This was my first marathon and it was a great one! Charleston is a beautiful city and this Marathon was a great tour of Charleston and its surroundings. That being said, the course at times was barren and monotonous. Charleston has so much to offer, I feel that this race could have done so much more to feature that rather than running for an eternity into the bowels of North Charleston and the Navy Yards. Because of this, there were also very few spectator opportunities and crowd support except at the beginning, finish, and along Park Circle.

January is a beautiful month in Charleston, but on this particular day it was literally below freezing for the first three hours and barely above freezing for the finish. I was a block of ice at the end. The entire race was also against a hard, cold wind. Obviously both of these could not be controlled and doing a marathon in Charleston not in Winter would be a HUGE mistake.

The race overall was incredibly well organized and all of the volunteers and aid station workers were great and amazing. The start and finish are not at the same spot, but it is incredibly easy to get between the two via provided transportation. I will definitely do the Charleston Marathon again: it is an amazing little Marathon. I hope however, that the cold and wind are not as intense.