Gasparilla Marathon Race Review

Gasparilla Race weekend is a big racing festival and has something for everyone - there is a Kids Race, 5k and 15k on Saturday and a Half and Full Marathon on Sunday. This is a weekend that the whole family can enjoy. If you are so inclined you can run the 15k, 5K and Half or Full Marathon over the 2 days - very similar to the Gooofy Challange they do at Disney.

The race is run very well and things are very easy in Tampa. You can get to the expo very easy, there is a lot of parking , and if you need to stay in Tampa there are a lot of hotels within walking distance to the race start. The shirts were pretty cool - long sleeve dry fit material shirts.

The course is flat and fast. The race starts at 6:00a so you get a good hour of running before the sun comes up. The first 6 miles are on Davis Island and are run with the half marathon. The course is very dark in some places and there are not many fans out at this hour of the morning. You do see a lot of fans on the bridge to and from Davis Island.

Mile 7 is where the half and full split - the half gets ready to head down Bayshore while the full heads in to downtown. The streets are still pretty empty because not many people live in this section of downtown. The course is well marked and supported well with aid stations through this section. There are a couple out and back sections here so you get a chance to see other runners.

At mile 12 of the marathon you merge with the half marathon runnners. This section is not great - it is pretty crowded with runners/walkers and quite frankly the half marathoners did not seem to care that a marathon was going on or that part of the road was needed to pass them. Bayshore is pretty wide so it was easier to pass on Bayshore. Tons of runners for the next several miles on this section so that made it kind of fun.

Once the half marathoners turned off and the marathon continued down Bayshore is was pretty boring again. I personally enjoyed it because it was like a nice training run - just me and my thoughts.

Heading back up Bayshore was very hard this year - like past years - because it was straight into a headwind. The other hard part about this course is - you can see downtown (where the finish line is) it seems very far away. Kind of messes with the mind!

Finish lines are always very cool - does not matter what is there - it is the finish. They had some good looking food at the finish line along with coffee, cola, water, gatorade. Lots of helpful volunteers there. There was also a place you could make free calls in case yoou were looking for someone. the medals (for you medal hounds) were pretty cool and a nice heavy quality with a bright colored ribbon.

The post race party was good - some free beer (ok more than just some). Lots of door prizes and awards for the Top 10 - age group awards are mailed.

Overall I rate the course a 7-8. The concrete is a little hard on the joints and spectator support is a little scarce in places but this course is fast - as fast as Chicago! Try this race out - it is well worth it.