Sarasota Livin'

Run Suwanee -- Suwanee, Georgia's Running Information Source blog has a good outsiders review of the race.

Flat, fast, and friendly describe the third annual Sarasota Marathon, held on March 2, 2008. 530 runners finished the marathon while 1,949 completed the half-marathon. Both events started in the dark at 6:00 am at the John and Mable Ringling Museum. Temperatures this time of year can range from the 50 to 80 degrees. For this reason, the race director intelligently starts the race early enough to ensure that most runners won't be on the road during the heat of the day. The race course wound its way south through residential neighborhood with views of Sarasota Bay. At mile 3.5, runners continued to race south along US 41 (Tamiami Trail), a very busy road. While traffic was blocked on one side of the highway, this was not the most scenic part of the race.