Kiawah Island Marathon Change

Jun 8, 2012 by Greg Fowler

My first marathon was the 2009 Kiawah Island Marathon. I don’t remember exactly why I choose that one, but it fit my main criteria – flat.

Overall, it was a good experience, but I was little underwhelmed with the route. It was a two-loop run that frankly got a little boring during the second loop. After that race, I decided I would not repeat marathon locations. My thinking was that since I may only do one marathon per year, why not see somewhere new each time? So, far I have followed that thinking for my three marathons – Kiawah Island, Myrtle Beach, and Columbia, SC.

After the Columbia marathon, I started pondering my next locale. I really want to complete all the South Carolina road marathons, so that meant Greenville and Charleston were still left. However, while looking around, I saw that Kiawah was changing their route to be a single loop. This had me intrigued. For the last two months or so, the Kiawah website has mentioned that the new route is going to be published soon. Well, they finally published the route this week. It can be found here:

http://www.kiawahresort.com/downloads/pdf/new-marathon-full-map.pdf

Calling it a ‘loop’ is a bit of a stretch – there are several out and back spokes and some overlap, but it definitely looks improved. Wish I had downloaded the old map for a side by side comparison. Still no hills. 🙂

So, right now, this is high on my list of next marathons. I can technically say it is not a repeat since the route is new.

For more information on the marathon and the island, check out:

http://www.kiawahresort.com/recreation/kiawah-island-marathon/

POFIFOTO!