Manatee Marathon & Tallahassee Ultra Distance Classic

Loop course, lots of aid, super fast. My fastest 50-miler by far. Flat and fast on pavement. Beautiful trees and the spring is awesome to dip your legs into after a hard run.

Very relaxing atmosphere and setting. Great organization. Everything very straightforward and easy for the runners. Good support at 3 points on course. The course itself is great if you want to focus on steady running. You can run the same pace all day. If you're looking for scenery and variety, there's not so much of that. Because it's a 10k loop, you see the other runners in all categories quite a bit, which gives a lot of variety, people to chase and pace from, and encouragement.

I was told that it would be four loops and an extra short loop at the beginning. After running the first loop in the extra first loop I was told that they messed up on the mileage and the race would not be certified and I would have to run an extra loop in my last lap. It was very negative and very discouraging. I did as I was instructed I when to cross the finish line my watch said I was a 26 miles. The other thing that was very discouraging was no one said congratulations. I literally had to find the person with the metals and say I just finished and then they said oh and handed me a metal. it seems like this was more of an ultra marathon and they just added in the 26.2 option. But I'm sure glad I had run other marathons, and this wasn't my first. Having said this. It could've been a really great marathon and if they worked a little harder I would've had an amazing time.