Race to Space Marathon & Half Marathon

I've been running marathons for 27 years now, yet this was the very first one where the entirety of the course was completely closed to traffic aside from the occasional police vehicle. This made it possible the full width of the (very good) roads and take the shortest line. The course was also remarkably well-marked with arrows taped to the pavement making it clear where you had to go. I was surprised at how beautiful and pleasant the course was. It stays within Cummings Research Park—apparently, it's the second largest research park in the U.S.—with lots of green grass and streets lined with cherry blossoms, which were in full bloom. The trees provided some shade, which mitigated the weather that was forecast to reach 84F later on. Helping with the latter was that the race started promptly at 7:00 a.m. sharp. The course was more undulating than I expected, but nothing was steep or long enough to warrant describing the course as "hilly." There were water/Gatorade stations every few miles, and enthusiastic spectators every mile or so. Apart from the race itself, Huntsville was a great city to visit—particularly it has one of the coolest museums I've ever been to, that being the U.S. Space & Rocket Center! Definitely go to that for a few hours if you are from out of town! In sum, this was a superbly organized marathon. I posted a full blog of my experience. You can do a web search for "Felix Wong Race to Space Marathon" if you are interested in learning more.