I have run KC Marathon two years in a row now. Last year I competed in the marathon, and this year I paced the half marathon.

The best parts about KCM, porta potty lines are super short. The crowd was pretty small. Parking was easy, and a nice perk was having it in a garage gave some cover from the chilly wind last year. The race offers gear check, but with parking being so close, and the lines being short we were able to go back and forth to our car multiple times. Your bib has a ticket for food and beer from seasons 51. It was pretty good. On top of that there were many other vendors offering drinks and snacks. My favorite was chik fil a sandwiches.

The race organizers do a great job ensuring the course is well marked and there are a lot of aid stations along the way. There is water, Gatorade at every station an GU one time for the half marathon.

The course itself is hilly. One negative is that the course has changed many times. This isn't a the fault of race organizers, as the race has to adjust to new construction and regulations of the new street car added down town. KCM has pacers for the half and full marathon, they use a group that most kc runners are familiar with. the group uses something called smart pacing, which starts out conservative or starts out with a few warm up miles before increasing the pace. They pace adjust based on even effort, and not even pacing. It seemed like the pace bands this year were left from last year, so the pacing didn't necessarily match the course.

KC has done away with their elite/sub elite incentives. which would comp entries for runners who met a time standard and prize money for overall winners. This unfortunately, seems to deter a lot of strong local competition from competing.