Panama City Beach Marathon

Prior to 2022, the course was decent: Flat, 13.1 miles out to St. Andrew State Park and back with some nice glimpses of the ocean. In 2022, it became a 6.55 miles x 4 course on the side of the roads with terrible congestion. The volunteers could not keep up with the demands for water from marathoners and half-marathoners on a 4-way traffic. I will not run this race again on the same course.

I ran this race on 12/3/22. This was my 6th marathon and I've done countless half marathons. I would classify this as a rather novice race. They have limited funds and rely on non-running volunteers, who we of course appreciate! This is an out back out back course, basically a 6.6 mile course on repeat. That's ok because it breaks it up, but unfortunately you cross traffic with a huge number of half marathon runners coming the other way and add in active traffic. It is safe and police helped tremendously. However, the physical and mental toll of weaving around slow runners and avoiding collisions really added up. Too many pinpoint turnarounds. Plenty of aid stations though. Our race day got hot, 76 and sunny when we finished. Lots of spectators at the finish line and that was nice but sparse on the course. DJ at the start/finish/turnaround was the only music. Why not put some on the course? Overall it was a laid back race and very easy parking and expo given small numbers but I would not do again as I spent too much energy dodging runners. Thanks for the race!

I ran this race for the first time in 2017. It's within driving distance for me. The marathon was much smaller than I expected for a beach race. Most ran the half. COURSE: First off, I'm not a fan of flat courses. This is a pancake flat course with about a 25 foot gain/loss according to my Garmin. It's basically an out & back with a few out & backs inside a state park. The road was partially under construction (for 2017) and traffic was not halted. There were several instances where cars came frighteningly close to runners. Police were at major intersections. The water stations were at each mile which is great giving the heat that day. The high temp on race day was in the high 70s. However, several were running out of cups and very few had Gatorade/Powerade! This was a major problem for a lot of people! Some stations were manned by volunteers who clearly had no desire to be there and had no experience with races. At one station I passed - the guys were sitting in their car on their phones and didn't notice that we had even passed and walked up to pick up a cup. Then there were one or two manned by older individuals (there was a group of older ladies) who were very enthusiastic. The course was also poorly marked. A local who was familiar with the course was running with me and he is the only reason I went the correct way on several intersections. More arrows and volunteers are needed at turns & turnarounds. As far as the scenery, it was so-so. There was only one section where you could see the beach. May 2-3 miles worth. The rest was the busy Front Beach Blvd (with traffic) and then neighborhoods. The neighborhoods were nice, but being a beach race, It would have been nice to see the actual beach for more than a few miles and peeking through condo buildings. FINISH LINE: They had water & oranges. That's it. No Gatorade, no pizza/chips/etc! (Margaritaville was giving out free beer & gumbo.) There were a lot of people finishing dehydrated and overheated (from lack of sports drink on the course!). There was no ambulance or medical staff present either. This is a major problem! Overall - With a race that claims "Run through Paradise", they have some serious cleaning up to do. I wouldn't pay to run this race again.