Really there was no reason for that, as it did clear up pretty quickly. Those ones who were jumping on the sides of the road to get on pace wasted a bunch energy. I also had no issues with crowding on the bike path. There are some spectators out there; they cheered and were fun!

I PRed here by 7 minutes. Thanks to the Kiawah Race staff for making this an amazing experience.

The course itself is fine, but the narrow paths made it hard to keep your goal pace. Walkers and slower runners wouldn't keep to one side. Also people didn't queue according to their pace.

I really enjoyed this marathon. I was very skeptical of the two-loop course and was not looking forward to it. However, I found I really liked the course. Being an out-and-back-loop sort of course, it broke the marathon down into 4 parts, which I found mentally easier to deal with. Therefore, I enjoyed the course much more than I thought I would.

Other pros: Great, unique medal; and a fantastic marathon post-race party, with great food, unlimited beer, wonderful blue-grass band, and an indoor venue (so you could get warm and stay warm). We stayed all afternoon and enjoyed the party. Plenty of fluids on the course. I even skipped a few water stations, which I rarely do. Very scenic, flat course. No ocean view, but some very beautiful marsh and river views - and pancake flat. No traffic to speak of. Extremely efficient and organized packet pickup. We also picked up our accommodations stuff directly across from the packet pickup - very efficient. This island is usually well out of my price range for a vacation, but the accommodations are very reasonable for this marathon. We were able to get a 3-bedroom villa for 6 of us for less than what we would have paid for 2 hotel rooms, and we were within a half-mile of the start. Very convenient and affordable.

CONS: The t-shirt was okay but nothing to get excited about. Not enough port-a-potties on the course. They were only at a few places and there were lines. They really need port-a-potties pretty much at every water station or close to that. We had friends in our party who ran the half marathon, and their post-race party was not nearly as nice as the marathon's. Of course, they paid less money, so maybe you get what you pay for. The pace signs at the start were very inaccurate. If I had lined up at my pace, I would have been woefully backed up at the start. Thankfully I have a lot of experience, and I sort of know where I need to be in relation to the start line, and I used my common sense. Even so, there were still lots of slow, slow people in front of me. Why do those slow people get at the front? I don't understand. Anyway, I loved this marathon and would definitely do it again.

This was my third full marathon and about 20th half marathon, many of them destination races. I would definitely do this one again. It is an extremely well-organized event with great support. Course is very scenic and flat. The after-race party was beyond words; I felt so special. On-island accommodations were nice and very reasonably priced. They offered bikes at no charge to spectators and it was wonderful to have my sister ride beside me some on that second loop when the going got tough.

Ran the half yesterday. Perfect cool weather.

PROS: nice staff, well organized race.

CONS: corals went 6, 7, 8, WALKER. (What about the 10-, 11-, and 12-minute milers?) It was also crowded on the bike path portion, and runners were going in different directions on the road. Additionally, traffic was not slowing down much when passing. Wear your Garmin (mile markers were easy to miss), and bring your own cheering section (spectators few and far between). I'll run it again, at least to soak afterward in the Sanctuary's wonderful tub!!!

This was my first marathon, so my opinion may be way off-base. Overall, the race seemed pretty well organized except for the start. It was just horribly crowded and people were not lined up in their pace zones. I planned to run an 8:20 pace, lined up between the 8- and 9-minute pace signs, and then spent the first three or four miles zigzagging and running up the side banks to get around slower runners. Also, the course spends some time on very narrow bicycle paths. Once most of the half marathoners have finished, the running becomes like it should be all along. Like I said, this was my first marathon, so all of this may be normal, but for me it was not a good experience.

My only regret is that we never actually had a view of the ocean on this island marathon. Lots of beautiful scenery, extremely helpful and friendly volunteers, and outstanding race organization made this a whole lot of fun. The pre-race pasta dinner and post-race food were far better than most.