In the summer of 2015, a race company opted to try something different. They opened an indiegogo campaign to crowdfund a marathon in their hometown of Destin, Florida. Within 40 days, they amassed $57,000, exceeding their target goal and became the World’s First Crowdfunded Marathon.
The best summary I can give comes from their own official webpage:
This is the race that over 600 runners built through the first successful marathon crowdfunding campaign in history. It is a well organized road marathon and half marathon created for runners, by runners, in beautiful Destin, Florida, providing you the best value for your money.
I was one of those 600 runners who contributed to the campaign and as part of my reward perks, I got a “free” entry into the race, had the opportunity to vote on shirt, bib, and medal designs, and was slated to start in the second corral (which turned out to not be relevant as the “corrals” were just one giant group start). I’ll have more to say on this in a moment but first things, first: let’s talk about the race expo.
I had driven the 6+ hours from Orlando to Destin after the Star Wars 10K on Saturday. The expo was held in the Emerald Coast Convention Center.
I like to imagine that part of my contribution went to the bleeding edge demarcation of the kid area and the Kill Cliff Lounge area.
Oddly, though I like the race shirt, I don’t understand the decision NOT to feature the inaugural nature of the event on the logo, nor to tout the unique nature of its origins as a crowd-funded event.
They made a big deal about ample parking but not all of it would be available near the start line due to 1500 runners being registered for the event. I of course went incredibly early then this morning and had time to kill, enabling me to snap a few pre-race photos to capture a bit of the vibe and atmosphere.
This tribute tree, which I guess could be called a tree-bute, cracked me up.
The race started ontime which is a major plus… but the revised route of a two loop, out and back would prove to be mildly disappointing. I had known going into the race day that they had to futz with the course to ensure their permit and given the first year-ness of the event, I could certainly go with the flow on that. But sadly the course was so incredibly boring. Despite billing the route as pancake flat (or so I recall reading… but can’t seem to find that reference now), there were a few inclines that proved, um, unwelcome. A bridge is one thing but to have us go up and down at the halfway and finish points was a bit cruel.
Again, all of this was spelled out on their website and the elevation chart I suspect was entirely accurate.
What was NOT spelled out on the website was the general disrespect I felt as a marathoner. The whole thing had a feeling of a half-marathon race with a half-hearted effort to shoehorn in a marathon distance. This was most readily evident by the fact that there were only mile markers for the half marathon. The second loop did NOT have miles 14-26 flags. Sure, sure. We could add 13 to whatever flag we saw but that’s not really the point — it all felt rather impersonal. For an event that billed itself as the race that runners built, it felt more like the race that half-marathoners built.
I should also point out that the mile 10 flag was WAY off — by a good 1/3 to 1/2 mile.
This sounds like sour grapes and I will say I found a lot of positives in a first year running of the event. But I found far more areas that need to be looked t and re-examined should there be a second annual Destin Marathon weekend.
To be clear, I do NOT fault the race organizers for the head winds that pummeled us on the back half of each loop. One could argue that the corollary tail winds for the first half of each loop made up for this but the reality is the tail winds were a relief but not a major boon, at least not for me. Part of this was the aforementioned boredom created by running the highway. There were sand dunes and water on the sides of the course but we were far enough away on the road that the scenery might as well have been projections on a screen next to a treadmill. I never felt a decided Destin-ness to the route and that may have been because of the delays in finalizing the course that also prompted the course to fail to be certified as a Boston Qualifier. Or maybe there wasn’t enough Destin to warrant 26.2 miles of scenery. Whatever the case, I would file this event under a mild disappointment.
One side note on the wind factor — you can tell which direction I was going based on my hair in the photos. When I had the tail wind, I looked like I had a combover and when faced with the headwinds, I appear to have an exceptional receding hairline.
I tried to capture a few other instances of the wind along the way — flags fluttering straight out, puddles of water rippling, etc. I’m not sure I can convey the ravages of the wind and the havoc it played. I think I’ve used this analogy before but the head wind was like a mime pretending to walk against the wind… except I wasn’t a mime and was cursing profusely!
I’m glad I supported the new idea of a crowd-funded marathon and I’m happy to have logged 26.2 miles this morning. But ultimately the experience in Destin left me underwhelmed. I did not feel Destin was particularly beautiful given its course “showcase” and I regrettably question whether it was the best value for my $100 contribution. That’s far from a rave and I feel marginally guilty for being so negative but it is how I felt as I left Destin and how I feel having driven the 6+ hours to get home. Perhaps my experience was unique and atypical but I can only speak for myself when I voice my hopefully constructive criticism.
