Sarasota 1/2 is consistently a good race and the biggest event in the Sarasota/Bradenton area. The medals are AMAZING which is one reason I continue to do this event year after year. They are always huge and have a dolphin on them...gorgeous! The course can be a little boring once you are done with the Ringling/St. Armand's portion...the first 6 miles are the most scenic, but the last 7 miles are in the neighborhoods and on 41 which is pretty much business buildings and can get a bit monotonous. They did change the course this year which was nice because they added more shaded areas back in the neighborhoods to the route.

There is no "expo," there is only packet pick up at multiple stores in the Sarasota/Bradenton area. While the stores are awesome and packet pick up runs smoothly, I always like race expos because there are vendors there that you don't often get to see outside of expos, so I feel like this is something that this event is lacking. They could easily set up an expo at one of the parks in Sarasota and invite vendors to come out like St. Anthony's Triathlon or other local events do.

The parking was a little confusing this year as there was really no one telling you where you could/couldn't park. I ended up following other runners to a nearby parking lot and just parking there. It didn't say you couldn't park there, but it would have been nice to have some direction as to where to park.

Race management is awesome- they are very nice and helpful and will do almost anything the runners ask them to do. That is one huge plus- they are very accommodating. In 2017, last minute I switched over to the relay because I didn't feel like running the whole event and they didn't charge me an up charge from the regular half price, which was nice. They are helpful like that.

This is one I usually have on my radar if only because it's my hometown race and it's usually a pretty good quality event. It's also usually a pretty last minute addition to my race calendar, but I can't stop getting those amazing medals! :-)