Located just south of Charleston, SC is the small island of Kiawah. If you are vacationing for this race I suggest booking everything in advance, because unless you are willing to pay $250 at the Sanctuary you are going to have to stay in Charleston, which is about a 45 min drive. There are no hotels on Johns Island, which you must drive through to get to Kiawah. I had the privilege of living oh johns island and having family that lives on Kiawah, so parking for the race for me was easy. For others there was a parking lot about 3 miles from the start line where runners were bused in.
The expo was was well stocked with many different vendors and lots of sales. They had anything you could want for race day, especially if you had forgotten something at home. The only downfall was the “race swag” you received was a long sleeve tech shirt. it was nice but for the $ you pay for the race I was hoping for something a bit more. What did make up for it was the post race party, they had a few food trucks, plenty of drinks, hot cocoa included, and a free buffet.
The course itself was very scenic. There were views of big beautiful houses, a few golf courses, and lots of amazing views of the water. In previous year pasted the marathon course was just double of the half, which to me is not fun. This year there was only a few miles that you had to double, so that made me happy. Being that Kiawah is an island there was absolutely no elevation changes, I think we were actually below sea level during the entire run. BUT it is a BQ course so you will probably do well if you are coming down from the mountains to try and qualify. I normally run my longer races with a camelbak so I do not stop at the aid stations, that being said there seemed to be enough. With the temperature being in the 40s that day I would say that they had an adequate amount, but they could have had something other than just water and Gatorade.
All-in-all it was a well planned race with no hiccups and no real complaints. Would definitely recommenced this race!