Back to Coastal Delaware Running Festival Information & Reviews
R. C. from Oradell, NJ
(4/17/2024)
"Top quality race with small town feel" (about: 2024)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Coastal Delaware Running Festival
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 As a fan of the smaller marathons versus the big city races, this one perfectly fit the bill. From the details on the website and emails to the organization and communication at the event, everything is well done. The course was very well marked and marshaled. Very scenic and not boring. Easy for spectators to make it to multiple locations to see the runners. Expo was small but perfectly fine. Post race party put on by the race sponsor was one of the best, if not the best, post race events (for race of any distance) I've ever seen. Local community really supports the race events held over the weekend. I'd highly recommend this race and hope to be back. | |
K. O. from NE
(4/19/2023)
"Good race" (about: 2023)
50+ previous marathons
| 1 Coastal Delaware Running Festival
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 EVERYTHING is good for this race I will give 10 stars | |
R. H. from Milwaukee, WI
(11/17/2021)
"Beautiful Marathon" (about: 2021)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Coastal Delaware Running Festival
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 I signed up for this event and was originally supposed to run in April of 2020. Due to Covid, it was delayed until April of 2021. It was delayed yet again and finally ran on November 14th, 2021. After almost 2 years of no marathons, I was finally going to run my 16th marathon and 15th state. The wait was well worth it! The expo was small but easy to navigate and close to the start line. They provided a beer glass and a non-technical race t-shirt. I was happy to see the shirt as I have a STACK of technicals at home. The race started at 7 am prompt the following morning with it 38 degrees outside...Perfect running temp! While there were no corrals, everyone seemed to be a seasoned runner and lined up accordingly. The race started on the boardwalk and after a few miles of boardwalk and blacktop, we were in the Cape Henlopen State Park. This was a mix of paved trails, crushed stone, and bridges. It was beautiful! The back half of the race is run on a trail through the forest and the fall leaves were amazing. The course is flat and the aid stations were perfect for the size of the event. I only gave 3 stars for spectators as there were few but I would have been fine if there were zero. The medal at the end of the event was very nice. Everyone received a logoed visor at this time as well. The post race food was Grotto Pizza where you could eat as much as you wanted. I/we also had 3 free beer tickets. To sum up the event, I would rank this as one of the best marathons I have done. Anyone looking to run a full in Deleware need not look any further. | |
R. W. from North Carolina
(11/13/2019)
"One of our favorites!" (about: 2019)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Coastal Delaware Running Festival
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 This race is a hidden gem. Rehoboth Beach is a terrific venue for hosting a race. There is plenty of room to mill about before the race, though parking can be tricky, best to stay in one of the beachfront hotels. If you like scenic courses with varied surfaces (wooden boardwalks, asphalt roads, crushed gravel paths), I don't know of a better one. It's also very flat. As others noted, if you thrive on screaming spectators, this isn't your race. They run a 5K on Saturday and the half and full on Sunday. While the marathon course can seem a little crowded along some of the out/back sections in the Henlopen State Park, the wave starts and distance before those out/back sections make this a non-issue. The post race party is the best we've ever been to, hands down (over 75 races), once you find it. The swag is also top 5 (includes pint glass and useful visor). Solid expo and the entire event is very well organized. There's plenty to do in Rehoboth Beach and the surrounding area even though it's the off season along with plenty of good restaurants and bars, so try and stay for a bit. You can see our video of the race and locale on YouTube at racethenation. | |
T. S. from Indianapolis
(4/20/2019)
"Starting what we finished" (about: 2019)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Coastal Delaware Running Festival
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 2 Don't let my overall average on this rating fool you; this is a great marathon and I highly recommend it. The spectators were tremendous; there just weren't too many of them. No big deal to me, but if you like roaring throngs, you won't get it here. Loved the course with its variety of scenery and surfaces. Especially nice was the seven miles spent in Cape Henlopen State Park and about four miles on the Junction and Breakwater Trail. If you like coastal races because of the ocean views, you might be a tad disappointed because there isn't a lot of that, but for me, there was plenty and the rest of the course was outstanding and was mostly flat. A very cool medal; I put it in my top five. And both the expo and start/finish areas were well organized though I had to get a bit of a chuckle at the start/finish banner. Somebody must've woken up too early because when we crossed the starting line we could read 'finish,' and when we crossed the finish line we could read 'start.' | |
j. b. from Pennsylvania
(4/17/2019)
"Excellent marathon" (about: 2019)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 Coastal Delaware Running Festival
