Gansett Marathon Race REVIEW

For you newer readers, my race REVIEWS are where I review the race itself, not my personal performance so you can decide if it’s a race you would ever want to do.

The Gansett Marathon was held on April 16th, the Saturday before Boston, in Narragansett, Rhode Island.  The race is in its’ 2nd year and cost only $60 to enter.  Friday night before the race there was a $15 pasta dinner as well.

It’s a very small race, less than 200 runners, but it’s growing steadily every year.  (There were about 60 runners in the first year)

Here is a great article in Runner’s World about the marathon and its’ founder.  And here is another one.

What makes Gansett different and unique:

EXPO

There wasn’t one.  I walked into the Village Inn about 30 minutes before race time to pick up my bib number.  What was great that all the runners were able to congregate inside where it was warm and there were real bathrooms.

RACE

This is a small, no thrills, serious runner’s race.  Because the qualifying times are 5 minutes faster than Boston (and getting faster for next year) there are some speedy runners in attendance which was kinda cool for a change.

The race started right on time, and we immediately ran under the famed stonewalled tower thing.

The course runs along the water, and as a result, was incredibly windy that day.  Probably the windiest race I’ve ever ran in.

For how small the race is, there was plenty of water, Gatorade and people handing out energy gels.  There were aid stations every couple miles and gels at 2-3 different spots.  There weren’t however, many spectators.

COURSE

The course was really, really beautiful.  We ran along the ocean, past gorgeous mansions, through Galilee, a little fishing port, and through Narragansett itself.

It’s a 2 loop course, one 16 mile loop and one 10 mile loop.  I’m not sure if it’s even scientifically possible, but it felt like every direction we went, the wind was hitting us head on.

The one downside of the course is that there were areas where you were running on the side of the road with not that much room coned off for us runners.  Cars would whiz by pretty close to us since they didn’t close the whole lane.

It wasn’t really hilly, a few rollers but nothing bad.  Mostly flat, just very windy.

POST RACE

Upon finishing, we were handed cups of water and a patch, no medal.  Strange, but ok.  The tech tees were nice and even in women’s fit and sizes.

Going with the theme of the race, there wasn’t much at the finish so we made a quick exit.

SUMMARY

This is truly a no frills, no sponsors, no advertising race.  There aren’t any extras, but the whole idea behind it is pretty cool: the people who are there are there to race and that’s it.

I like that the qualification times are tougher than Boston’s and I think they should get even tougher.  Really make it a hard to get into race.

The course was scenically gorgeous but the weather was tough.  The people were super friendly, and it was a lot of fun.  A different feel of a race.  Overall I’d rate it a 7.9 out of 10.

TIPS

Be prepared for whatever inclement weather there will be.

Stay one night and then leave; there isn’t really anything to do in Narrangansett in April.

Be prepared to run with fast, serious runners.

Bring your ipod if you love running with music because you might be running alone for a lot of the race.

**Go tell Linds Congratulations!!

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