Kiawah Island Marathon

This race has negative and positives. Negatives 1st - The parking was horrible. Probably 75-90% of the runners came from off the island. Way too many cars trying to come in the only entrance. Possible solution, open up the other 2 lanes to have four lanes coming in, but don't squeeze them down to one lane. - 2nd negative... the start, never saw such a mess!!! - 3rd negative.. you can't run out of water and Gatorade out on the course at the stops. Went 3 miles without either. - 4th negative... never run out of medals... PERIOD!!! The Kiawah Island marathon committee has to ask themselves... HAVE WE OUTGROWN THIS LOCATION??? Now the positives... - It was a great course. Beautiful scenery!! - Good fan support (where applicable). - Expo... good size for this size of marathon. - The volunteers were very helpful and friendly. The volunteers out on the course were awesome also. - The post meal... the BEST I've had in all my marathoning. With all this being said... we did have a great experience!! Please work on the negatives!!!!!

I had wanted to run this marathon for some time as I find this area quite beautiful, however I was disappointed to find that much of course felt like running through suburbs with little natural scenery or views. In addition, I guess the island is small because the course had more turns and curlicues than a Candy Land board. There were several overlapping segments, making for an oddly repetitive monotonous experience. The organization was not great: very crowded bib pickup and the start felt chaotic. The race started with several minutes delay as there were a few buses still trying to get on the island. I stayed at the resort thinking that I could walk to the start, however, I didn't quite do my homework. Turns out I had to take the 15-20min shuttle the morning of. On return, there was quite a long wait for shuttle again which I hadn't expected for a smaller race. There were also long lines for food and drink as I think this race is catered more to the overwhelming majority of 1/2 marathoners and spectators. I value smaller races because the logistics are simple and the course more interesting than big city races but that was not the case with Kiawah.

This group knows how to make all runners feel special. The organization is top notch. The course is beautiful.