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 First time writing a review. Ran this marathon a few days ago. I had an excellent experience. The logistics were easy. Parked right at packet pickup. Took about 5 minutes. Race day, parked within a few hundred feet of the start. No parking issues, long walks, shuttles, etc. Able to easily seed myself in the corral. Runners quickly spread out and no fighting for running space. The course was excellent. Lots if packed gravel along with paved surfaces. Nice quiet and scenic course. Mostly flat with some gently rolling terrain at places. Miles 11-15ish were a pretty boring stretch but no complaints otherwise. Very well marked. Lots of volunteers and police presence. Aid stations about every 2 miles. Post race beer and pizza at were refreshing. Nice shirt and visor. Medals were nice if that's your thing. My PR is 3:07. Ran 3:20s and didn't BQ this attempt. I still had a great time and would do this marathon again. Thanks to the organizers for a great event! | |
Paul Isaac from Folcroft, PA
(4/15/2019)
"An outstanding Marathon in all respects" (about: 2019)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Coastal Delaware Running Festival
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 This was my 17th Marathon, so I had many others to compare to the Coastal Delaware Marathon. Everything about this event was stress free; including packet pickup at a church in Rehoboth Beach, a well marked 98 percent flat course with great traffic control at all the intersections, and an awesome post race party near the finish line. A thing I liked was the lack of excessive talking among the runners that I feel can distract you from concentrating on your running. In addition the frequency (every 2 Miles) of the water stops (they all had Gatorade too) and the support of the volunteers at the water stops was great! The only minor problem was there were cyclists on most of the nice trails that made up a lot of the course, and you needed to pay attention to them to stay safe. Overall it's a winner of a Marathon that's extremely well organized and small enough to have a great personal touch to it. | |
K. R. from Philadelphia, PA
(5/6/2018)
"Beautiful, flat, course through scenic beach areas" (about: 2018)
4-5 previous marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 Incredible course - started off on the Rehoboth boardwalk right by the beach, after that much of the course was through the state parks which provided much-welcome shade and a light cool breeze. It's flat the entire time with the exception of a slight hill when you are crossing a bridge around mile 17 or 18. The delaware state parks have an incredible trail system. This kept the course interesting and consistently scenic. The last 6 miles did become a little rough, running on the road with no shade as it was starting to warm up and at one point I had to hop up on the sidewalk because of oncoming traffic. Post-race food was great (who can argue with Grotto pizza and beer after a marathon), although the post-race festival could have been better organized. There wasn't much seating and it was very crowded, also had to wander around a bit before finding where it was. Could have been signage or people pointing you in the right direction. Start-line was low-key and easy to navigate. Received the most massive medal I have ever seen. Race shirt was nice quality/material, although they had the same shirt for the 5k/9k/half as for the marathon and I prefer the dry-fit/under armour material. Received a hat and a very nice glass in addition to the shirt and medal. Would highly recommend this marathon! I loved it. | |
A. S. from DC
(4/28/2018)
"No support on course" (about: 2018)
50+ previous marathons
| 1 Coastal Delaware Running Festival
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 1 FANS: 2 First time at this event. Beautiful weather and great, mostly flat course. Since a lot of the course was on trails through parks, there were very few spectators. Also very few portolets. A few at the first mile and then very few and far between. There was a stretch through the streets where a few houses were under construction and there were some portolets left by the construction workers. No aid stations except an ambulance sitting by the side of the road around mile 24. My wife was at the finish and saw a woman collapse to the ground with no EMTs at the finish. The expo was very small but organized. The medal was huge and heavy. | |
R. L. from MI
(4/27/2018)
"Good race with kinks here and there" (about: 2018)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 Coastal Delaware Running Festival
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 2 I loved parts of this race and other parts left me scratching my head. The course layout is fine, volunteers and police did a fantastic job ensuring the runners knew which way to go. Packet pickup was what you'd expect from a smaller marathon. Communication from the event was great as well. But...many times volunteers and race officials didn't know what was going on. I paid for the VIP pass for ease of pickup of the packet and access to 'better bathrooms' - the better bathrooms were four port-a-johns behind a local restaurant. Finish line staff could not point me to the post race party. Once at the party, the area was so overcrowded and the VIP area was no where to be found. I am hoping my VIP $$$ went to the tower preservation that they were raising funds for. Extremely limited spectators, but I knew that going into the race. The locals that were in town and on the course were awesome though! |
Quick Links
Marathon Search
Upcoming US Marathons
Upcoming International Marathons
Search Marathon Results
Latest Running News
Recent Newsletters
Race Director Tools