Marco Island Half Marathon
Marco Island, Florida
Sunday, March 16, 2014

I race walked the Marco Island Half Marathon on Marco Island, Florida on March 16, 2014. The skies were clear, there was only a slight breeze, and the temperature was 63 degrees at the start and in the upper 70’s when I finished; thus, the last 3 miles were somewhat hot. The water/Gatorade stations were located from 1 to 2 miles apart and were manned by plenty of enthusiastic volunteers. The course was on roadways that were open to traffic. About 6 of the miles were in a gated community that had very little traffic, two of the miles were on a side road that also had very little traffic, and the rest was on a main road that had quite a bit of traffic that were encouraged to drive slowly by numerous police and volunteers. The shoulder of this main road was wide enough for a person; however, it was slopped for drainage and made race walking there very difficult. As a result I stayed on the more level edge of the traffic lane most of the time as did many of the other participants. It was an additionally unfortunate reality on this part of the course, the participants had to travel in the same direction as the traffic. I prefer the traffic approaching from the front. I feel safer that way. There was a high level bridge that was crossed twice from mile 9 to mile 10.3. I knew the course had this; however, I was surprised to find much up and down on the parts of the course that were not on the main road. The event, which had both a half marathon and a 5k, having a total of approximately 500 participants, was very well organized and fun to do.