Hershey Half Marathon

[pinkxray]

Has anyone who has run this half give me your opinion of it? Was it a nice course with a decent amount of time going through the parks?

Where did you stay? I would love to stay at one of the Hershey hotels but we are coming home from FL the weekend before and it will really be pushing my budget. If you stayed at an offsite hotel did your family have any trouble finding you during or after the run?

Thanks for any info. I am torn on whether or not I want to do this half. I haven't been to Hershey in years but am wondering if I should just skip it and put the money I would spend on this race weekend into upgrading my resort for marathon weekend at Disney.

 

[Figment1990]

Has anyone who has run this half give me your opinion of it? Was it a nice course with a decent amount of time going through the parks?

Where did you stay? I would love to stay at one of the Hershey hotels but we are coming home from FL the weekend before and it will really be pushing my budget. If you stayed at an offsite hotel did your family have any trouble finding you during or after the run?

Thanks for any info. I am torn on whether or not I want to do this half. I haven't been to Hershey in years but am wondering if I should just skip it and put the money I would spend on this race weekend into upgrading my resort for marathon weekend at Disney.

I have not run the hershey race but I did just come back from a vacation there. Honestly, I'm not sure I would want to run thru hershey park. It's SO hilly and very circuitous and I'm from western PA so I train on hills all the time. I'd have to go look at the route to be fair, but I did want to warn you that it's hilly and narrow and winding.

As for hotels, we stayed at the hotel hershey for two nights and the country inn and suites for the rest. Not sure on race logistics for your family but I found Hershey's roads to be very navigable and clearly marked. Our country inn was extremely close to the park, possibly more so than the hershey lodge would have been (Hershey's other hotel). I did love the hershey hotel- it was beautiful and the spa was wonderful but wow was it expensive. Like grand Floridian expensive. If I were going to spend that kind of money for a hotel, I'd do it on marathon weekend. Just my opinion.

 

[Tiresius]

We ran the Hershey 1/2 as a relay the first two years it was offered (meaning, not this past year, so I don't know if there are any new or different things as compared to the past). Both times, we had a fabulous time. The course was hilly, yes, but it was well marked and well-staffed, not at all crowded, and had interesting things to look at throughout. No, there wasn't much time spent running through the parks, but the countryside is absolutely beautiful, and some of my all time favorite race photos are of me running seemingly alone along a quiet country road. Plus, a good chunk of the course goes straight through the campus of the Hershey school, and all of the kids (its a residential program for disadvantaged youth) came out to the road with signs and high fives and smiles in their pajamas early in the morning to cheer on the runners. Tearful moments there!

In terms of things outside of the race experience, packet pickup and parking were super smooth, the town is pretty small, so even if you get lost, its not too bad to get un-lost again, and there is a ton to do. The park itself is obviously worth checking out (along with the zoo part - didn't do that the first year, but totally worth an hour to cross the bridge for), as is the trolley tour of town, the gardens, the really wonderful museum, and, if we were to go back, a tour of the school is also offered. The only thing we struggled with was driving to the race in the morning. Since the town is so small, the roads used for the race are the same as the roads used to get to the race/parking, and traffic was diverted and re-routed all over the place. Best advice, scope out the driving routes the day before to make sure you know exactly how to get to the parking lot from multiple directions if necessary.

Hotels - both times we stayed at cheap local places. Not at all fancy, not what anyone would describe as "nice" but both were clean and basic, had free breakfasts (that we couldn't use on race morning since it was too early), and were absolutely fine for our quick busy weekend. So I can't comment on the official hotels. Those were way out of our budget. But as a weekend trip, under $500 for hotel, food, race fees, park tickets, and entertainment for two people - definitely worth it!

(If you are curious why we didn't go this past year, we did the TOT 10 miler instead as our fall race weekend. Not because of anything wrong with Hershey, just wanted to try the Disney race instead.)