Tidewater Strider Marathon

The Tidewater Strider Marathon is run in the Great Dismal Swamp of southeastern Virginia on a nearly perfectly flat and nearly perfectly straight, paved asphalt trail. Marathon runners complete two loops of the 6.55 mile out and back trail. Almost all of the course is wooded providing shade for the runners. The average temperature on the weekend of the race is in the low 50's.

The race is administered by the local running club the Tidewater Striders who have fostered an active year-round running group in their area. Their members are very engaged in the administration of the marathon and race director Thomas is very hands-on and helpful. The race is very well-organized. It is a smaller race with only around 170 or so participants in the marathon, so if you are looking for large pace groups for support, this may not be your race. Likewise, there will be fewer spectators than you would expect from a larger race but there were still many local and vocal spectators cheering on the runners along the route.

The medals for the finishers for the 2024 race were great and I loved the caps given to the marathon finishers. It is my new favorite cap.

This is a great marathon for those trying to qualify for Boston. And if you do meet the Boston qualifying standard in the race, Race Director Thomas awards you a special Boston Qualifer shirt.

My criticisms are few: the participant tracking feature offered on the event website did not send alerts to those who had signed up to receive alerts for runners. It would be nice to have split times listed in the results on the website and the course could use additional timing mats. The post-race pizza and beer were great but the pizza was cramped under a small tent sheltered from the rain and separated from the small, fenced off beer section with Virginia law enforcement making sure that runners didn't wander outside the fenced area with a beer (not the race organizers' fault, I know.) All-in-all a great experience. I hope to return to run it again.

Abundant options for lodging and restaurants within 15 minutes of the course. No traffic and super-easy parking at start/finish. Several locations for spectators to bounce between to follow their runners on race day.

Convenient location, inside bathrooms at start, and parking right by the start. The course is legit the flattest course you can find. It's an old two lane road, so it's plenty wide and there are trees lining the whole course. If you're looking for a pr, this is your course!