Two Rivers Sunday Marathon

Just happy to have found a live marathon after a bleak 2020. Course was changed to out and back, twice, for the marathon, with an open start. Flat and fast course following the river. Excellent support. Since there was a half, a 10k and a 5k happening concurrently with start times ranging from 6.30-9.00 there were runners of all shapes all over the road coming and going. That was a novel experience. I ran Saturday in ideal conditions. The Sunday race was held during a rainstorm unfortunately. Race director is a very hard-working guy and entry was a mere $80. Very positive experience and worth the trip.

The race is very well organized to the shuttle bus to the start and aid stations every 2 miles. I had no cell service during the race so I was worried with the lack of spectators if anything should happen. I would prefer a more organized early start and specific sign for the start line (I had to ask numerous people who really didn't know). The only thing to add is maybe volunteers can wear shirts saying this. The food at the end of the race was free for runners at a nearby restaurant. Maybe some directions to the nearest Y for showers for some of the runners making a drive to the race.

The course is in a lake/river resort area in Pennsylvania. So the scenery is fantastic. The race is small, only about 40 people ran the marathon on the day I did it (there is a saturday and sunday marathon). The course was a lot of downhill, which equates to faster times typically. Two major problems. The first, b/c it is all backroads in PA, finding a flat spot to run on the road was near impossible, so your ankles will probably hurt the next day, mine did. Second, water stops. There were enough water stops, but what ended up happening was that they ran out of water. So people in the back of the pack (me) didn't get water at some of the stops. And the second 13 miles was an out and back, so most of the stops didn't have water on the last 6.5 miles to the finish. Which was very problematic. Overall it is a small marathon, run by one man (nice guy), so the logistics could use working on. But if you bring your own water, it's a fantastic race.