Palm Beaches Marathon Festival Half Marathon

This half marathon took place Sunday December 4th.  I ran this as part of a 16 mile long run I had scheduled for that weekend.  It worked out great for this purpose as I didn't get bored and the 16 miles went fairly easily.  Having said that, this is not a race I would recommend. This is a shame since the course is absolutely beautiful... all along the water and through some neighborhoods in Palm Beach.

Source

The course was on the road right along the water, I told you it was beautiful :)

The things I tought were the worst parts of the weekend:

-"Expo" was a joke, so small.  They should have just called it Packet Pick-Up

-The shirt I received was a cotton tee shirt, not a tech shirt.  Not that I am desperate for anymore running shirts, it is just lame for a half marathon

-Started late

-Ran out of water by Mile 6.... so LAME.  There was the half and the marathon going on at the same time, but at Mile 8.5 we broke off from the marathoners and started heading to the finish.  At that point the half peeps were getting first crack at the water, so I can only imagine that there was nothing left for the marathoners when they were making their way to the end.  Feel so bad for them.  I have never experienced Mile 24 or 25 of marathon (yet), but I would assume water would be one of the few things to make me happy.  I would be so mad if there was nothing available.  

There was also no electrolyte drink available.  That made me nervous because it was kind of warm that day and I sweat a lot.... like salt covering my face a lot.

Luckily for me, the hotel I stayed in the night before was right on the course, so once I got to it (at mile 11), I ran over to my room, chugged some coconut water and got my own bottle of water to run with the rest of the way.  Marathoners, I did not drink any of your water... you're welcome.

Yes, I totally left the course during a race.  Since I was running 16 total that day I totally could not have cared less about my time.  As I was running off the course, one of the cops was like "Hey no cheating"... the direction I was heading in was the opposite way of the finish line, so that wasn't even a possibility :)

Not to be a total downer with this post, the good things about the race:

-I got an Active Schwaggle deal and only paid $45.  Total bargain... love those Active Schwaggle deals!  Last minute registration fee was $90. Totally not worth that.

-Beautiful course.  It is an extremely flat, fast course and the marathon is a Boston qualifier.  For people interested in that sort of thing, this would be a good race... just bring your own water.

-Start/finish lines were close to the hotel I stayed at so I could run to and from the race to get in my 16 miles

-Volunteers decorated their water stops, very cool!  The cops along the course were great.  This wasn't a big race, so not every road was closed, but they were great about cars crossing, etc.

-Medal... not super fancy, but I do love the bling!

Sorry for the blurry picture