On 2/18/17 I was in Gulf Shores for an archery tournament and had the opportunity to run in the Sea Turtle Half Marathon. The Sea Turtle Half Marathon and Sweetheart 5k are put on each year by the LA Fleet Feet Running Club and hosted by the The Hangout in Gulf Shores. The half course is a flat out and back, and ran up the beach line (which was beautiful). The cost of the race when I registered in December was just $50, which I think is great for a half (& this was a good one). Along with registration you of course got a finisher's medal (which was so cute) and a long sleeve t-shirt. I was impressed with the quality of the medal and shirt (they didn't go cheap). They also had a packet pickup the night before at The Hangout if you wanted to stop in. I took advantage of the opportunity because normally I'm picking up my packet the morning of the race. Pick up was simple and quick and the volunteers were so nice.
The race started at 7:30 that morning, and I was up at 5:30 making a quick trip to the archery range to drop off shooters and equipment. Once I got back, I got ready, taped up my right hip really good, and walked two blocks to Alvin's Island at the race start. We had great weather! The whole week before, they were giving rain on Saturday morning, but thankfully it all passed through on Friday night and the temperatures were great.
At the start there wasn't a chip timer like I am use to, but there was a pretty cool drone videoing us (you can see the video of the start on their FB page). On the course, there were four water stops and at the turn around the was a station with Gatorade and GU packets. Running into the finish, the atmosphere was great! Post race, all runners had awesome sandwich wraps, fruit, cookies, and plenty of music waiting for them at The Hangout. Big Beach Brewery was there too, but I don't drink so I didn't even check that out or use my tickets.
They gave overall awards and age group awards to finishers. My finish time on my watch was 1:54:51 and I actually placed third in my age group (all the fast people were running somewhere else) and got a cute coffee cup. This was not my fastest time at all and definitely not my goal time for this race (I was hoping for sub 1:52:00), but I had a really fun experience and realized hilly races help my time more than I thought! Overall, this was a fabulous race and the volunteers and atmosphere was awesome. If by some amazing chance that the stars align and this race falls on the same weekend as ASA Foley next year, I will definitely run this race again!