• Oak Island,
    North Carolina,
    United States
  • February
  • 3 miles/5K, 13.1 miles/Half Marathon, 26.2 miles/Marathon
  • Road Race
  • Event Website

James Dunbar

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, United States
0 8
2020
"Great race put on by Coastal Race Productions...2 half marathon courses to choose from!"
Overall
T-Shirts/SWAG
Aid Stations
Course Scenery
Expo Quality
Elevation Difficulty
Parking/Access
Race Management
James Dunbar's thoughts:

They do packet pickup the morning of, super close to race starting line and trust me, they’ll be ready for you no matter how early you arrive to pick up your bib etc. Coastal Race Productions always offers nice swag. This time around it was a nicely ventilated running hat! They also have inexpensive swag purchase options like soft cotton tee shirts for like 15 bucks and beach towels, fleece blankets. Nice tee and hat design. You can pay for these online when you sign up in advance and they’ll have them for you at packet pickup. They always do a packet pickup the day before somewhere local, but it really isn’t an expo…I mean they’ll have a few energy gels, some socks, and handheld water bottles available to buy, but not much really.

This race offers a full marathon (which I believe the free giveaway for running that distance was a long sleeve quarter zip), half marathon, 5k and a 1 mile fun run. You can customize your bib up to 10 letters if you sign up well in advance and post race eats are your choice of 1 cold (though they try and keep it warm) slice of Papa John’s pizza or some pulled pork bbq (get this) with Texas toast, water, and a draft beer (Land Shark and 1 other like Coors Light on tap).
Like most races, happiness is often weather dependent and for 2020 it was a bit windy and in the 30’s at the race’s inception, but once the sun came up, it warmed up and you were good to go without gloves or long sleeves. Post race you’ll want a jacket minimum though because it can get gusty and you’ll be hot and sweaty.
Bring your own gels, though they do have frequent water stops and porta johns along the way.

Halfers run much of the full marathon course (it’s shared at the same time), but it never seemed super crowded except at the start of the race. They have a pro photographer that tries to take pics of every single entrant (I usually get 2 or 3 keepers) that she will post on Facebook a day or two after the race. Just follow the race page on FB and you’ll see all the photos…and there are a lot of them!

Age group awards available for all distances and are grouped in 5 year increments. The medals are indeed very big (hence it’s called BAM—Big Ass Medals), and the longer the distance you complete, the larger your finisher’s medal. They have a dj with music playing and doing announcements, you know, typical race stuff. Lots of porta johns at the start and finish, but get there early to get parking close to the start line.

Volunteers are all over directing traffic and helping out, but this is a small town race so there’s very, very few spectators, especially super early in the morning. No matter…for the full marathon and half marathon distances, you run right past a neat lighthouse. 5k’ers don’t get out that far to see the lighthouse unfortunately. For the most part the beach is hidden by homes, though you do run right alongside the beach much of the 2nd half of the race. And though this is a small town race, I’d say they get 1k entrants across all distances, maybe more.

Overall, this is a fun race that draws a fun crowd, the medals and swag are good, and the CRP (Coastal Race Productions) people definitely know how to organize a race. Follow them on Facebook and look for a discount code on Black Friday that’s usually good for 20 percent off all their future races, but is only good for like 1 or 2 days before expiring. In the Myrtle Beach and southern North Carolina area, CRP puts on the best races for sure. Consistently fun and well organized.

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