The Southern Fried Half Marathon is part of the Outer Banks Marathon weekend held over the Veterans Day weekend in November. It’s at the beach, which is already a bonus, it’s on a 3 day weekend (usually Sunday) so Monday’s a holiday), and it’s in November so the weather is cool but not cold usually. The Expo is Friday evening and all day Saturday with a 5k and fun run, and then the marathon and half marathon are on a Sunday. I ran the Southern Fried Half marathon and it was my first half marathon. Since the race is in the Outer Banks, its flat. You start about Milepost 10 in Nags Head and run mainly on the highway (Rt 158 bypass) and over the bridge onto Roanoke Island, ending in downtown Manteo. The expo was medium size, had a lot of vendors, easy parking at the middle school, and the 5k and fun run were outside on the school track. Packet pickup was simple and you get a nice long sleeve technical shirt with the race logo. They have other shirts, hats and jackets with the marathon / half marathon logo available for purchase. The marathon in 2019 had about 600 entrants and the half had about 1200 just for perspective. The weather was perfect, no wind, sunny, 48 at the start going to 53. The start was easy parking and well coordinated, corrals moved up and went off smoothly. Quite a few spectators along the route, and you wind through a couple of neighborhoods so lots of cheering there. Aid stations were every mile or two, all good, lots of porta potties along the route also. They do provide pacers as well. Since this was my first half, I went out slowly, basically at my corrals pace around 10:30 mi or so. There were enough distractions that the miles slipped by pretty easily. I just ran by feel and stayed at a comfortable pace. Around mile 9, you turn to go over the bridge to Manteo. The scenery is beautiful as you cross the water. Folks make a big deal over “the hill” which is the bridge. It’s a long slow rise with one big hump where it’s elevated for boat access, but it’s about 50 feet. If you train on any kind of hills, it shouldn’t be an issue. The finish is in downtown Manteo and they have a post-race festival with free food and beer as part of your entry, and more for sale, plus a band playing and other vendors. Manteo has lots of little shops you can wander into also. The medals were pretty nice also. I thought it was well run, a fast course, and good swag. And you’re at the beach on a long weekend. What more could you want? Oh, and since the race is point-to-point, they have shuttles back and forth. Visit me at https://www.aseniorrunner.com to see what other races I’m running.